Research

The research at the KCGEB is primarily involved in the development of crops tolerant to abiotic stresses through knowledge generation and translational research. The center is also focused on developing crops with enhanced agronomic traits to expand value chains of existing industrial crops. The Center has three research platforms:

• Genetic Engineering for Crop Improvement

The strategy entails discovering genetic determinants from desert plants that confers tolerance to various abiotic stresses and establishing a genetic transformation system for the crop improvement. The primary aim is to ensure efficiency and sustainability in research practices for producing resilient crops.  

• Genomics and Bioinformatics

As extraordinary amounts of genomic data are generated, this theme is focused to address specific needs in the data acquisition, analysis, and integration. It covers a wide range of areas: comparative bioinformatics, comparative genomics to gene function and computational biology to understand biological systems and relationships.

• Translational Research for Crop Development

This area of work encourages collaboration from the Genetic Engineering and Bioinformatics group, to develop and promote strategies for crop improvement and sustainable agriculture practices. This is achieved by using big data gathered by scientist through their plant molecular research and computational biology.