Epiproteome and the immune response in plants. After an integrated MSc degree at Utrecht University (Netherlands) Prof. Steven Spoel completed a PhD degree at Duke University (USA). He was subsequently awarded an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship and a Netherlands Science Foundation Rubicon Fellowship to move to the University of Edinburgh. In 2010 he was awarded an 8-year Royal Society University Research Fellowship to set up an independent laboratory. His research aims to improve plant health in an ever-changing environment. This is vital for the sustainable future of agriculture and for establishing food security for a growing population. Steven Spoel Steven Spoel is Professor of Cell Signalling and Proteostasis at the University of Edinburgh, former Head of the Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences (2018-2023) and current Director of Research for Biological Sciences. As Director he shapes the strategic research vision that consolidates the activities of 160 research groups in the School of Biological Sciences. During his career Steven has been recipient of several prestigious awards, including the New Phytologist Tansley Medal (2010), the Early Excellence in Science Award from Bayer Crop Science & Healthcare (2013), two consecutive European Research Council grants (2016-2026) as well as a Proof of Concept award, and in 2023 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is passionate about linking frontier discovery science with industrial research and innovation. In his scientific advisory and consultancy roles at major biological sciences funders, such as BBSRC Council and the Gatsby Foundation, and as co-founder of Black in Plant Science, he aims to provide strategic solutions and establish inclusive environments that promote innovative thinking to tackle challenges across the plant science and Agri-Tech sectors. Spoel Lab Website Lab members Heather Grey, Dr Zhishuo Wang, Dr Joanna Strachan, Dr Bushra Saeed, Dr Lindsay Williams, Tanya Mathur, Bob Mason, and Emilien Krempf. Research The research team aims to improve plant health in an ever-changing environment. This is vital for the sustainable future of agriculture and for establishing food security for a growing global population. The current focus is to understand how dynamic changes in the epiproteome, representing the chemical modifications that control activities of cellular proteins and enzymes, enable plants to launch effective immune responses. Indeed, plants are continuously attacked by diverse pathogens and consequently evolved sophisticated receptor-mediated immune responses that provide durable disease resistance. Pathogen detection results in dramatic reprogramming of the proteome and transcriptome to prioritise immunity over cellular household functions. Immune reprogramming requires the post-translational modifier, ubiquitin, which is attached to thousands of target proteins and modifies their signalling properties. The well-established proteolytic role of ubiquitin in targeting proteins for proteasomal degradation has been a focal point of attention in plant immune research and indeed in plant science in general. Nonetheless, ubiquitin has many non-proteolytic signalling functions that are largely unexplored in plant cells and are underexploited in plant bioengineering approaches. Pioneering work from our team demonstrated that activation of plant immunity requires the en-masse attachment of ubiquitin chains of structurally diverse topologies to cellular proteins, including immune receptors and key transcription activators. Our aim is to decipher the fundamental topology-specific language of the complex ubiquitin code and use engineering biology to harness its potential to boost plant performance. Selected publications Mason RO, Grey H, Spoel SH. Mobile immune signals potentiate salicylic acid-mediated plant immunity via WRKY38/36 transcription factors. BIORXIV 2025.04.17.649115; doi:10.1101/2025.04.17.649115. Wang Z, Orosa-Puente B, Nomoto M, Grey H, Potuschak T, Matsuura T, Mori IC, Tada Y, Genschik P, Spoel SH (2022) Proteasome-associated ubiquitin ligase relays target plant hormone-specific transcriptional activators. SCIENCE ADVANCES 8(42): eabn4466; doi:10.1126/sciadv.abn4466Skelly MJ, Furniss JJ, Grey HL, Wong KW, Spoel SH (2019) Dynamic ubiquitination determines transcriptional activity of the plant immune coactivator NPR1. eLIFE 8: e47005; doi:10.7554/eLife.47005.Furniss JJ, Grey H, Wang Z, Nomoto M, Jackson L, Tada Y, Spoel SH (2018) Proteasome-associated HECT-type ubiquitin ligase activity is required for plant immunity. PLOS PATHOGENS 14: e1007447; doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1007447. This article was published on 2026-04-23
