Invited by Thierry Lagrange, Research Director at the LGDP, David Baulcombe will also be in Perpignan the day before to give a similar conference at the LGDP. The Research Director introduced the event in these words:

"David Baulcombe has made an outstanding contribution to the inter-related areas of plant virology, gene silencing, epigenetics and disease resistance. His ground-breaking work contributed to the discovery of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), a novel type of regulatory RNA, that represses gene activity through a process known as RNA silencing. While subclasses of siRNA can repress gene expression at the level of messenger RNA turnover or translation, others participate in epigenetic pathways that affect chromatin, playing a role in defense against transposable elements. The conserved nature of the RNA silencing mechanisms led to the development of genetic tools for fundamental research that tremendously advance our understanding of both plant and human biology. More recently, David Baulcombe has been interested in the application of RNA silencing and epigenetic regulation to the study of interspecific hybrids and disease resistance in tomato. His study also aims to develop improved strategy in crop plant breeding and explore the potential of epigenetically modified crops in the development of a sustainable agriculture. Professor Sir David Baulcombe has received numerous prestigious awards including most notably the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2008), the Wolf Prize for Agriculture (2010), the Balzan Prize (for epigenetics) (2012), the McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies (2014), the Gruber Genetics Prize (2014), and the Hans Krebs Medal and Lecture of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Since 1997, David Baulcombe has been a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation. On the basis of excellence in science, David Baulcombe got elected Fellowships from many prestigious Societies, including the Cambridge Philosophical Society (2020), the Royal Society of Edinburg (2015), the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences of Barcelona, the National Academy of Science of India and the Trinity College Cambridge (2009)."

If the technical conditions allow it, and in order to make benefit the whole TULIP community, the event will be broadcasted on Zoom. The LabEx members will be sent the link and access codes soon.

Access to the event will be subject to the control of the "pass sanitaire".