The Seed Biotechnology Center acts a liaison between the seed industry and the University by focusing on research, education and outreach to mobilize the resources of the university.  Our research focuses on development of technologies to deliver new traits to improve crop plants and food.  We focus mainly on vegetable crops and work on DNA marker development and transgenic technologies to deliver improved quality and yield in California crops. We are actively involved in policy building to regulate biotech crops as well as intellectual property. As we are housed in the Plant Reproductive Biology building, we interact closely with the faculty, Eduardo Blumwald, John Labavitch, Ray Rodriguez, Kent Bradford and Alan Bennett. The PRB also houses three Research and Information Centers (RICs) for the CAES and the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA). This gives us access to unique expertise in biochemistry, genetics, seed physiology, proteomics and nutrigenomics all focused on the biology of seed and fruit. The SBC is already working with an informal group including nutritionists (SAC State and UCD), to study bioactive compounds in fruit to combat human disease. Most importantly, we interact on a daily basis with the seed industry, government bodies and international visitors, and can be a conduit to determine what the demands of the industry and consumer markets are.

Curriculum Vitae

Research Slides