School research recognised in Big Ideas for the Future

The work of the Centre for Plant Integrative Biology (CPIB), in which the School of Computer Science is a partner, has been selected for inclusion in the Research Councils UK report Big Ideas for the Future: UK research that will have a profound effect on our future. CPIB brings together colleagues from Biosciences, Mathematical Sciences, Engineering and Computer Science to focus on mathematical and computational modelling of plants. The RCUK report identifies CPIB’s ‘virtual root’, developed as a predictive model to simulate plant root growth, as helping to accelerate the production of crops with roots which will better exploit the soil’s resource. A key step in the creation of root models is the development of bioimage analysis techniques capable of extracting quantitative data from images of live, growing roots.For further information please contact Dr Tony Pridmore or visit www.cpib.ac.uk.