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Tag: plant breeding

Carolina Paola Sansaloni

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Carolina Sansaloni is a molecular geneticist and leader of the Genetic Analysis Service for Agriculture, a high throughput genotyping platform managed by CIMMYT’s Seeds of Discovery initiative that uses Diversity Arrays Technology. She regularly contributes to projects that have strategic significance in wheat pathology, disease resistance, quality, functional genomics and bioinformatics.

Sansaloni also works on the wheat Global Diversity Analysis, which characterizes and analyses seeds in genebanks at CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA). Her team has characterized around 100,000 wheat accessions, including more than 40 species that represent 40 percent of the CIMMYT genebank and almost 100 percent of the ICARDA ‘s genebank wheat collection. This is an incredible and unique resource for wheat scientists that provides a genetic framework to help select the most relevant accessions for breeding.

Zhonghu He

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Zhonghu He serves as a Distinguished Scientist and Country Representative in China for CIMMYT and a Research Professor at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science. Research areas include quality improvement of Chinese products and disease resistance, molecular marker development and application, and cultivar development.

Major contributions include the development and validation of 50 functional markers, the release of 36 improved cultivars, author/coauthor of more than 400 papers in refereed journals including 180 publications in international journals, and training more than 80 postgraduates and visiting scientists.

Received the First-Class Award and Prestigious Award in Science and Technology Progress from State Council in 2008 and 2015, selected as Fellow of Crop Science Society of America in 2009 and Fellow of American Society of Agronomy in 2013, the Guanghua Award from Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2010, the China Agriculture Elite Award in 2012, and the National Labor Medal in 2020.

Adefris Teklewold Chere

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Adefris Teklewold is a senior scientist and leads the Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia Project (NuME). He is also involved in breeding quality protein maize varieties and seed system development.

NuME fights malnutrition and food insecurity for resource-poor smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, especially among women and young children, through the widespread adoption, production and utilization of quality protein maize. The project is implemented in drought-prone, moist mid-altitude and highland areas of maize growing agroecologies in focal districts of four major maize producing and consuming regions of Ethiopia. NuME was started in 2012 and will conclude in March 2019.

Led by CIMMYT and funded by Global Affairs Canada, NuME is implemented in collaboration with Ethiopian research institutions, international non-governmental organizations, universities, farmer unions and public and private seed companies operating throughout the country.

Susanne Dreisigacker

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Susanne Dreisigacker seeks to understand the genetic basis of key traits in wheat breeding, and use this information in applying genomics-assisted breeding approaches in wheat improvement.

In close collaboration with the CIMMYT wheat breeders, she implements classical molecular breeding approaches such as marker-assisted selection and marker-assisted backcrossing. She’s also involved in developing proof of concept applications of new genomics strategies such as whole genome-association mapping and genomic selection. She gives wheat breeders access to the newest genotyping technologies and is involved in key initiatives in the area of molecular breeding like the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium and the Genomic and Open-source Breeding Informatics Initiative.

Matthew Reynolds

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Matthew Reynolds develops and transfers technologies to increase productivity of wheat cropping systems worldwide, primarily focusing on less developed countries. At CIMMYT he’s helped create a new generation of advanced lines based on physiological breeding approaches to widen the wheat genepool, increase understanding of yield potential and adaptation of wheat to drought and heat stress, develop high throughput phenotyping methodologies and train other researchers.

To further these goals, Reynold’s is developing global collaborations to tap into the expertise of plant scientists worldwide, such as the International Wheat Yield Partnership, and coordinates the formation of the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium. He’s also leading the community of practice on crop modeling for the CGIAR Big Data platform.

Reynolds has published widely in the area of crop physiology and genomics, and mentored graduate students through affiliations with universities worldwide.

Jill Cairns

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Jill Cairns is a physiologist whose current research is largely focused on the development, validation and deployment of new phenotyping tools to increase maize breeding efficiency. She is also part of a team validating new seed production technologies for Africa.

These technologies are critical to increasing genetic gain within breeding programs, which is essential to meet future food security. Low cost, high-throughput phenotyping tools can increase the accuracy of traits currently measured visually within breeding programs and the development of cheaper tools to measure key traits will allow breeders to divert more resources towards the generation and management of a larger population, thereby increasing selection intensity.

Cairns currently leads a component of the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa project on innovative breeding tools and techniques to increase the rate of genetic gain in the maize breeding pipeline, and is the cluster of activities leader for Climate Resilient Maize for Africa under MAIZE, a CGIAR Research Program.

Felix San Vicente

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Felix is a maize breeder with broad experience in the study of quantitative genetics and heterosis in tropical maize. He has more than 30 years developing and adapting breeding methods for increasing genetic gains in tropical maize. During his time at CIMMYT, he has developed more than 20 hybrids and 8 open pollinated varieties which are grown commercially in about 500,000 has in 10 countries in Latin America. He has also been part of a team that has released 15 CIMMYT maize lines; elite germplasm used in hybrids by maize breeding programs in at least 25 different countries worldwide.

