TSL Innovation and Education at Royal Norfolk Show 2025
The Sainsbury Laboratory marked another exciting year at the Royal Norfolk Show with two stands: one showcasing our drive to bring scientific solutions to local farmers, and another promoting our passion for plant biology education.
From left to right: Kamil Witek, Agnieszka Witek and Robert Heal.
BioPotatoes connects with farmers and
policymakers
@Agri-TechE's Innovation Hub
Imagine potatoes with the innate power to resist devastating diseases – cutting crop loss and reducing chemical use. Enabled by the new Precision Breeding Act (PBA), these targeted, genetics-based solutions will soon be within reach.
The Sainsbury Laboratory and commercial partner, BioPotatoes, invited visitors to explore how valuable traits discovered in wild potato relatives are being introduced into modern potato varieties using precision breeding, to meet the real-world needs of potato growers.
The new variety PiperPlus 3.0 will be brought to market in England by BioPotatoes once we receive approval under the PBA.
“Royal Norfolk Show offers us a unique chance to update the local agricultural community on our progress towards a marketable product." says Agnieszka Witek who leads the laboratory work and field trials for PotatoPlus, "This was particularly relevant this year, with the upcoming full implementation of Precision Breeding Act which provides a pathway to improved, sustainable crops, including our disease resistant potatoes.”
Our Innovation Hub stand received interest from farmers, curious citizens and government officials, all keen to find out more about the technologies developed in Jonathan Jones's group and at BioPotatoes.
“It was great to interact with potato growers at the Royal Norfolk Show. Speaking to those maintaining their varieties and struggling to protect them from diseases was yet another reminder of why our mission is important and timely.” says Sasha Eremina, Entrepreneur-in-Residence for BioPotatoes at TSL Ventures.
DEFRA Minister Daniel Zeichner shakes hands with our MSc student, Ruth Annang, who is completing her research module in Jonathan Jones's group.
Ruth says, “Attending the Royal Norfolk Show for the first time was both exciting and inspiring. As a Global Plant Health master's student, seeing the range of agricultural and scientific innovations was deeply encouraging. I had the honour of meeting the DEFRA Minister during a conversation about our BioPotatoes under the Precision Breeding Act, a discussion I was eager to hear more of, especially around labelling. I also enjoyed breaking down the science behind our five-gene-stacked disease-resistant potatoes for the public, three genes for late blight, and one each for PVY and PLRV, putting into practice what we learned in our Leadership module. And of course, it was refreshing to spend a day outside the lab, having fun while sharing science.”
Giant tomatoes and aphid hunting
TSL @STEMM Village
We believe that science should be accessible to everyone, especially curious, young minds.
Our scientists and staff are deeply passionate about sharing their knowledge to inspire more budding plant scientists!
Those who passed by TSL stand in the STEMM Village could discover more about plants and how they
battle pests and diseases.
Hsuan Pai and Phon Green show which pathogens like eating our favourite crops.
This year, our creative team of volunteers used a human-sized tomato plant and cat-sized aphid to immerse young students into the world of plants and the tiny organisms that live on them. They were then challenged to find real, tiny aphids trying to attack a plant.
We got a fantastic response from visitors, who left us some very insightful sticky notes that you can inspect for yourself!
We were also delighted to welcome our local MP, Ben Goldsborough, to our stand, accompanied by JIC Director, Graham Moore.
From left to right: Jennie Yang, Ben Goldsborough, Graham Moore, Kim Wood, Shania Keh.
A big thank you to our students and staff who invested so much into making our stands so welcoming to anyone who passed by.
We would also like to thank the events team at Agri-tech E for hosting us in their Innovation Hub marquee, as well as Samantha Fox, director of the Youth STEMM Awards, for her fantastic support and organization of the STEMM Village.
