Computomics: Discussions On Innovations To Drive Advanced Agriculture Solutions – Details, episodes & analysis

This episode delves into the world of plant breeding with Professor Mark Cooper. Mark shares insights from his extensive experience in the industry, highlighting the importance of data-driven approaches, computational power, and strategic partnerships. The conversation also sheds light on the ongoing collaboration between Mark's research team and Computomics, focusing on leveraging advanced data analytics and AI to accelerate breeding processes. The episode concludes with a discussion on the future of plant breeding, emphasizing the potential for rapid technological advancements and the importance of data-driven approaches.Professor Mark Cooper is Chair of Prediction Based Crop Improvement at The University of Queensland, and a global leader in quantitative genetics and plant breeding. His work involves integrating genomic prediction and crop growth models into an ‘end to end’ framework for crop improvement. A quantitative geneticist by training, Professor Cooper spent 20 years working with industry in the United States and as CEO of his own consultancy firm Zenrun42, before returning to UQ to build upon the critical mass of predictive agricultural expertise in QAAFI and the wider university.

More:
https://www.plantsuccess.org/
Genotype by Environment by Management (GxExM) Symposium III

In this episode Nadine Ziemert, professor for translational genome mining at the University of Tübingen, explores the urgent need for new antibiotics due to rising antibiotic resistance. Gain profound insights on how researchers are using bacterial genomes to predict and discover novel antibiotics. Discover the potential of leveraging machine learning to develop innovative approaches in antibiotics discovery and what role the largely untapped soil microbiome plays. Learn about the ambitiuos mission of the BGC (Biosynthentic Gene Clusters) atlas, a global community project aimed at maping the genetic basis of the chemistry in all kinds of metagenomes present around the world.

Nadine Ziemert received her Diploma and PhD degrees from the Humboldt University in Berlin, followed by a postdoc and project scientist position at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Since 2015, she is a Professor at the University of Tübingen, where she leads an interdisciplinary research group focusing on genome mining approaches and the evolution of secondary metabolites in bacteria and their diverse functions. Her work focuses on developing bioinformatic tools for the discovery of natural products from microbial genomes, elucidating the evolutionary history of their biosynthetic gene clusters and tracing their distribution in the environment.

More:
Ziemert Lab
BCG Atlas BCG World Atlas

Today’s guest is Kalliopi Rantsiou, professor at the University of Turin. Kelly is sharing insights into the SAFFI - Safe Food for Infants – project. This European funded project evaluates how pathogenic microorganisms may contaminate food for infants, and how we can understand ways of controlling these microorganisms. Learn what role next-generation sequencing technologies play in understanding the microbiota. In a second project, Kelly delves into fermented olives trying to understand what the influence of the microbiota during primary production is and how inoculating a microbial community can foster certain health promoting characteristics.

Kalliopi Rantsiou graduated from the University of Athens in Greece in 1997 with a degree in Biology and continued her education at the University of Davis, USA obtaining a PhD in Food Science in 2002. She then returned to Greece and from 2003 to 2005 was scientific advisor regarding microbial hazards for the Hellenic Food Safety Authority. In 2006 she moved to Italy and initiated her researcher career first at the University of Udine and then at the University of Turin. In 2008 she became researcher/lecturer, in 2016 Associate Professor and in 2022 Professor in Food Microbiology at the same University. Her main research interest is microbial ecology of foods with particular emphasis on combining culture dependent and culture independent approaches to describe the microbiota and its function in foods.

Links:

Safe Food for Infants (SAFFI)

DOMINO project on fermented food

In this episode, we continue our conversation about barley with Matthias Nachtmann, Sustainability Business Development Lead at BASF. Matthias gives us insights into the "Better Barley" project, which has the goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in barley cultivation while supporting farmers to meet the high protein standards for malting barley.

Learn how companies can work with farmers to overcome the challenges of balancing sustainability and productivity. By developing new barley varieties that are both high-yielding and sustainable, the project is helping to ensure that the food industry can continue to produce food in a way that is both environmentally friendly and profitable.

Matthias explains their 3-step approach to the project:

1. What do you want?
2. How will the first hectare look like?
3. How is the scale-up plan?

Better Barley Project:

https://www.agricentre.basf.co.uk/en/Crop-Solutions/Better-Barley/

Podcast with Brent Atthill: Diving into the world of barley

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/computomics/episodes/Diving-into-the-world-of-barley-e26qe6o

In this episode Brent Atthill, managing director of RMI Analytics GmbH delves into the fascinating world of barley. Explore the entire supply chain, uncovering the challenges and emerging trends within the industry. Brent provides valuable insights into why having the best quality barley is crucial for the malting process in the brewing industry and gain a better understanding of the role of technology and data in this sector. With his dedication to fostering exchange and sharing best practices, Brent takes the lead in engaging with all stakeholders in the barley network, ensuring a collaborative and thriving industry.

