Professor Elizabete Carmo-Silva

Professor of Crop Physiology

Research Overview

Elizabete is interested in photosynthesis and plant responses to fluctuations in the environment, in particular light and temperature. Her PhD studies focused on photosynthesis and photorespiration in C4 grasses under drought stress. During her post-doctoral research she specialized on Rubisco activation by its molecular chaperone, Rubisco activase, while conducting studies on the interplay between drought and heat stress in cotton. In 2012 she started working on improving photosynthetic performance to increase wheat crop yields at Rothamsted Research, before becoming a lecturer in Plant Sciences for Food Security at the Lancaster Environment Centre in 2015. Her research aims to improve global food security and resource use efficiency by optimising crop performance in response to the changing climate.

Elizabete works closely with all members of the Photosynthesis team at LEC. For more details, please visit our website: wp.lancs.ac.uk/lancsphotosynthesis/

Our research is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation award RIPE (via a sub-contract to the University of Illinois), and the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP).

Elizabete is a member of the PhD monitoring panel for Plants and Agriculture at LEC and her main teaching includes a second year undergraduate module in Research Design and Delivery as part of the LEC BSc degree schemes in Biology and Ecology & Conservation.

BBSRC Institute Strategic Programme: Delivering Sustainable Wheat (DSW) Partner Grant
01/04/2023 → 31/03/2028
Research

ENGBIO21: Plant microcompartment engineering for green production
15/02/2023 → 14/02/2024
Research

RIPE III : Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency for Sustainable Increases in Crop Yield
01/01/2023 → 31/12/2026
Research

RIPE Bridging Funds Tranche 1 (Income Only)
01/09/2022 → 31/12/2022
Research

PhotoBoost
01/09/2020 → 31/08/2025
Research

IWYP - Induction: Faster Adjustment of Photosynthesis to shade-sun transitions in the field to improve wheat yields
15/05/2018 → 14/05/2021
Research

IWYP Call 2: Manipulating Stomatal Blue Light response in wheat to improve productivity
01/04/2018 → 31/03/2021
Research

Realising Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE2)
01/09/2017 → 31/08/2022
Research

N8 : Delaying Turnover of Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate cardoxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) as a novel mechanism to enhance wheat yeilds.
01/05/2017 → 31/10/2018
Research

Bilateral NSF/BIO-BBSRC Synthesis of Microcompartments in plants for enhanced carbon fixation
01/12/2016 → 30/09/2021
Research

15-IWYP Wider and faster: high-throughout phenotypic exploration of novel genetic variation for breeding high biomass and yield in wheat
01/03/2016 → 30/09/2019
Research

15-IWYP Using Next Generation Genetic Approaches to Exploit Pheotypic Variation in Photosynthetic Efficiency to Increase Wheat Yield
01/02/2016 → 30/09/2019
Research

15-IWYP Realising increased photosynthetic efficiency to increase Wheat Yields
01/01/2016 → 30/09/2019
Research

Exploiting a Cyanobacterial CO2 concentrating Mechanism to increase Photosynthesis and Yield
01/01/2016 → 30/06/2019
Research

Combining field phenotyping and next generation genetics to uncover markers, genes and biology underlying drought tolerance in wheat
16/09/2015 → …
Research

Realizing increased photosynthetic Efficiency for sustainable increases in Crop Yield
01/09/2015 → 31/10/2017
Research

Optimising Rubisco activation to improve photosynthesis in wheat
01/01/2015 → 31/12/2017
Research

Combining Approaches for Photosynthetic Improvement to Allow Increased Sustainability in European Agriculture
01/01/1900 → …
Research

Journal of Experimental Botany (Journal)
Editorial activity

The Biochemical Society (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Current Opinion in Plant Biology (Journal)
Editorial activity

Photosynthesis Research (Journal)
Editorial activity

British Council (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Associação dos Bolseiros de Investigação Científica (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Richard Malkin Award
Prize (including medals and awards)

  • Plant and Crop Science