George Lomonossoff obtained both his B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and joined the John Innes Centre, Norwich in 1980. His research has focused on the molecular biology of RNA plant viruses and their use in bio- and nanotechnology. In 2012 he was named “BBSRC Innovator of the year” for his work on plant-made pharmaceuticals and in 2015 delivered the Microbiology Society Colworth Prize Lecture. The transient expression system he developed (CPMV-HT) is used worldwide and  is currently deployed by Leaf Expression Systems, Norwich to scale-up production of plant-made products.