San Diego, California, USA
June 7, 2011
Cibus Global, a pioneering plant trait development firm, is pleased to announce the additions of Dr. Michael Horn and Dr. Javier Narváez-Vásquez, who will play key roles as members of its integral science team. Dr. Michael Horn, who comes to Cibus with over 30 years of experience developing plant biotechnology products, will join as a Senior Project Leader with a focus in developing and improving cell culture systems. “Cibus’ RTDS core technology has been validated in canola and oilseed rape, and we are excited to add Michael to our team as we continue to expand our activities in other important crops,” said Greg Gocal, Vice President of Research, Cibus Global. “With his diverse experience and innovative approaches, we are confident that Michael will be a tremendous asset in helping to develop traits in other crop plants.”
Dr. Javier Narváez-Vásquez joins Cibus as a Senior Scientist and will be responsible for managing the development of non-transgenic crop traits in the collaborative program in flax with the Flax Council of Canada. “With his extensive background as a plant physiologist, Javier will immediately become a vital member of the Cibus team,” said Dr. Christian Schöpke, Senior Research Fellow, Cibus Global. “Javier’s ample experience with broad cell biology and agricultural biotechnology will be an enormous asset as he leads our flax program.”
This announcement follows tremendous growth at Cibus Global. Throughout the past several years, Cibus has successfully secured millions of dollars in research contracts with various key partners, leading to a significant expansion of research and commercial based activities. By utilizing their environmentally-safe, smart-breeding technology, Cibus has the unique ability to develop non-transgenic traits in crops around the world.
Dr. Michael Horn, Senior Project Leader
Dr. Horn has been involved in the plant biotechnology industry for the past 30 years specializing in producing new products for introduction into the marketplace.
Prior to joining Cibus, Dr. Horn was Site Director and Director of Cell Biology at Targeted Growth Inc, and before that he served as Director of Cell and Molecular Biology for Phyton Biotech, a New Jersey-based plant molecular farming firm.
From 1998-2005 Dr. Horn was Director of Cell Biology at Prodigene/ABI in College Station, Texas, where his group helped produce the first two large scale plant molecular farming products to enter the market, TrypZean and AproliZean. Previously, Dr. Horn was at Agrigenetics/Mycogen where he developed an alternative method for genetically engineering corn. Dr. Horn was also Project Leader for a peanut mutagenesis program that developed a high oleic acid peanut line now used by Hershey Foods for greatly improving the shelf life of their peanut-containing candies and their Reese’s peanut butter products.
Dr. Horn was one of the first scientists to engineer a member of the Gramineae (corn, wheat, rice, etc.), but originally became known for producing the world’s first useful photosynthetic plant cell suspension culture as a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois at Urbana. He also has an M.A. from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Dr. Javier Narváez-Vásquez, Senior Scientist
For more than three decades, Dr. Javier Narváez-Vásquez has been working in agricultural biotechnology with plant cell and tissue culture systems for plant propagation, virus and disease eradication, plant transformation, germplasm conservation and plant breeding.
Prior to joining Cibus, Dr. Narváez-Vásquez was a leader of the National Research Program for Agricultural Biotechnology in Colombia, where he helped establish a research program focusing on the improvement of bananas through biotechnology. Dr. Narváez-Vásquez also worked at the University of California at Riverside’s Department of Botany and Plant Sciences as Assistant Research Geneticist.
Dr. Narváez-Vásquez began his career working at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali-Colombia, where he helped establish a rice anther culture program to shorten the time required for the production of double-haploids (homozygous) plants and new improved varieties. During his doctoral and postdoctoral research work with Prof. Clarence “Bud” Ryan at Washington State University, Dr. Narváez-Vásquez conducted studies that helped identify the signaling pathway components of plant defense responses, using a wide variety of molecular, biochemical and microscopy techniques.
Dr. Narváez-Vásquez obtained a degree in Agronomy Engineering from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and then a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from Washington State University in Pullman, WA. He has received several scholarship awards, including research grants and a patent, and has many publications in a variety of high-ranking peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and meeting proceedings.
Cibus Global develops advantageous crop traits with far-reaching implications in agriculture, alternative energy and product development. Through its proprietary Rapid Trait Development System (RTDSTM), 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 strategic, crop-specific partnerships. In September 2009, Cibus announced a strategic alliance with Israeli-based Makhteshim-Agan to develop traits in multiple crops.
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