Caroline Dean facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Caroline Dean
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| Born | 2 April 1957 |
| Alma mater | University of York |
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| Children | one son, one daughter |
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| Thesis | Investigations of genome expression in young wheat leaves (1983) |
Dame Caroline Dean (born 2 April 1957) is a top British plant scientist. She works at the John Innes Centre, a famous research place. Her main job is to figure out how plants know when to flower each year. She especially studies vernalisation. This is how cold weather helps plants flower faster. She has also helped judge the Infosys Prize for life sciences since 2018.
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Becoming a Scientist
Caroline Dean studied at the University of York. In 1978, she earned a degree in Biology. She then continued her studies and received her PhD in Biology in 1982.
Discovering Plant Secrets
Dr. Dean's research gets funding from many important groups. These include the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the European Research Council. Her work looks at how genes are controlled in plants. She studies how tiny parts of cells, like chromatin and non-coding RNAs, affect genes.
How Plants Know When to Flower
Her main goal is to understand how plants switch between different states. This helps them control when their genes turn on or off. She focuses on one special gene called FLC. This gene stops plants from flowering too early.
The FLC gene is key to how plants know the seasons. It helps them time their flowering perfectly. This process, where cold makes plants flower faster, is called vernalisation. It's a classic example of epigenetics. This means changes happen to genes without changing the DNA itself.
The FLC Gene and Cold Weather
When plants go through winter, the FLC gene gets silenced. This happens because of the cold. Dr. Dean's team studies exactly how this silencing works. They want to know how these plant mechanisms have changed over time. This helps plants adapt to different climates.
Using Arabidopsis to Learn More
Dr. Dean uses a small plant called Arabidopsis in her research. It's like a model plant for scientists. She was one of the first to show how useful Arabidopsis is for plant science. Her work with it has helped other scientists a lot.
Awards and Recognitions
Caroline Dean has received many important awards. These awards celebrate her amazing discoveries in plant science.
- 1999 – She became a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
- 2004 – She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). This is a very high honor in the UK. She also became a Fellow of the Royal Society.
- 2007 – She won the Genetics Society Medal.
- 2008 – The United States National Academy of Sciences made her a foreign member. She also joined the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
- 2015 – She received the FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award.
- 2016 – She was again appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). This was for her work in plant science and for supporting women in science.
- 2016 – The Royal Society gave her the Darwin Medal. This was for her work on how plants sense temperature. It also recognized how epigenetic changes help plants adapt.
- 2018 – She won the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award.
- 2020 – She received the Wolf Prize in Agriculture.
- 2020 – She was awarded the Royal Society 'Royal Medal'.
Family Life
Caroline Dean is married to fellow scientist Jonathan D. G. Jones. They have one son and one daughter.
