Departments

	Genomic Breeding Department
	The focus of the Genomic Breeding Department is to support the development of cultivars with superior quality through practical application of Genomic Breeding tools and high throughput marker discovery. Molecular markers are developed for genomic breeding, metabolic engineering and diagnostics. In collaboration with the Bio informatics Department marker discovery for genomic breeding is mainly centered on the identification of polymorphisms, more specifically SNPs. The SNPs are used for chromosomal mapping as well as for the identification of traits. Various mapping techniques and proprietary approaches are used to identify the molecular nature of both monogenetic as well as polygenetic traits. Approaches include modern techniques like, comparative expression profiling with custom designed oligonucleotide chips, association breeding and the use of synteny. Mono- or polygenic traits with known molecular design are used in Green Biotechnology approaches for metabolic engineering and genetic modification. Molecular markers that are suitable for diagnostics are used by GT Diagnostics to develop molecular quality traits. Cultivar typing, or detailed species typing is offered for the characterization and identification of germplasm of diverse crops.
	Green Biotechnology Department
	The Department of Green Biotechnology aims at the development of innovative technologies for crop improvement (trait engineering) and for industrial applications (metabolic engineering and molecular pharming). To achieve these objectives, its team of molecular biologists and cell biologists applies systems biology through the integration of different areas of expertise (molecular biology, bio informatics, biochemistry and cell biology). The Green Biotechnology Department has for example succeeded in: –  developing efficient transformation and regeneration protocols for a wide range of crops, including a proprietary selection system. –  engineering traits such as (a)biotic stress tolerance using proprietary genes. –  enhancing the production of health promoting compounds. The Green Biotechnology Department is engineering the lipid metabolism in plants and in microalgae for the efficient production of biodiesel. In parallel leads towards the production of high added value compounds for several industry sectors (food, pharma, cosmetics) are being explored. In addition, efforts are put in the development of alternative methods for genetic modification that will open a wider field of opportunities for the use of green biotechnology in combination with genomic breeding.
	Bio-informatics Department
	The Bio-informatics Department applies information technology to the field of molecular biology. In recent years biotechnology has seen a shift from mainly lab work to more and more data analyses driven research, examplified by the exponential growth of available sequence data. Complex mathematical and computing approaches are used to gain understanding of biological processes. To streamline the analysis of the huge data sets the Bio-informatics Department was established. Within this department expertise in the fields of molecular biology, information technology, statistics and programming is combined to help our customers with their breeding programs, SNP discovery, gene discovery and visualisation of data. For this tools are developed for the analysis of sequence data, including SNP discovery software (SNPaware™); tools for analysing expression data from custom made oligo arrays; web applications where clients can access their data sets. In addition data pipelines are developed, so that several tools and programs can be combined and databases are designed for biological datasets. Statistical advice for experimental design or setup and data visualisation is also part of the expertise of the Bio-informatics Department.