Christina J Prychid

My role is to oversee and manage the imaging and electron microscopy facilities at Kew, to provide consultation and training for users, to keep up to date with current research and to develop and undertake collaborative projects with researchers both internal and external, using cell biology and microscopy techniques.

My expertise is in the application of imaging and microscopical techniques to help explain biological questions. For example, during recent PhD studies on phylogenetics and floral biology of Mapanioid sedges, I used laser capture microdissection microscopy to extract pure cell-line populations from wax-embedded sectioned plant material. These were used for downstream mRNA extraction, next-generation sequencing and transcriptome analysis, enabling accurate determination of gene expression in different reproductive organs at different stages of development. This would otherwise be impossible to do in tissues too small for dissection by hand.

• BSc (Hons), Molecular Biophysics, University of Leeds
• MSc, Crystallography, Universty of London