Hello!

I'm a PhD candidate in fungal phytopathology at The Sainsbury Laboratory (Norwich, UK) working under Prof. Nick Talbot. My research focus is novel protein design to investigate effector function within the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae.

Academic History

  • Sequence Analysis UK

    PIPS intern

    Jun - Aug 2025

    Working under Dr. Lisa Crossman I analysed metagenomic-assembled genomes (MAGs) as part of the WISH Fiji project.

  • Gregor Mendel Institute

    VBC Summer School student

    Jul - Aug 2022

    I joined Dr. Arturo Marí-Ordóñez as part of the Vienna BioCenter Summer School focusing on transposon silencing in Duckweeds.

  • University of Birmingham

    MSci Biological Sciences

    2019 - 2023

    My Master's research was supervised by Dr. Megan McDonald, focusing on the Starship transposon Sanctuary.

Publications

Asterisk (*) indicates co-authorship.

  1. Bucknell, A. H.*, Wilson, H. M.*, Gonçalves do Santos, K. C., Simpfendorfer, S., Milgate, A., Germain, H., Solomon, P. S., Bentham, A. R., and McDonald, M. C. (2025). Sanctuary: A Starship transposon facilitating the movement of the virulence factor ToxA in fungal wheat pathogens. mBio. doi: 10.1128/mbio.01371-25.

  2. Tagirdzhanova G., Scharnagl K., Sahu N., Yan X., Bucknell A. H., Bentham A. R., Jégousse C., Ament-Velàsquez S. L., Brännström I. O., Johannesson H., MacLean D., Talbot N. J. (2024). Complexity of the lichen symbiosis revealed by metagenome and transcriptome analysis of Xanthoria parietina. Current Biology, 35. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.041.

  3. Bucknell, A. H., and McDonald, M. C. (2023). That’s no moon, it’s a Starship: Giant transposons driving fungal horizontal gene transfer. Molecular Microbiology, 120, 555–563. doi: 10.1111/mmi.15118.

Presentations

  1. Bucknell, A. H. (2025). Engineering new-to-nature immune sensors for novel recognition of effectors in plant pathosystems. 20th IS-MPMI Congress, 17 July, Koelnmesse Confex, Cologne (DE).

  2. Bucknell, A. H., Xi, Y., Knight, G., Gentle, A., Ryder, L. S., Yan, X., Watson, J. L., Emmrich, P. M. F., Talbot, N. J., Banfield, M. J., and Bentham A. R. (2025). Engineering new-to-nature immune sensors for novel recognition of Magnaporthe oryzae [Poster]. 20th IS-MPMI Congress, 14 July, Koelnmesse Confex, Cologne (DE). doi: 10.5281/zenodo.15880523.

  3. Bucknell, A. H. (2024). Developing new-to-nature protein binders for the M. oryzae pathosystem. APH Forum, 5 December, Norwich (GB).

  4. Bucknell, A. H. (2024). Using structural homology predictions to infer biological function of effector proteins during plant infections. NRPDTP Summer Conference, 20 June, Norwich (GB).

  5. Bucknell, A. H. (2024). From one small step to a giant leap between fungi. Pint of Science Festival, 15 May, Norwich (GB).

  6. Bucknell, A. H., Bentham, A. R., Yan, X., and Talbot, N. J. (2024). Finding function through form: predicting effector function in the blast fungus through structural biology [Poster]. Fungal Genetics Conference, 15 March, Asilomar Conference Grounds (CA, US). doi: 10.5281/zenodo.10793245.

  7. Bucknell, A. H. (2024). In-silico characterisation of Magnaporthe effector proteins. Magnafest, 12 March, Asilomar Conference Grounds (CA, US).

Science Communication

Alongside traditional forms of academic output, I value science communication to the general public and non-expert groups. Currently, I do this primarily through public engagement talks.

  • I've presented twice at the annual Pint of Science festival (Birmingham 2023 & Norwich 2024).
  • I volunteered at the TSL stall at the Norwich Science Festival 2024.
  • I've presented an accessible science talk at the JIC Year 10 Summer Camp 2024.
  • I've presented my research to senior civil servants from the Environmental Agency and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in April 2025.

My PhD is being completed at The Sainsbury Laboratory via the Norwich Research Park Doctoral Training Partnership (NRPDTP). The NRPDTP is funded via the UKRI BBSRC grant BB/T008717/1.