CenGen is extremely privileged to announce that Dr Xolelwa Zulu has been appointed as Independent Director of the company as from the 9th of December 2019. Dr Prins was first introduced to Xolelwa on a scientific tour to the UK, hosted by the British High Commission and Agbiz Grain. At the time, Xolelwa was the… Continue Reading
On 20 January, Marizanne Horn and Elsabet Wessels undertook the trek to Bethlehem, Free State, for project meetings with colleagues at the local Sensako breeding station. Marizanne, an employee of Sensako and industry placement at CenGen, met with Roean Wessels, Sensako’s sunflower breeder. Elsabet, who is responsible for the wheat MAS programme at CenGen, met… Continue Reading
In an exciting new venture at CenGen, we are exploring the possibility of getting involved with science education in collaboration with the Cape Winelands Education District (CWED). Brian Wilson (Dr) and Edgar Johannes from the CWED visited us on Wednesday, 18 December, to discuss how CenGen can contribute to creating awareness among primary and high… Continue Reading
Ending off the year with a BLAST, CenGen just took the next step to integrate bioinformatics into their workflow through the installation of their first dedicated Bioinformatics server. This was achieved with the assistance of the consulting firm of Dr Tjelvar Olsson and Mr Jan Marais (iMotion). Upon recognising the dire need for South African… Continue Reading
At CenGen we love to share our science and what we do with others – be it in a formal, academic journal or in an informal setting with the general public as audience. On 28 November, the staff from Sensako’s Research Station at Napier visited our laboratory. Their expertise is in field trial and glasshouse… Continue Reading
In the week ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2019 final in Japan, the whole of South Africa is swept up with Bok-fever for our clash with the English Roses on Saturday, 2 November. At CenGen we had the pleasure to host Mr Harry Bennett, service engineer from LGC, UK, to perform the first annual preventative maintenance service on our KASPTM SNPline XL instruments after they were placed in the laboratory in May 2018.
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This September saw Kelly Breeds and Daniël de Klerk (breeder at South African Barley Breeding Institute) travel to Perth, Western Australia, to attend the 19th Australian Barley Technical Symposium. It was Kelly’s first and Daniël’s third attendance at this symposium, which is held on a biennial basis. Continue Reading
The Cereal Science and Technology-SA (CST-SA) association annually hosts a conference for young and upcoming scientists working on cereals. At this conference, postgraduate students are invited to present their research at a national level, thereby providing them with the opportunity to gain experience in delivering a scientific paper in front of an audience.
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A new and exciting learning opportunity arose at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. The internship: Professor Simon Krattinger’s research group has opened a call via the visiting student’s research program for a talented student to gain hands-on training in cereal genomics.
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September typically is an extremely busy month for the grain programmes at CenGen. During this month, rust season peaks in Greytown, Natal, where our wheat trials are planted at the Corteva AgriscienceTM trial site, and at the same time the producers’ days season kicks off in the Western Cape with the flowering of the grains. Continue Reading