GCP signs MoU with iPlant
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The CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) and iPlant Collaborative recently signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The MoU is geared to provide crop breeders worldwide with greater access to breeding tools and resources. Under the terms of this MoU, iPlant will collaborate with GCP in developing GCP’s Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP).
“One of the biggest constraints to the successful deployment of molecular technologies in public plant breeding, especially in the developing world, is a lack of access to informatics tools to support sample tracking, breeding logistics, data management, analysis and decision support,” observed Dr Graham McLaren, IBP’s Project Manager. “The iPlant cyberinfrastructure will allow us to develop and deploy an Integrated Breeding Workbench which will be configurable to different breeding workflows and provide the informatics support and analytical pipeline required for integrated breeding. In addition, the collaboration will give breeders throughout the world access to the products of upstream biological research necessary for effective molecular breeding.”
IBP Configurable Workflow workshop
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A group of GCP scientists and researchers involved in the development of the configurable breeding workflow system of the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) meet in San Diego, California, USA, from 12–14 January for the workshop, to discuss ways and means to develop tools in a coordinated and cohesive way to make the platform a reality.
The process of tools development and their assembly into various breeding applications will require intense collaboration between teams of researchers, developers, programmers (including user interface specialists), and users.
The workshop proposes to build consensus on team composition and development responsibility for the different tools and corresponding breeding applications. Participants will also review draft tool functionality documentation, flow prototypes and timelines for tool delivery and agree on common principles and parameters for the development of functional prototypes to ensure their seamless integration into the iPlant Collaborative cyber infrastructure that shall host the platform.
The signing of the MoU between iPlant and GCP will take place during the workshop. Under the MoU, iPlant will collaborate with GCP in the development of the platform including hosting a team of GCP software engineers. See vacancy announcements for these positions.
Targeted for priority development are tools for a Breeding Management System; tools for a Field Trial Management System including an Integrated Breeding Fieldbook; and tools for a Decision Support System including a Molecular Breeding Design Tool, a Cross Prediction Tool and a tool for marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS).
GCP to take part in Plant & Animal Genome (PAG) XIX Conference
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From 15–19 January 2011, San Diego, California, USA, will once more become the venue of the Plant & Animal Genome Conference, at which GCP will participate.
The GCP workshop will be on 17 January, where GCP Director, Jean-Marcel Ribaut, and Theme 1 Leader, Rajeev Varshney (who is organising the workshop), together with several GCP Principal Investigators, will present highlights of the Generation Challenge Programme to workshop attendees. The programme will include presentations on the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP), genomics in relation to legumes, comparative genomics, drought-adapted sorghum, marker-assisted breeding in chickpea, introgression techniques with peanut using molecular markers, and statistical and simulation tools (see agenda).
See also PAG’s draft programme and workshop abstracts.
Dates announced for GCP’s General Research Meeting 2011
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GCP’s next General Research Meeting (GRM) will be taking place from 22–26 September 2011.
Participation is by invitation only.
More details will follow in due course.
GCP welcomes new Theme 4 Leader to the Management Team
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Stepping into the role of leader for Theme 4–Capacity Building– is Ndeye Ndack Diop, who will oversee GCP’s ongoing mission to build technical capacity and establish communities of practice to facilitate the flow of products from research to delivery. She will also undertake the overall coordination of the Legumes Research Initiative (known as TLI). Ndeye Ndack brings an extensive portfolio of expertise in agricultural research to the role, in addition to her multi-layered experience in project management, teaching and training. In addition, she has been an active member of diverse African science councils and committees, most notably the West African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) and the steering committee of the West African Biosciences Network (WABNet) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), where her work involved setting up strategies for biotech research in West Africa.
Originally from Senegal, Ndeye Ndack spent much of her early academic career in Switzerland and France, though she returned to her homeland from 1996–2005 to undertake a research post at the Centre d’étude regional pour l’amélioration de l’adaptation à la sécheresse (CERAAS). This was followed by a brief spell once more in Paris as Ndeye Ndack carried out a post-doctoral research project on drought resistance genetics before crossing the ocean to America where she took up a position as post-doctoral researcher at the University of California–Riverside, USA, where she continued her specialised work in drought resistance for cowpea. Her research included field phenotyping, high-throughput SNP genotyping, genetic map development, and QTL mapping.
Ndeye Ndack holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences and Techniques and a Master’s in Plant Productivity from the University of Paris, France, and both a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Ndeye Ndack has also published widely in academic journals and taken part in diverse international conferences and congresses.
Welcome to team GCP, Ndeye Ndack!
