The Grewal Lab
Unlocking the Genetic Potential of
Wheat Wild Relatives.
The Grewal Lab at the University of Nottingham combines genomics and cytogenetics to improve disease resistance and stress tolerance.
View Our ResearchOur Research
Wild Relative Introgression
Exploring Amblyopyrum and Triticum species to introduce novel genetic variation into modern wheat cultivars.
Genomics & Markers
Developing high-throughput KASP markers and generating chromosome-scale genome assemblies to accelerate breeding.
Trait Discovery
Identifying key genes responsible for disease resistance and heat tolerance to secure future food production.
Meet The Team
Dr. Surbhi Grewal
Principal Investigator
Dr. Grewal leads the lab with a focus on harnessing the genetic diversity of wild wheat relatives. Her work bridges the gap between fundamental genomics and applied wheat breeding.
surbhi.grewal@nottingham.ac.uk
Katie Hawkins
PhD Student
Exploiting BYDV resistance in wheat wild relatives.
Jack Walker
PhD Student
Harnessing wild relatives for improved salt tolerance in wheat.
Nicola Walter
Former PhD Student
Mapping the gametocidal locus in wheat wild relative Aegilops sharonensis.
Affiliated Researchers at the Nottingham Wheat Research Centre
Professor Julie King
Major Collaborator
Director Nottingham Wheat Research Centre
Leads the wheat wild relative introgression programme.
Dr Stella Edwards
Major Collaborator
Assistant Professor, School of Biosciences
Exploits wheat wild relatives for heat tolerance and improved photosynthetic traits.
Dr Manel Othmeni
Co-supervised
Research Fellow
Transferring wild relative introgressions from bread to durum wheat (Leverhulme funded project).
Dr G. Mahendra Singh
Co-supervised
Research Fellow
Exploiting a wheat wild relative introgression line for the development of a new hybrid wheat system (BBSRC funded).
Dr Caiyun Yang
Support Scientist
Senior Technician
Providing expert technical support for the Nottingham Wheat Research Centre.
Duncan Scholefield
Support Scientist
Technician
Providing technical expertise and support for wheat research projects.
Latest Publications
"Transfer of wild relative introgressions into Durum from Hexaploid Wheat for exploitation in research and breeding"
King, J., Steed, A., Grewal, S., Othmeni, M., Yang, C., et al. (2025)
Preprint under review at Theoretical and Applied Genetics
News & Highlights
Nicola Walter Wins Edward Cocking Prize
Ex-PhD student Nicola Walter received the Edward Cocking Prize for Best PhD thesis. Thesis: 'Mapping the Breaker Element of the Cuckoo Chromosome 4S of Wheat Wild Relative Aegilops Sharonensis.'
Jack Walker's Viva Success
PhD student Jack Walker successfully passed his viva on 11/11/2025. Thesis: 'Harnessing wild relatives for improved salt tolerance in wheat.'
Invited Talk in Hungary
Dr. Grewal gave an invited talk at the Centre for Agricultural Research (ATK) at Martonvásár, Hungary on 'Exploiting wild relative genomics for introgression mapping in wheat'.