Mr Benjamin Jackson
Advanced Research Assistant
Ben joined the Wellcome Sanger institute June 2022 as an advanced research assistant within the Tree of Life programme’s Core laboratory. Here his focus is the continual improvement of the team’s processes through R&D projects oriented towards progressing recalcitrant plant species, in aim of enabling the generation of high-quality reference genomes for all 70,000 species from Britain and Ireland.
He is a biotechnologist with a particular interest in plant genomics and gene editing; aspiring to recognise sustainable solutions to real-world challenges within agriculture through increased understanding of the impact of engineered mutations of intergenic regions on gene function.
Previous experience includes the application of CRISPR technologies to engineer high-performing varieties of Robusta coffee and implement innovative gene-editing techniques in the Cavendish banana.