Illumina Announces Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to Receive Agricultural Greater Good Initiative Grant to Improve Food...
June 07 2016 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
Project Leverages HiSeq X Ten System to
Accelerate Grain Sorghum Breeding
Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) today announced that the Donald
Danforth Plant Science Center is the 2016 recipient of the
Agricultural Greater Good Initiative grant. Their project aims to
optimize breeding strategies for improving the yield and stress
tolerance of grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), a critical source of
nutrition to millions of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa. The
Illumina Agricultural Greater Good Initiative grant program is
designed to help identify measures that can increase crop yields
and improve livestock welfare and productivity to alleviate poverty
and hunger in the developing world.
Todd Mockler, PhD, Geraldine and Robert Virgil Distinguished
Investigator at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and co-PI
Jeremy Schmutz, at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, will
study the genetic diversity of grain sorghum leveraging the HiSeq
X® Ten System at HudsonAlpha. NRGene’s proprietary PanMAGICTM
computational platforms will be used to construct the first ever
sorghum pan-genome.
Sorghum is a member of the grass family and is grown worldwide.
It is of particular interest, not only because it is a staple crop
in Sub-Saharan Africa, but because grain sorghum yields have been
declining due to the lack of new varieties that are resistant to
pests and pathogens. Sorghum is very resilient to drought and heat
stress. Natural genetic diversity in sorghum makes it a promising
system for identifying stress-resistance mechanisms in grasses that
may have been lost during the domestication of related cereal
crops.
“A comprehensive understanding of the pan-genome sequence of
this cereal crop will enable breeders to design and optimize their
breeding strategies and improve grain sorghum yields,” said Dr.
Mockler. “I’m grateful to Illumina for this opportunity to use
next-generation sequencing to improve grain sorghum breeding
because it’s essential to improving yields and enhancing food
security in the developing world.”
"It’s a pleasure to work with Dr. Mockler and Illumina to
sequence grain sorghum using the HiSeq X Ten system,
constructed at HudsonAlpha by Dr. Shawn Levy and his
team," said Mr. Schmutz. "While the system is deployed now to
identify causal genetic variants in human disease, we look forward
to applying it to optimize plants like sorghum, a critical
crop for the socioeconomic stability and food security of people
living in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
“Illumina is committed to unlocking the power of the genome to
improve human health. This program recognizes that there is nothing
more fundamental to human health than nutrition,” said Dawn Barry,
VP, Applied Genomics. “We are proud to be supporting Todd Mockler’s
work at the Danforth Center and excited to see the HiSeq X Ten
System in place at HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology being
used to aid in this sequencing project. To our knowledge, this is
the first time since we opened the HiSeq X technology to
whole-genome sequencing of nonhuman species that it has been used
to benefit a public breeding program.”
The Illumina Agricultural Greater Good Initiative grants,
launched in 2011, are awarded annually. The program spurs
critically needed research that will increase the sustainability,
productivity, and nutritional density of agriculturally important
crop and livestock species. Grant recipients receive donations of
Illumina products to support their projects. Applications for the
2017 Agricultural Greater Good Initiative grants will be available
in Q3 2016.
For more information about Illumina products for agrigenomics,
visit www.illumina.com/agrigenomics.
About Illumina
Illumina is improving human health by unlocking the power of the
genome. Our focus on innovation has established us as the global
leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, serving
customers in the research, clinical and applied markets. Our
products are used for applications in the life sciences, oncology,
reproductive health, agriculture, and other emerging segments. To
learn more, visit www.illumina.com and follow @illumina.
About The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a
not-for-profit research institute with a mission to improve the
human condition through plant science. Research, education and
outreach aim to have impact at the nexus of food security and the
environment, and position the St. Louis region as a world center
for plant science. The Center’s work is funded through competitive
grants from many sources, including the National Institutes of
Health, U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
To keep up to date with Danforth Center’s current operations and
areas of research, please visit, www.danforthcenter.org, featuring
information on Center scientists, news, and the “Roots &
Shoots” blog. Follow us on Twitter at @DanforthCenter.
About HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology
HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a nonprofit institute
dedicated to innovating in the field of genomic technology and
sciences across the spectrum of biological challenges. Founded in
2008, its mission is four-fold: sparking scientific discoveries
that can impact human health and well-being; bringing genomic
medicine into clinical care; fostering life sciences
entrepreneurship and business growth; and encouraging the creation
of a genomics-literate workforce and society. The HudsonAlpha
biotechnology campus consists of 152 acres nestled within Cummings
Research Park, the nation’s second largest research park. Designed
to be a hothouse of biotech economic development, HudsonAlpha’s
state-of-the-art facilities co-locate nonprofit scientific research
centers with entrepreneurs and educators. The relationships formed
on the HudsonAlpha campus encourage collaborations that produce
advances in medicine and agriculture. Under the leadership of Dr.
Richard M. Myers, a key collaborator on the Human Genome Project,
HudsonAlpha has become a national and international leader in
genetics and genomics research and biotech education, and includes
32 diverse biotech companies on campus. To learn more about
HudsonAlpha, visit: http://hudsonalpha.org.
Illumina Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking
statements are detailed in our filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including our most recent filings on Forms
10-K and 10-Q, or in information disclosed in public conference
calls, the date and time of which are released beforehand. We do
not intend to update any forward-looking statements after the date
of this release.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160607005480/en/
Illumina Inc.Investors:Rebecca Chambers,
858-255-5243ir@illumina.comorMedia:Gwen Gordon,
858-882-6822pr@illumina.comorDonald Danforth Plant Science
CenterMelanie Bernds,
314-587-1647mbernds@danforthcenter.orgorHudsonAlpha Institute
for BiotechnologyMargetta Thomas,
256-327-0425mthomas@hudsonalpha.org
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