Jose De Vega

I am a Group Leader at the Earlham Institute (EI), delivering a research programme in agricultural biodiversity and genomics.

My interests lie with genomics, bioinformatics and breeding; at the core of my research is forging effective partnerships with plant breeders, researchers and gene banks. Among my main objectives, is to actively contribute to the Global Development Goals (SDGs) and EI’s international development strategy, where  I apply multidisciplinary Agri-tech research to help feed a changing world.  I’m keen to engage with researchers and stakeholders and strongly support collaborative, open-source principles in science and its data.

I joined EI in 2013 as a Postdoctoral Researcher to work on the red clover genome. Since 2015, I’m now also managing the ryegrass and Bracharia genome projects, as well as a large rice genomics project in Vietnam. My Group are part of one of the Institute’s primary grants awarded by the Research Councils UK to grow academic capability in Colombia through training workshops, research and technology dissemination. Previous to EI, I worked on oak and pine transcriptomics at ITQB in Lisbon for three years, after finishing my PhD on bean fungal disease in Salamanca, Spain, in 2009.