BBSRC at RCUK and Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology event

26 October 2010

Today, BBSRC will be represented, alongside other research councils and RCUK, at a Westminster event organised by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. Work by Prof Chris Gilligan, and his team at the University of Cambridge, on the mathematical modelling of plant-disease epidemics will be showcased at the event.

Prof Gilligan, a BBSRC professorial fellow, has developed an epidemiological toolkit, in response to regulator and policymakers' needs. The toolkit will help develop effective and cost efficient disease control strategies. It is built on a detailed understanding of the fundamental and complex mechanics of disease and plant interactions.

The research has revealed that the best control strategies can be quite counter intuitive, for instance, for some diseases the best control method for an outbreak in two interconnected areas is actually to control the smaller first and then concentrate on the larger one.

ENDS

Contact

Rob Dawson, Head of News
rob.dawson@bbsrc.ac.uk
tel: 01793 413204

Chris Melvin, Media Officer
chris.melvin@bbsrc.ac.uk
tel: 01793 414694
fax: 01793 413382

Tracey Jewitt, Media Officer
tracey.jewitt@bbsrc.ac.uk
tel: 01793 413355
fax: 01793 413382