Davis, California, USA
November 2011
Seed Central, the seed industry cluster surrounding UC Davis, launched its series of monthly events with an afternoon packed with a full afternoon schedule of scientific presentations and networking opportunities. The afternoon’s events attracted well over 120 participants from university and industry, including several from central and southern California as well as Oregon.
Dr. Kent Bradford, Director of the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center, reported on the Gene Flow and Co-existence Workshop held in Washington, DC in early September. His discussion on current and emerging strategies to minimize gene flow and maintain seed purity across agricultural communities sparked lively discussions among industry and academia participants.
Dr. Bradford’s presentation was followed by three Seed Central events:
Seed Central SCIENCE - Research & Technology Presentations
Dr. Richard Michelmore, Director of the UC Davis Genome Center and Dr. Allen van Deynze, Director of Research at the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center (SBC), presented the Genome Center's and the SBC’s state of the art facilities and strategies for integrating modern genomic-assisted approaches to plant breeding practices.
Seed Central BRAINSTORMING – Brainstorming Session
University and industry then joined in a discussion on a new public-private project aimed at establishing on campus a collaborative laboratory focused on basic and pre-competitive cell biology research and technologies for using modern genomics in plant breeding.
Seed Central FORUM – Networking Event with Featured Speaker
During the evening networking event, generously sponsored by Enza Zaden, seed industry professionals networked with UC Davis leaders, faculty, scientists and students as well as with local city and county officials.
The featured speaker was UC Davis Professor and HHMI-GBMF researcher, Dr. Jorge Dubcovsky, whose research illustrates the power of modern biotechnology approaches in delivering new tools for breeders and new wheat cultivars of importance to the US and the world. In his enthusiastic keynote address, he shared the goals and successes of the USDA-NIFA CAP consortia of 55 universities aimed at improving barley and wheat breeding.
Seed Central events are held on the 2nd Thursday of every month, except in July and August.
The program for the next
several months can be viewed at
http://www.seedcentral.org/calendarofevents.htm
Attendance to Seed Central events is free for all employees of Seed Central member companies and for all UC Davis faculty, staff, and students. Employees of non-member companies also have free access until February 2012.
Starting in March 2012, employees of non-member companies will be able to attend Seed Central SCIENCE and FORUM events for a fee, but Seed Central BRAINSTORMING sessions will only be open to members.
Seed Central is an initiative of the Seed Biotechnology Center at UC Davis and SeedQuest, the central information website for the global seed industry, joined by a growing number of seed and seed-related companies large and small, located both in California and beyond. Seed Central has two main objectives: to bring science to market faster in order to strengthen university and industry in the region, and to make the region uniquely attractive to innovative companies, talented individuals and students.
To learn more about Seed Central, please visit www.seedcentral.org.
Topics
Species
