The threat posed to the world by the growing population and our inability to grow sufficient food is immense and requires the development of sustainable agricultural practices as part of which herbicides are essential. However, herbicide resistance is now a major problem and can only be overcome by the development of new inhibitors targeted at novel pathways. The student has joined a multidisciplinary team including our industrial partner, Syngenta in protein crystallographic studies on an enzyme of histidine biosynthesis coupled with training in areas of bioinformatics, inhibitor discovery, enzymology and plant biotechnology.