Lucie Spurgeon

I am an undergraduate student studying Biochemistry at the University of Exeter. Since A-levels I have had a passion for plant genetics and its applications to crop development.

After thoroughly enjoying work experience at the John Innes Centre where I researched how allelic diversity affects spike development and how vernalization affects flowering in wheat, I was inspired to come back to Norwich Research Park for my Year in Industry.

During my year at EI I will be working in Anthony Hall’s group comparing two protocols for studying DNA methylation in plants. One is the current gold standard and one is a newly developed protocol. To date, the newly developed protocol has not been tested on plants.

The aim of my project is to determine whether the new protocol for studying DNA methylation - APOBEC-seq, is better than the current method used to study methylation in plants.