Annis Richardson

Dr Annis Richardson is the Lecturer in Molecular Crop Science at the University of Edinburgh. She started her group, the Plant Shape Lab in 2019. Her research spans crop science, developmental biology and evolution, and combines diverse techniques from next generation sequencing, to 3D imaging, to computational modelling. Through taking this multidisciplinary approach Annis’ lab aims to reveal the fundamental rules that underpin plant development, and understand how modulation of plant shape influences productivity in grass crops, which directly provide more than 50% of global calories. Annis did her undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge, where she worked with Sir. Prof. David Baulcombe on maize streak virus. She then moved to the Coen Lab at the John Innes Centre for her PhD, where she studied the role of KNOX genes in the modulation of shape in barley inflorescences, and began her work modelling the grass leaf. From 2016-2019 Annis did her postdoc with Prof. Sarah Hake at UC Berkeley/ USDA Plant Gene Expression Center, where she investigated the genetic control of maize leaf and floral development. This work has since led to several international collaborations which have ongoing projects in her lab. Most recently Annis was awarded an ERC Starter Grant to investigate the patterning rules determining grass leaf morphology.