Glenn Bryan's Biography

Glenn Bryan, Group Leader, The James Hutton Institute

Dr Glenn Bryan leads the Potato Genetics and Breeding group at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee. He studied at London and Birmingham Universities, and obtained his PhD at Washington University in St Louis, USA. He has worked in both animal (dairy cattle, Drosophila) and plant (wheat, rice, potato, tomato) genetic research.

In his current role he has been responsible for developing a modern potato genetics and genomics programme that is integrated with commercially funded potato breeding programmes. He has made significant advances in the genetic mapping of some of the most effective sources of pest and disease resistance in potato as well as tuber quality and developmental traits.

He was a participant in both the potato and tomato genome sequencing projects and led the UK participation in the Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium, for which he also served on the steering committee. The potato and tomato genomes were published in Nature in 2011 and 2012. His group has also led the effort to make further improvements to the potato genome assembly, and this work will be published in late 2013.

He serves as one of the co-chairs of the global SOL project, whose role is to facilitate research into Solanaceous plant species. He serves on various committees, such as the BBSRC HAPI steering panel and the Biosciences KTN Plant sector group advisory panel.