Sir David Charles Baulcombe is a British plant scientist, born in 1952 in Solihull, England, whose research centers on plant genetics and epigenetics. In 1999 he identified small interfering RNA as the specificity determinant in RNA-mediated gene silencing in plants, a discovery that was soon found to extend to animals and fungi as part of the broader phenomenon of RNA interference. He served as Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge, is Biological Secretary and Vice President of the Royal Society, and was announced in 2026 as the next Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Facts
Defining ContributionDiscovered with Andrew Hamilton in 1999 that small interfering RNA is the specificity determinant in RNA-mediated gene silencing in plants, a finding that underlies RNA interference technology now used to engineer virus-resistant and improved crop varieties. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. David Baulcombe (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section; birth date and nationality
Sir David Charles Baulcombe FMedSci FRS (born 7 April 1952) is a British plant scientist and geneticist.
Research section; 1999 siRNA discovery with Andrew Hamilton
One of Baulcombe's major discoveries in 1999 with Andrew Hamilton was of small interfering RNA (siRNA) that is the specificity determinant in RNA-mediated gene silencing in plants.
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