Project Leader, The John Innes Centre looked at the Scientific opportunities and challenges of biofortification, specifically for iron and zinc. She mentioned that we do have good knowledge of how plants, genes, and breeding technique work. Unfortunately we also still have important knowledge gaps. It takes about 10 to 15 years for a biofortified crop to go to the market, so we need sustained investment in research to tap into the potential of biofortification.

The research of our group is focussed on the role of metals, in particular iron, in plants and microbes. Our research in the past few years has led to the identification of new proteins required for iron-sulfur cluster assembly and established the interrelationship between cofactor assembly pathways in the cell.