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Jane Parker
Born 1960 (age 64–65)
Website www.mpipz.mpg.de/23590/curriculum_vitae Edit this on Wikidata
Scientific career
Fields Botany
Thesis Developmental regulation of protein synthesis in Euglena gracilis (1987)

Jane Elizabeth Parker FRS is a well-known British scientist. She was born in 1960. Dr. Parker studies how plants protect themselves from diseases. She works at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Germany.

Early Life and Education

Jane Elizabeth Parker grew up in Great Britain. She went to the University of Bradford and finished her first degree in 1983. She studied Biology, which is the science of living things.

Later, in 1986, she earned her PhD from Swansea University. Her research focused on how tiny organisms called Euglena make proteins. Proteins are important building blocks for all living things.

Discovering Plant Defenses

After getting her PhD, Dr. Parker started working as a researcher. She joined the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. In the 1990s, she worked at the Sainsbury Laboratory in England.

In 2001, she moved back to the Max Planck Institute in Cologne, Germany. There, she became an independent researcher.

How Plants Fight Disease

In 2002, Dr. Parker received a special award called the Sofia Kovalevskaya Award. This award helped her continue her important work. She wanted to understand how plants defend themselves from tiny microorganisms that cause diseases.

Her research involves finding the specific genes that start a plant's defense system. She uses both genetics (the study of genes) and molecular biology (the study of molecules in living things). This helps her figure out how plants avoid getting sick.

Dr. Parker's team found that plants have many ways to defend themselves. They discovered a key protein called EDS1. This protein works with other proteins to form special groups. These groups act like an alarm system, triggering the plant's immune response. The way a plant fights off disease can change depending on which proteins combine with EDS1.

Teaching and Recognition

Since 2009, Dr. Parker has also been a professor at the Institute of Genetics University of Cologne in Germany. In 2013, she became a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. This is a very respected science academy.

Her work is widely recognized. In 2015, she was listed as one of the most highly cited scientists by Thomson Reuters. This means her research is often used and referred to by other scientists.

Awards and Achievements

Dr. Jane Parker has received several important awards for her scientific contributions:

  • In 2015, she was named one of the most highly cited scientists.
  • In 2016, she was chosen as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization.
  • In 2023, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the United Kingdom.

See also

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