Food, Health, Environment, and Energy are four pressing issues affecting the sustainable development of human society. We believe that science and technology are essential components of the solution to these problems. To cope with the ever growing population of the world (especially in China), we position our team (with relevant strengths and expertises) to tackle the needs of food (and feed) and health products using agricultural biotechnology.

Our overall strategy is to build a pipeline for biotechnology crop production, through identification of useful genes from elite germplasms; transfer those genes into designated crops (e.g. rice) to produce new lines with improved agronomic performance; conduct field trials and safety assessments; and finally to deliver a set of carefully designed and assessed parental lines to traditional breeders. The special tasks we chose are based on (1) their significance and high impact on science and agriculture; (2) the timing of such needs; and (3) the strength of our team, global collaborations, and accessible genetic resources. Through these research efforts, we aim to position ourselves a regional/national research center for plant molecular biology and agricultural biotechnology.

Institute Director
Samuel Sun