Dr Angharad Jones

Lecturer

School of Biosciences

: Available for postgraduate supervision

Research overview

My research is related to the role and regulation of cellular processes such as growth and division during plant development. I am interested in how these processes are co-ordinated across many cells to produce patterns and structures that are visible at higher levels of organisation. These relationships are central to the way that environmental stresses impact plant growth and crop yields.

Cell Growth and Division in the Shoot Apical Meristem

My group uses a systems biology approach that combines timelapse imaging of individual cells within living tissues, mathematical modelling and molecular biology to understand cell growth and division as a dynamic problem. This is particularly important in plants, which have to adapt their growth to suit their environment.

I am interested in how growth and division of individual cells determines the overall architecture of the plant, and how these relationships are impacted by environmental stresses. Understanding these cellular rules and if and how they can be broken will allow us to produce plants that can better tolerate extreme and changeable environmental conditions.

I graduated in Biology from the University of York in 2004. During my undergraduate study I became interested in plant development and carried out a research project in the group of Prof. Ottoline Leyser on the regulation of shoot branching in snapdragon. I was then awarded a BBSRC PhD studentship at the University of Bristol to work under the supervision of Prof. Claire Grierson and Dr Colin Lazarus investigating the roles of auxin in the regulation of root-hair development. Following my PhD in 2009, I was awarded funding from the University of Bristol Lady Emily Smyth Agricultural Research Station to follow up work stemming from my PhD and also received a Royal Society Travel Grant to visit the lab of Prof. Jiřί Friml. I moved to Cardiff University in 2010 joining the group of Prof. Jim Murray. In 2019 I was appointed as a Disglair Lecturer.

I am interested in supervising students in the areas of: