At CenGen, we believe continuous investment in equipment is essential for advancing research—from insect DNA extraction to new plant pathogen DNA extraction protocols. We are grateful to SABBI for providing the Cryostation, stereo microscope, and auxiliary equipment, and to DIPLOMICS for the biosafety cabinet. This equipment enables us to handle …
It was a privilege to attend and present at the celebration of the one-year existence of 1KSA (https://www.1ksa.org.za/). CenGen staff (fltr Elsabet, Renée and Michaela) also met up with various plant sample contributors which included fltr Thabang Makola (SANBI, Karoo National Botanical Garden, Worcester), Cecile Bester (Dept Genetics, SU) and …
We would like to sincerely thank Grain SA for nominating our founding director, Renée Prins, for the prestigious 2024/2025 NSTF-South32 Lifetime Award. Click the link below to view all the current nominees:🔗 https://nstf.org.za/current-nominees/ You can also view the announcement on Facebook here:📣 https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1092676076237197&id=100064844438384&rdid=YpcO7sAjEZOFd6XG#
The success of our DIPLOMICS-sponsored geneWorkshops programme for high school Life and Agricultural Sciences learners has recently been shared in the popular local magazine, Koringfokus/Wheat focus. The article is free to read here. Thank you to Mariana Purnell for following and documenting our ventures!
Dr Sandra Lamprecht (right) and her team at the ARC-PHP site in Stellenbosch labouring many hours to do phenotypic scoring of FCR symptoms. Photo credit: Thabo Phasoana Hard work across many years and two continents has paid off! Our research on Fusarium Crown Rot (FCR) has just been published in …
We are delighted to share Iingcinga Zethu Senior Secondary school’s ongoing improvement in the pass rate of the Agricultural Sciences subject in the NSC examination! CenGen established a relationship with this Ceres-based school in 2023 when Ms Mbonjwa, an Agricultural Sciences educator at the school, requested our support with her …
On 1 March, Dr Renée Prins talked to Eloise Pretorius of the Afrikaans radio programme RSG Landbou. The converstion circled, among other things, around what the goal of the DIPLOMICS-initiative of the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation is. Renée also shared details of CenGen’s social impact project that is …
At the end of 2024 we can look back on many successes. The Veldkos | Field Food DNA project was one of the most rewarding projects we embarked on this year! It concluded on 29 November with the scientific team presenting their plant genome sequencing results to the public. Have …
Thanks to the funding from DIPLOMICS and support from the WCED, we hosted a total of 199 participants across 10 workshop days for Agricultural- and Life Sciences teachers and learners in 2024. Most of our geneWorkshops were hosted the new CenGen|DIPLOMICS training laboratory. Participants were exposed to actual laboratory protocols …