Currently, Felix coordinates maize breeding activities for Latin America, including Mexico’s and Colombia’s main breeding hubs, targeting lowland tropics, subtropics and highlands. In addition, he leads CIMMYT’s lowland tropical breeding program in intensive collaboration with local and regional partners.

B.M. Prasanna

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B.M. Prasanna is a Distinguished Scientist and Regional Director for Asia at CIMMYT.

Since 2010, Prasanna, as the Global Maize Program Director, has provided technical oversight for a wide range of multi-institutional projects focused on the development and deployment of elite, stress-resilient, and nutritionally enriched maize varieties across the tropics of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He has also spearheaded the application of innovative tools and technologies aimed at enhancing genetic gains and improving breeding efficiency.

Prasanna led the CGIAR Research Program MAIZE from 2015 till 2021, an alliance of over 300 research and development institutions globally. He has been at the forefront in tackling the challenges of maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease in eastern Africa (since 2011), and the Fall Armyworm in Africa and Asia (since 2016 and 2018, respectively).

Together with an array of partners globally, Prasanna and the wider CGIAR team have formulated the OneCGIAR Plant Health Initiative in 2021. Prasanna is currently also serving as the Leader of the Plant Health Initiative, involving 10 CGIAR centers and over 80 national and international partners.

Recipient of several awards and recognitions, Prasanna has published over 200 research articles in various international journals of repute, and has a Scopus h-index of 46, and a Google Scholar h-index of 61.

Sarah Hearne

Sarah Hearne

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Sarah Hearne serves as the Chief Science and Innovation Officer (CSO) at CIMMYT, leading efforts to implement a cohesive, interconnected, and multidisciplinary approach to research and partnerships. Her role focuses on fostering collaboration, leveraging complementarities across CIMMYT’s core research areas, and ensuring the organization remains future-ready. Through strategic alignment, she drives CIMMYT’s ability to deliver on its cutting-edge mission and vision, advancing sustainable agricultural solutions on a global scale.

Juan Burgueño

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Juan Burgueño is a senior scientist and head of CIMMYT’s biometrics and statistics unit. He and his team are committed to developing new mathematical and statistical methodologies, and applying them to solve the problems CIMMYT and partner researchers face.

Burgueño and his team mainly focus on research, consultancy and training on a broad range of topics like experimental design, multi-environment cultivar trials, agronomy, pathology and entomology experiments, genetic resources conservation, mapping quantitative trait loci, genome selection and genetic diversity.

As head of the unit, he coordinates the team’s efforts in these areas and strengthens CIMMYT’s team of biometricians in order to effectively collaborate and help CIMMYT’s staff and partners. Burgueño mainly contributes to experimental design, statistical modeling, genome selection and analysis of high-throughput phenotyping data.

Bekele Geleta Abeyo

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Bekele Geleta Abeyo works on germplasm development, variety release, early generation seed multiplication, demonstration and popularization of new wheat varieties with recommended packages to realize better yield gains on farmers’ fields with NARS partners for nine sub-Saharan African countries.

He facilitates germplasm exchange among NARs within and across countries, NARS capacity building through training and mentoring of young professionals, material support by developing competitive and compelling projects pertinent to the country, data and experience sharing, and joint publication of new research findings.

He also organizes national, regional and international conferences and workshops, creating networks among NARs in the region, representing CIMMYT and the Global Wheat Program (GWP) in various forums. He liaises with government officials, institutions, and offices at various levels for collaboration effective partnerships.

Kevin Pixley

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Kevin Pixley is the Dryland Crops Program Director (DCP) and Wheat Program Director a.i. (GWP)

Pixley was formerly the Genetic Resources Program (GRP) director where he helped formulate, facilitate, and oversee inter-disciplinary strategies to enhance the relevance and impacts of wheat and maize research to improve livelihoods, especially for resource-poor farmers.

Pixley and his research team use genomics, phenomics and informatics to characterize and enhance the conservation and use of wheat and maize biodiversity through CIMMYT’s Seeds of Discovery initiative, where they explore the use of crop biodiversity to address novel opportunities, including enhanced sustainability of farming systems, improved nutritional or health outcomes or value-addition for farmers. They also look for opportunities to apply novel technologies to address needs of resource-poor farmers.

His current research includes:

1) The genomic characterization of maize and wheat germplasm bank diversity and enhancing the use of diversity in breeding

2) The use of novel breeding tools, especially gene editing, to complement traditional breeding techniques

3) The development of tools and approaches to enhance the use of genomics in teaching the use of biodiversity in plant breeding

4) The legal frameworks governing and opportunities promoting fair access and sharing of benefits from genetic resources

5) The role of provitamin A carotenoids (and other anti-oxidants) in maize grain towards reducing mycotoxin contamination of grain

6) Science and society, including how to ensure equitable opportunity for all to access the potential benefits of science