Mark Tester ("GM's bitter harvest", THES , October 24) and other recent articles suggest that anti-GM sentiment is stimulating an exodus of plant scientists from the John Innes Centre and other UK centres of excellence. This is not the case. Science is a highly mobile profession, and many of the examples cited were unrelated to the GM debate.
The articles also ignore the flow of scientists in the opposite direction. Since the anti-GM campaign started in 1998, JIC has seen a net influx of faculty from abroad, myself included. Our recent recruitment of a British geneticist from Stanford University was made in the face of stiff competition from top US institutions, and we are negotiating with an Australian researcher to start a new programme in cereal research. These world-class scientists are excited about the cutting-edge programmes in the UK's vibrant plant research community, funded to the tune of ?56 million by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Chris Lamb
Director, John Innes Centre, Norwich