Molecular Breeding Academy – Class 2024 open for application

 

15-22 Sept 2024

Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences (PKU-IAAS)

Weifang, Shandong, China

 

Sponsored by

l Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences (PKU-IAAS)

l Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Agricultural Sciences in Weifang (SLAAS)

 

Participants and Eligibility

Molecular Breeding Academy is open for scientists, teachers, growers, graduatestudents, postdocs, and seed industry personals. The participants should meet the following requirements:

l BS degree plus five-year experience, MS degree plus three-year experience, Ph.D. student, or postdocs, in the field of plant breeding.

l The aspirants should be proficient in the following: sending and receiving emails; finding web resources through search engines; downloading and installing software and/or viewing electronic files; familiarity with using browser plug-ins (e. g. PDF reader, video, audio); and using a word processing, presentation software, or other relevant applications.

l Ability of participating intensive training courses,field trips and tours.

 

Registration fee

RMB5000(USD 700)for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty; RMB7500(USD 1050) for industry participants. These fees include breakfasts, lunches, dinners, morning and afternoon breaks, accommodations, field trips and tours to crop farming and marketing.

 

Scholarships

l Scholarships will be provided for up to ten international students and postdocs, which will cover the registration fee.

l Awardees will be selected based on qualifications and economic status. Applicants need to submit applications with cover letter and CV, along with the registration form.

 

Lectures/activities and schedule

Date	Time	Lectures/activities
15 Sept	1200-2200	Registration
16 Sept	0830-0900	Introduction and welcome
	0900-1200	Three special topics on plant breeding
	1430-1730	Populations in genetics and breeding
17 Sept	0830-1130	Omics and genotyping-phenotyping-envirotyping technologies
	1430-1730	Marker-trait association and trait discovery
18 Sept	0830-1130	Marker-assisted and genomic-enviromic selection
	1430-1730	Plant Breeding Platform and institution tours
19 Sept	0830-1130	Genome editing and gene transfer for crop improvement
	1430-1730	Climate change and breeding for abiotic and biotic stress tolerance
20 Sept	0830-1130	Big data, artificial intelligence and smart breeding
	1430-1730	Intellectual property and plant variety protection
	1730-1800	Graduation and conclusion
21Sept	0830-1800	Field trips and tours to seed companies and crop farming and marketing
22 Sept	0830-1200	Field trips and tours to seed companies and crop farming/marketing;  leaving

 

Instructors

The courses will be given by instructors PKU-IAAS/SLAAS, including:

l Dr. Yunbi Xu, senior research professor, PKU-IAAS

https://en.pku-iaas.edu.cn/PI/1287.html

l Dr. Xingping Zhang, Vice Director and senior research professor, PKU-IAAS

https://en.pku-iaas.edu.cn/PI/1156.html

How to Apply

Participants can submit online registration through http://lgzajv4wvjfnebya.mikecrm.com/reRSbTZ with required information (CV, cover letter and required qualifications) or by sending email to MBA@pku-iaas.edu.cn, and pay the registration fee via bank transfer, Alipay or Wechat.

The account information for USD payment via bank transfer is as follows:

Beneficiary's Bank: Agricultural Bank of China Shandong Branch

Address: NO.168 Jingqi Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province, China

SWIFT BIC: ABOCCNBJ150      

Beneficiary Customer:

Customer Account Number: 15447014040000368

Customer Name: Weifang Beiqian Sci-Technology Services, Ltd

Customer Address: Xiashan Ecological and Economic Development Zone, Weifang City, Shandong Province, China.

The account information for RMB payment via bank transfer is as follows:

Beneficiary's Bank: Agricultural Bank of China Shandong Branch

Address: NO.168 Jingqi Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province, China

SWIFT BIC: ABOCCNBJ150      

Customer Name: Weifang Beiqian Sci-Technology Services, Ltd

Bank Account Number: 15447001040007634

Customer Address: Xiashan Ecological and Economic Development Zone, Weifang City, Shandong Province, China.

