Pallavi Singh Lab
Photosynthesis & Synthetic Plant Engineering

Pallavi is a UKRI-Future Leaders Fellow and her research employs advanced interdisciplinary technologies to drive a significant improvement in agricultural productivity and sustainability. Pallavi was awarded the SEB-President's Medal (Plants) 2024. She also received the Young Scientist Awards from the Indian National Science Academy in 2019 and from the National Academy of Sciences, India in 2017. Pallavi completed her PhD with Dr. Alok Sinha at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), India, followed by a brief postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Adam Bogdanove at Cornell University, USA. She then moved to Cambridge, UK, as a John Henry Coates Research Fellow with Prof. Julian Hibberd. In September 2022, she started her own research group at the University of Essex, focusing on various aspects of photosynthesis and using natural variation and functional genomic approaches to enhance our understanding of complex traits such as water use.

Sourav is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Pallavi Singh Lab at the University of Essex, where he contributes to a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF) project. His research examines the molecular and cellular changes during monocot grafting, using them as a lens to decode communication between grafted plant tissues. He holds a BSc (2016) and MSc (2018) in Plant Biology, with a focus on genetics and genomics from the University of Calcutta, India, and completed his PhD at NIPGR, India (2025). There, he investigated how rice shoot architecture responds to fluctuating environments, mapping the transcriptomic shifts behind developmental transitions. His work highlights the interplay between phytohormones and key transcription factors in shaping plant form.

Ella is currently undertaking a Master’s by Research, investigating the role of rice aquaporins, specifically plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs), in photosynthesis, using PIP2;1 knockdown lines. She is particularly interested in agriculture, and learning how we can improve global food security through plant biology. She completed her BSc in Biology (2025) from the University of Bristol, with broad interests in conservation, evolution, molecular biology, and plant biology. Ella aims to expand her skillset during her project, to better understand what a career in research looks like, while gaining hands-on experience in project management, experimental design, data analysis, and scientific communication. She is also a Gatsby Summer School alumna (2023).

Xabier is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Pallavi Singh Lab at the University of Essex, contributing to the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF) project. His work focuses on enhancing water use efficiency in rice without compromising yield, through the integration of molecular and physiological approaches. As part of this research, he is exploring innovative strategies such as monocot grafting to develop sustainable solutions for crop improvement. As a plant physiologist, Xabier’s research has focused on understanding how crops respond to the combined impact of abiotic stresses associated with future climate scenarios, including elevated CO2, high temperatures and extreme drought. He has conducted experiments both in (semi)controlled environments and in the field, with a particular interest in cereals and pseudocereals. His work explores the contrasting responses of C3 and C4 species to these stresses, with the aim of identifying resilient alternative crops for future agricultural systems. Xabier holds dual BSc degrees in Biotechnology (2017) and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2018) from the University of the Basque Country. He completed an MSc in Plant Biology, Genomics, and Biotechnology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2019, where he studied the physiological effects of Cucumber mosaic virus infection in melon. He earned his PhD in Environmental Agrobiology from the University of the Basque Country in 2024, focusing on the comparative performance of alternative crops buckwheat and sorghum versus the conventional crops wheat and maize future climatic conditions.

Tingting Li is a Postdoctoral Research Officer in the Pallavi Singh Lab at the University of Essex, working on the ARIA project. Her current research focuses on the host-parasite biological interfaces of European mistletoe (Viscum album) grafting, utilizing dual RNA-seq and molecular tools to dissect vascular connectivity and regulatory mechanisms. Tingting is a plant molecular biologist with strong expertise in functional genomics, bioinformatics, and synthetic biology. Her research career centers on integrating multi-omics data (RNA-seq, single-cell transcriptomics, and metabolomics) to decode gene regulatory networks and trait evolution. She is highly proficient in computational data analysis, molecular vector design, and plant genetic transformation. Tingting holds a PhD from Sichuan University (2024), where she engineered regulatory mechanisms of anthocyanin biosynthesis. Her background also includes a two-year Joint PhD research stay at the John Innes Centre (UK), where she investigated evolutionary genomics and adaptive morphological traits in Antirrhinum species.