CURRICULUM VITAE
WENDY HARWOOD
Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail:
Department of Crop Genetics, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research
Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.
+44 (0)1603 450609
+44 (0)1603 450045
wendy.harwood@jic.ac.uk
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Current post:
2009:
2003-present:
1999-present:
1995-1998:
1990-1994:
1986-1989:
Senior Scientist at the John Innes Centre responsible for the
CropTransformation Group and the Crop Transformation Facility.
Promoted to Grade F.
Manager of BRACT (Biotechnology Resources for Arable Crop
Transformation) a Crop Transformation Facility.
Group Leader responsible for the CropTransformation Group at the
John Innes Centre.
Promoted to Band 5-SPD, Barley transformation.
Higher Scientific Officer, John Innes Centre, Cereal Transformation,
barley and rice.
Higher Scientific Officer, John Innes Centre, Transformation of
tobacco, oilseed rape and sugar beet.
DEGREES, QUALIFICATIONS:
1986:
1982:
PhD in plant transformation studies, the John Innes Institute, registered with the
University of East Anglia.
BSc 1st class Honours, Biological Sciences, King’s College, University of
London.
AWARDS, HONORARY POSITIONS, EDITORIAL:
2013
2003 - present:
2000- present:
2007- present:
2009:
2009:
Appointment as novel biotechnology member of the Advisory
Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs (ACAF).
Honorary Lecturer, University of East Anglia
Member of the Editorial Board, Plant Cell Reports.
Editorial Advisory Board member, The Open Plant Science Journal.
Mike Bennett Award for best presentation in 2008 to the British
Society of Sugar Technologists.
CUE East, University of East Anglia (Community-UniversityEngagement) Public and Community Engagement Award.
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
My group works in the field of crop transformation, concentrating particularly on wheat,
barley and Brassica species. The group’s interests include developing improved, highthroughput, transformation technology, safety assessment of GM crops and the control of
transgene expression. The group also has an interest in understanding the genes
involved in salt and drought stress in the cereals and in engineering drought tolerance.
I lead the BRACT facility at JIC (Biotechnology Resources for Arable Crop
Transformation) which is providing crop transformation resources to the research
community worldwide. These resources include training, opportunities to develop
collaborative projects, vectors and a full crop transformation service.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
Harwood W. A. (2014) A protocol for high-throughput Agrobacterium-mediated barley
transformation. Cereal Genomics, Methods in Molecular Biology, Springer 1099 251-60
Bartlett J. G., Smedley M. A., Harwood W. A. (2014) Analysis of T-DNA/Host-Plant DNA
Junction Sequences in Single-Copy Transgenic Barley Lines Biology 3 39-55
Al Abdallat A. M., Ayed J. Y., Abu Elenein J. M., Al Ajlouni Z., Harwood W. A. (2013)
Overexpression of the transcription factor HvSNAC1 improves drought tolerance in
barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) Molecular Breeding 33 401-414
Mrízová K., Jiskrová E., Vyroubalová Š., Novák O., Ohnoutková L., Pospíšilová H.,
Frébort I., Harwood W. A., Galuszka P. (2013) Overexpression of cytokinin
dehydrogenase genes in barley (Hordeum vulgare cv. Golden Promise) fundamentally
affects morphology and fertility. PLoS ONE 8 e79029
Harwood WA, (2013) GM Technology - Risky Method or Valuable Tool? World
Agriculture 4:18-24.
Soltesz A, Smedley M, Vashegyi I, Galiba G, Harwood WA, Vagujfalvi A, (2013)
Transgenic barley lines prove the involvement of TaCBF14 and TaCBF15 in the cold
acclimation process and in frost tolerance. J Exp Bot 64: 1849-1862.
Ohnoutkova L, Zitka O, Mrizova K, Valaskova J, Galuszka P, Cernei N, Smedley MA,
Harwood WA, Adam V, Kizek R, (2012) Electrophoretic and Chromatographic Evaluation
of Transgenic Barley Expressing a Bacterial Dihydrodipicolinate Synthase
Electrophoresis 33: 2365-2373.
Harwood WA, (2011) Advances and remaining challenges in the transformation of barley
and wheat. J Exp Bot 63: 1791-1798
Cullen D, Harwood WA, Smedley MA, Davies H, Taylor M, (2011) Comparison of DNA
walking methods for isolation of transgene-flanking regions in GM potato. Molecular
Biotechnology, 49: 19-31.
Stanley D, Rejzek M, Naested H, Smedley M, Otero S, Fahy B, Thorpe F, Nash RJ,
Harwood WA, Svensson B, Denyer K, Field RA, Smith AM, (2011) The role of {alpha}glucosidase in germinating barley grains Plant Physiology 155: 932-943
Bartlett JG, Snape JW, Harwood WA, (2009) Intron-mediated enhancement as a method
for increasing transgene expression levels in barley. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 7: 856866.
Harwood WA, Bartlett J, Alves S, Perry M, Smedley M, Leyland N, Snape JW, (2009)
Barley transformation using Agrobacterium-mediated techniques. In: Huw D Jones and
Peter R Shewry (eds), Methods in Molecular Biology, Transgenic Wheat, Barley and Oats,
Vol 478, Chapter 9, pp137-147.
Harwood WA, Smedley M, (2009) Barley transformation using biolistic techniques. In: Huw
D Jones and Peter R Shewry (eds), Methods in Molecular Biology, Transgenic Wheat,
Barley and Oats, Vol 478, Chapter 8, pp125-136.
Bartlett JG, Alves SC, Smedley M, Snape JW, Harwood WA, (2008) High-throughput
Agrobacterium-mediated barley transformation. Plant Methods, 4: 22.