DuPont and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Collaborate on Crop Genetics Research
31 July 2007
DuPont and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have entered into a multi-year research collaboration to conduct crop genetics research on yield enhancement and develop enabling technologies in corn, soybeans and other important agricultural crops. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business and leader in agricultural plant genetics, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), an internationally recognized leader in plant biology, have collaborated on individual projects over the past decade. This new multi-project, multi-year effort will allow for a deeper sharing of information that aims to facilitate unique approaches to long-term agronomic challenges.
Several teams of researchers from both organizations will make use of extensive genomics data, trait information and germplasm resources from Pioneer in the discovery research collaboration. Pioneer also will have responsibility for bringing innovations and technologies resulting from the collaboration to the marketplace.
Increasing crop yields is critical to meet growing global demands for food, feed, fuel and fiber. The collaboration will develop technologies that accelerate the rate of yield increase, as well as traits that will bring value to farmers worldwide.
—William S. Niebur, vice president - DuPont Crop Genetics Research and Development
Founded in 1890, CSHL is a private, non-profit research and education institution with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics. The transposable genetic elements, or “jumping genes,” discovered in the middle of the 20th Century at CSHL by Nobel prize winner Barbara McClintock, are the building blocks of plant genetics research today. CSHL is at the forefront of research to isolate plant genes and unravel the genomic sequences of plants such as Arabidopsis, maize and rice.
Comments