10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Presenters: Mr. Ofer Haviv – President and Chief Executive Officer, Evogene
Mr. Assaf Oron – EVP, Strategy and Business Development
Location: NASA Glenn Research Center,
Building 3, Auditorium
21000 Brookpark Rd
Cleveland, OH
Global population growth and increase in quality of life have emerged the need to apply biotechnology tools to supply growing demand for food, feed and energy. Evogene is a leading agricultural-biotech company, specializing in the development of improved plants through the use of plant genomics. Since its foundation in 2002, Evogene has established a powerful platform based on its proprietary computational technology, the ATHLETE (Agro Traits Harvest Leads Technology) that enables highly accurate and rapid discovery of genes that have the potential to improve desired plant traits.
Evogene is currently utilizing its platform in two main fields: (1) improved plant traits for the seed industry and (2) improved plants for biofuel production. Today ,Evogene has on-going collaboration agreements with world leading seed companies such as Bayer, Monsanto, Pioneer and Syngenta.
This talk will survey modern techniques for improved plant traits, focusing on Evogene’s recent program on biodiesel and its close derivative – aviation fuel. The program begins with second generation crops that can be used as a sustainable, viable and competitive source for biodiesel. Evogene’s program is targeted at developing high oil-yielding non edible crops, such as castor bean, which can be commercially grown under harsh-environmental conditions. Such crops are expected to significantly decrease feedstock costs and not compete with agricultural lands used to grow food crops. Through the program, Evogene is utilizing its’ extensive knowledge on oil yielding crops genomics, unique selection systems and capabilities in classical and advanced breeding.
