Prof John Doonan
BSc Hons (Leeds), PhD (Leeds)

Chair (DLM)

Contact Details

Email: jhd2@aber.ac.uk
ORCID: 0000-0001-6027-1919
Office: 223, IBERS Gogerddan
Phone: +44 (0) 1970 823080
Personal Website: https://www.plant-phenomics.ac.uk/
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=6KcPHw8AAAAJ
Research Portal Profile

Profile

John Doonan has more than 30 years experience in genetics and developmental cell biology of plants and fungi. Before joining IBERS as Director of the National Plant Phenomics Centre, he was Group Leader at the John Innes Centre in Norwich. Previous to that he worked at the Robert Wood Johnston Medical School in New Jersey, USA and obtained his PhD from Leeds University.

Teaching

Module Coordinator

BR35820 - Frontiers in Plant Science

Lecturer

Tutor

Coordinator

BR35820 - Frontiers in Plant Science

Grader

Research

Plant growth underpins the productivity of both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Our group uses both induced (mutants) and natural variation in experimental model systems and wheat to understand how plants grow and respond to their environment. Current research focuses on cyclin-dependent protein kinase targets (a) in the microtubule system and (b) in the protein translation machinery. We are developing high throughput high content phenotyping technologies at the National Plant Phenomics Centre for crops and model plants grown in either controlled environments and the field. Collaborations with computer scientists, both locally within Aberystwyth and globally, aim to develop and exploit emerging data acquisition technologies and image interrogation methods based on Artificial Intelligence to provide new knowledge on the basis of productivity in natural and agricultural ecosystems.

Our lab welcomes visiting students, post-doc, and academics on short and longer-term training visits. Please contact us by email.

Research is or has been supported by grants from the BBSRC, Leverhulme, Interreg Funds, Horizon2020, NSF, FP7, BEAA, and the Welsh Government.

Research Groups

Aberystwyth Centre for Space and Earth Monitoring
Grains for Health
Phenomics

Publications

van Vliet, LJJ, Atkins, K, Kurup, S, Siles, L, Hepworth, J, Corke, FMK, Doonan, JH & Lu, C 2025, 'DeepCanola: Phenotyping brassica pods using semi-synthetic data and active learning', Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 237, 110470. 10.1016/j.compag.2025.110470

Reena, , Doonan, JH, Williams, K, Corke, FMK, Zhang, H & Liu, Y 2025, 'Handling intra-class imbalance in part-segmentation of different wheat cultivars', Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 230, 109826. 10.1016/j.compag.2024.109826

Hansen, A, Gladala-Kostarz, A, Hindhaugh, R, Doonan, JH & Bosch, M 2025, 'Mechanical stimulation in plants: Molecular insights, morphological adaptations, and agricultural applications in monocots', BMC Biology, vol. 23, no. 1, 58. 10.1186/s12915-025-02157-3

Girija, A, Canales, FJ, Haddadi, BS, Dye, R, Corke, F, Williams, K, Phillips, H, Beckmann, M, Prats, E, Doonan, JH & Mur, LAJ 2025, 'Metabolomic approaches suggest two mechanisms of drought response post-anthesis in Mediterranean oat (Avena sativa L.) cultivars', Physiologia Plantarum, vol. 177, no. 2, e70181. 10.22541/au.172959354.47755276/v1, 10.1101/2023.06.28.546978, 10.1111/ppl.70181

Evershed, D, Brook, J, Cowan, S, Griffiths, I, Tudor, S, Loosley, M, Doonan, JH & Howarth, CJ 2025, 'Photothermal Integration of Multi-Spectral Imaging Data via UAS Improves Prediction of Target Traits in Oat Breeding Trials', Agronomy, vol. 15, no. 7, 1583. 10.3390/agronomy15071583

More publications on the Research Portal