Or you can pay via Alipay or WeChat:

About Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences (PKU-IAAS)

PKU-IAAS was co-founded by Peking University and Shandong provincial government in 2017, to better serve the needs of rural development and agriculture sustainability in China. The institute takes the advantages of the strong scientific research and educational capabilities of Peking University and close connection with agriculture production and enterprises of Shandong province to become a new international research hub for research and talent development in advanced agriculture sciences(http://en.pku-iaas.edu.cn). The institute is located at the scenic site of Xiashan Ecological and Economic Development Zone, Weifang, Shandong. A well-designed lake-front campus, along with Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Agricultural Sciences in Weifang under construction, can host up to 100 labs and 2000 researchers, students and visiting scholars. Equipped with state-of-art lab instruments and high-capacity data management super computers and servers, PKU-IAAS will develop as a leading research institute and training center for genetics, agricultural biotechnology, genomics and breeding, agricultural product development, and agricultural policy.

About the Molecular Breeding Academy

Global demand for agriculture products is expected to double by 2050, largely due to improvement in the worldwide standard of living. However, climate change poses a significant threat to agricultural production, impacting biodiversity and crop environments. This Molecular Breeding Academy is specifically designed for personnel in seed industry. It offers a rare opportunity to develop talents and equip conventional breeding to address the challenges of sustainable agricultural production in this Information Age. The Academy focuses on staying up-to-date with current knowledge and technology-driven breeding methods with the purpose of sustainably improving crop productivity. There is growing interest in understanding genetic, genomic and biotechnological tools and integrative strategies for plant breeding, which is driving significant research in this field. Within this complex background, this Academy will provide professional skill-based and knowledge-oriented trainings to the scientists, teachers and graduate students in agriculture; focusing on recent trends in molecular breeding.

 

Aims & Objectives of Molecular Breeding Academy

l To decipher the basic and molecular, technological advances and know-how on molecular breeding.

l To gain understanding and insights about molecular breeding as a basic toolforcrop improvement.

l To gain insights about genetic advances in breeding resistance to disease and pests.

l To grasp the knowledge of basic techniques for building all molecular techniques, new opportunities to enable plant breeding addressing challenges of sustainable crop production in this information age.

l To get inspired from the success journeys of different industrial experts.

l To generate ideas for sustainable crop production by reshaping the future of plant breeding.

 

Key references

Books

     Xu, Y. 2010. Molecular Plant Breeding. CABI Publisher, Wallingford, UK

     Bernardo, R. 2020. Breeding for Quantitative Traits in Plants. 3rd edition, Stemma Press, Woodbury, MN

 

Articles

     Gao, C. Genome engineering for crop improvementand future agriculture. Cell 184 (2021) 1621-1635.

     Hickey, L.T., A.N. Hafeez, H. Robinson, S.A. Jackson, S.C.M. Leal-Bertioli, M. Tester, C. Gao, I.D. Godwin, B.J. Hayes, B.B.H. Wulff. Breeding crops to feed 10 billion. Nat. Biotechnol. 37 (2019) 744–754.

     Varshney, R.K., A. Bohra, J. Yu, A. Graner, Q. Zhang, M.E. Sorrells, Designing future crops: Genomics-assisted breeding comes of age, Trends Plant Sci. 26 (2021) 631-649.

     Wallace,J.G., E. Rodgers-Melnick,E.S. Buckler. On the road to breeding 4.0: Unraveling the good, the bad, and the boring of crop quantitative genomics. Ann. Rev. Genet. 52 (2018) 421–444.

     Xu, Y., X. Zhang, H. Li, H. Zheng, J. Zhang, M.S. Olsen, R.K. Varshney, B.M. Prasanna, Q. Qian, Smart breeding driven by big data, artificial intelligence and integrated genomic-enviromic prediction, Mol. Plant 15 (2022) 1664–1695.

     Xu, Y., P. Li, C. Zou, Y. Lu, C. Xie, X. Zhang, B.M. Prasanna, M.S. Olsen, Enhancing genetic gain in the era of molecular breeding. J. Exp. Bot. 68 (2017) 2641–2666.

     Xu, Y., X. Liu, J. Fu, H. Wang, J. Wang, C. Huang, B.M. Prasanna, M.S. Olsen, G. Wang, A. Zhang, Enhancing genetic gain through genomic selection: from livestock to plants. Plant Comm. 1 (2020) 100005.