We conducted a successful technical dry run for The Veldkos Final Presentation Live Stream earlier today. We’re thrilled about this groundbreaking event—a first for South Africa! Grade 11 learners from the Cape Winelands Education District made a significant contribution to the draft genome assembly of a Veldkos (Field Food) plant …
In a number of SAWCIT-funded research projects, we are attempting to map the chromosome positions of novel rust resistance genes that could be used in future by barley and wheat breeders – adding to the many we have made available to them in the past. An important aspect of this …
F.l.t.r.: Amy Coetzee (UFS; MSc student), Prof Sakkie Pretorius (UFS; Research fellow), Wilku Meyer (UFS; PhD candidate and new CenGen staff member), Diana Mngomezulu (UFS; MSc Agric candidate). Two post-graduate UFS candidates visited us for a week-long training (3-7 June 2024) and support with their molecular genetics work. Prof Sakkie …
Debuting in March 2024, our new sequencing project is an exciting addition to our repertoire. Check out the dedicated page for the Veldkos | Field Food DNA project under our DIPLOMICS Partner page!
We are very proud of Cara Koopman who received her BSc Human Life Sciences: Biology with Psychology degree on 27 March 2024. Cara joined our team as an intern in February this year and has already made a valuable contribution to the laboratory. Congratulations, Cara!
Dr Ntjapa Lebaka, a hop breeder at the SAB Hop Farms, recently visited the CenGen laboratory to discuss future collaborations and the integration of molecular technologies into their breeding program. Pictured above is Ms Kelly Breeds, responsible for the molecular work utilized in SABBI’s (the South African Barley Breeding Institute) …
Building on the well-established geneWorkshops we host for Life Sciences teachers and learners, we, in collaboration with the WCED and funders DIPLOMICS, took to the road and hosted our first workshop with the grade 12 Agricultural Science learners of Iingcinga Zethu Secondary School in Ceres in July 2023. The workshop …
Summer is upon us and the landscape has turned green once more. Within a 100 km radius from Worcester one can find many orchards that bear fruits to everyone’s liking. Among the many perks of working in the agricultural sector, we also sometimes get spoilt with a delivery of fresh …
September and October traditionally are producers’ day months, signifying opportunities for us to engage with producers and industry stakeholders who simultaneously are our benefactors and the ultimate beneficiaries of our work. This year was no exception. On 21 September, Kelly Breeds confronted some windy Overberg weather to share with grain …
In the early 2000s, South African barley and wheat producers demonstrated remarkable progressiveness by affording a solo female scientist with a great vision the opportunity to introduce long-awaited DNA tools into local small grains breeding programmes. At the time, this practice had already been widely adopted in the international arena …
