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About Francesco
Professor Francesco Licausi is Professor of Molecular Plant Physiology in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford, a position he assumed in 2023 following his appointment as Associate Professor in 2020, which included a Tutorial Fellowship at Wadham College. Prior to joining Oxford, he served as Associate Professor of Plant Physiology at the University of Pisa and was affiliated with the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy, where he earned his PhD. His research centers on the molecular mechanisms that enable plant cells to detect oxygen levels and activate signaling cascades leading to developmental and metabolic adaptations. Licausi utilizes synthetic biology to explore oxygen sensing across kingdoms, investigating the evolution of aerobic metabolism, multicellularity, and oxygen homeostasis. Key areas include hypoxic niches in plant meristems, responses to flooding and waterlogging, and biotechnological strategies to enhance crop resilience.
Licausi has garnered significant recognition through major grants, including a €2 million European Research Council Consolidator Grant in 2020 to advance synthetic biology approaches to hypoxia, a BBSRC Pioneer Grant in 2024 for plant and evolutionary biology research, and participation in a £6.7 million ARIA award in 2025 aimed at revolutionizing sustainable agriculture via chloroplast genome replacement in potato. His influential publications encompass foundational works such as "Oxygen sensing in plants is mediated by an N-end rule pathway" (Nature, 2011), "An apical hypoxic niche sets the pace of shoot meristem activity and establishes a dynamic niche size hotspot" (Cell, 2019), "Synthetic biology of hypoxia" (New Phytologist, 2021), and recent contributions including "Prolyl hydroxylase-dependent proteolysis enables the orthogonal control of hypoxia responses in plants" (Nature Communications, 2026) and "ERFVIIs as oxygen-sensing transducers in the evolution of land plant response to hypoxia" (2025). These efforts have profoundly shaped understanding of plant oxygen biology with applications to environmental adaptation and agriculture.
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