Professor Cathie Martin

Cathie Martin, Rank Prize for Nutrition 2022 winner, on her research at the John Innes Centre.

Video credit: UKRI
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript is available on YouTube.

In the run-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), we asked our researchers to tell us about their work and the challenges of tackling climate change.

Professor Cathie Martin is a group leader at the John Innes Centre in Norwich.

She’s particularly interested in how eating plants can make us healthier, and how plant science can make plants even better for us.

Her research includes developing tomatoes enriched with additional nutrients, studying plants used in traditional Chinese medicine, and breeding African cassava crops for lower levels of toxins.

Research like this is important for preserving global food security and health as the climate changes. It could help more people achieve more plant-based diets, which generally have lower impacts on the planet, and help us grow enough food to meet everyone’s nutritional needs.

Cathie says:

At a certain point, I started wanting to make my science relevant so that my mother would understand what I was talking about, and I think that probably has been where I have gone!

Last updated: 3 November 2021

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services.