Professor Rob Field and his research group joined John Innes Centre in Norwich in 2007. The group contributed by bringing an expertise in Chemistry and Biochemistry of carbohydrates which was useful to various projects carried out in collaboration with many scientist at JIC and Norwich Research Park. All our current research theme are in interface between chemistry and biology with projects aiming at better understanding of biological processes involving carbohydrates. Biosyntheis of starch and its degradation, glycoenzyme assays and manipulation with NDP sugar substrates, assembly of plant cell wall polysaccharides and manipulation with glycans from bacteria, we study all these and more in the wonderful enviroment of the John Innes Centre.

Research in the Field group is focused on developing and exploiting chemical tools and principles to address questions in plant and microbial carbohydrate metabolism. Projects typically involve some combination of chemical and enzymatic synthesis, inhibitor design and assessment, biochemistry, structural biology, metabolomic, proteomic and transcriptomic analysis. From a biology perspective, we work cross-Kingdom: Arabidopsis, barley, Euglena, Streptomyces, E. coli, flu virus, the African and American trypanosome.