San Diego, California, USA
April 12, 2010
Cibus Global, a pioneering plant trait development firm, today announced that James Radtke, Ph.D., Vice President of Product Development, will participate in a panel at the 2010 Non-Traditional Barley Breeding Research & Commercialization Conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Radtke will participate in a panel discussion entitled: “Private and Public Breeders Look Forward—Opportunities and Challenges in Barley Breeding” on April 15 at the Juniper Hotel.
Dr. Radtke will highlight the new opportunities in breeding presented by Cibus Global’s proprietary technology, Rapid Trait Development System (RTDS™). The panel is dedicated to safe, commercially-viable breeding technologies for the barley community, part of the dialogue on growing more improved-quality grain and releasing new barley varieties at this conference organized by The Alberta Barley Commission.
“The Barley Breeding Conference allows us to discuss the potential for RTDS™ to bring added value to barley production,” said Dr. Radtke. “With this non-transgenic, targeted mutagenesis technology, we can strategically develop high-value traits in a crop whose productivity and profitability has a vital stake in feed, malt, food, and fuel sectors around the world.”
Barley is particularly important to Europe. Barley production in the EU-27 of 14.22 million hectares represents approximately 26% of the world’s total barley hectares (55 million hectares). Like wheat, barley is a crop that has suffered from a lack of technology as many of the end users demand non-transgenic technology.
RTDS™ provides a viable alternative to transgenic crops by copying natural methods in a highly targeted way. Unlike a transgenic approach, RTDS™ is a directed mutagenesis procedure that effects a precise change in the very same plant species being altered, thus avoiding introducing foreign genetic material from one plant species into another.
Dr. Radtke will be joined on the panel by Dave Dzisiak, Dow AgroSciences Canada; Dr. Jim Helm, Alberta Field Crop Development Center; Dr. Brian Rossnagel, Crop Development Center, University of Saskatchewan; and Charles Pick, DNA Landmarks.
Cibus Global develops advantageous crop traits with far-reaching implications in agriculture, alternative energy and product development. Through its proprietary Rapid Trait Development System (RTDS™), Cibus creates traits in a directed way with more precision than traditional breeding techniques and without the introduction of foreign genetic material. RTDS has proven itself in the laboratory with several different applications, as well as in initial field trials of Cibus’ first commercial crop, canola. Cibus’ products will be brought to market through a number of strategic partnerships; in September 2009, Cibus announced an alliance with Israeli-based Makhteshim-Agan to develop proprietary traits in five crops with a European focus.
Topics
Species
