Postdoctoral Scientist
Erica Hawkins
Bio
Converting breakthrough discoveries into technologies that deliver real-world impact is a central goal of TSL Ventures. As such, I am hosted in Prof. Sophien Kamoun’s group at The Sainsbury Laboratory, where I am working with the NELARIX team to develop a platform for made-to-order plant immune receptors.
This work builds on the breakthrough discovery that the rice immune receptor Pik-1 can serve as a programmable chassis. By replacing the native HMA sensor domain with a engineered binder that recognises a chosen pathogen protein, the receptor can be reprogrammed to detect new targets and activate the plant’s natural immune response. Combining advances in protein structure prediction, binder engineering, and plant biotechnology, we aim to create durable, target-specific disease resistance against a wide range of crop pathogens.
The long-term goal of NELARIX is to build a scalable platform to rapidly develop nature-inspired crop protection solutions, helping farmers reduce disease losses and chemical dependency for more sustainable agriculture.
Job history
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2024 - 2026
Research Technical Partner
Earlham Institute, Biofoundry -
2022 - 2024
Research Development Scientist
Leaf Expression Systems -
2019 - 2021
Postdoctoral Researcher
John Innes Centre -
2014 - 2019
PhD in Biological Science
John Innes Centre