Over the past decades, growing evidence has highlighted remarkable similarities between the innate immune systems of the plant and animal kingdoms. These ‘shared’ innate immune systems include intracellular receptors as exemplified by nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat proteins (NLRs).  Our group aims to unravel the underlying mechanistic parallels between plant and animal immune components using plants as a model. Our research programme encompasses a diverse array of experimental systems including genetics, genomics and cellular and structural biology with an emphasis on immunity and cell death.