Brent Atthil is an accomplished global professional with over 25 years experience in the grain, malting, and brewing industries, with a proven track record in strategic procurement, team leadership, and business integration. In his current position as principal owner, board member, and managing director for RMI Analytics GmbH, he focuses on driving RMI’s content delivery through their Journal publication, webinars, and global Insights Tours. He is a leader in the development of extensive supply chain strategies designed to deliver continuous, real business value through optimization and a constant challenge to the status quo. Brent is absolutely passionate about agriculture and sustainability!

https://www.rmi-analytics.com/

In this episode Cyrill Stachniss, professor at the University of Bonn and spokesperson of the DFG Cluster of Excellence “PhenoRob - Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production” sheds light on the purpose and focus of PhenoRob. Gain insights into the importance of optimizing field management with digital technologies like robotics or machine learning. How can we analyze every plant at high speed to provide management and automatic target actions for every plant. Are there different complexity levels in analyzing and taking actions? What methods, applications and technologies are used to analyze the data? What's the technological outlook for the next 5-10 years?

Cyrill Stachniss is a full professor at the University of Bonn and heads the Photogrammetry and Robotics Lab. He is additionally a Visiting Professor in Engineering at the University of Oxford and is with the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Cyrill is a spokesperson of the DFG Cluster of Excellence “PhenoRob - Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production” at the University of Bonn. Before his appointment in Bonn, he was with the University of Freiburg and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. The research activities of the Photogrammetry and Robotics Lab focus on probabilistic techniques for mobile robotics, perception, and navigation. This involves developing and applying state estimation, machine learning, and AI algorithms for robots and sensor data interpretation. The team has made several contributions to SLAM, localization, place recognition, semantic scene interpretation, autonomous exploration, and navigation. The main application areas of the lab are autonomous service robots, agricultural robotics, and self-driving cars.
Besides his university involvement, he co-founded three startups: Escarda Technologies, DeepUp, and PhenoInspect.

https://www.phenorob.de/

https://www.youtube.com/c/CyrillStachniss?

In this episode Markus Stetter, group leader at the Institute for Plant Sciences at the University of Cologne and member of CEPLAS (Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science) takes us into the exciting history of Amaranth. Markus combines molecular and computational biology approaches to study the domestication of wild plants. Learn how wild plants became crops and how these crops spread around the globe. Furthermore get insights into CEPLAS, its research mission, focus area and education program.

Since 2019, Markus Stetter is a group leader at the Institute for Plant Sciences and member of CEPLAS (Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science). His group is interested in the domestication and evolution of crop plants. To study how wild plants became crops and how the crops spread around the globe the group combines molecular and computational biology approaches. Within BIPON Markus is interested in the conservation and utilisation of genetic diversity from wild plants and novel crops. Markus did his postdoctoral research in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California Davis, USA. Before that he was PhD student at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart.

https://cropevolution.org/index.html

https://www.ceplas.eu/en/home/

In this episode Diego Risso, Executive Director of URUPOV (Uruguayan Plant Breeders Association) and Secretary General of the SAA (Seed Association of the Americas), gives insights into the activities of both organizations. What are the major assets, what are the goals and challenges? Diego talks about the UPOV91 framework, intellectual property rights, plant breeders rights and much more. Which role does technology play for the seed industry? Which technology will be relevant in 2023 for agriculture and the seed industry and has the most impact? Get a recap of the SAA Congress 2022, a short outlook to the congress in 2024 and the importance of gene editing in South America.

Diego Risso got his degree in Agronomy in 1997 and in 2001 completed a postgraduate degree in Marketing and in 2013 a postgraduate in seed technology.He has been the Executive Director of URUPOV (Uruguayan Plant Breeders Association) since 2002 and is responsible for developing royalties’ collection systems and enforcing plant breeder’s rights in Uruguay. In 2005 he took the position of Executive Director of the National Seed Institute (INASE-Uruguay) and returned to URUPOV in 2006. Diego is also the Secretary General of the Seed Association of the Americas (SAA) which headquarters are in Montevideo, Uruguay. He is responsible of assisting the 4 working groups in SAA (Biotech, Phytosanitary, Seed treatment, IP). Diego organizes congresses and workshops where seed industry and governments representatives gather to address common agenda items to agree on a joint work plan.

https://www.urupov.org.uy/

https://www.saaseed.org/

Hannah Senior is CEO of PBS International, President of NAPB (National Association of Plant Breeders) and a podcast creator. In this episode you will get a glimpse into Hannah’s broad experience. Learn about the process of developing new solutions within PBS International for plant breeding.
On top of that, Hannah shares her story on how she became the first president of the NAPB from outside North America. During her period as president of the NAPB Hannah is focusing on 3 themes: Putting more structure into the organization, fostering exchange with other international plant breeding organizations and communication and advocacy.
Last but not least get to know what made her become a podcast creator and host of the Plant Breeding Stories podcast.

Hannah Senior grew up in a farming community but followed a career into corporate life working with multinational companies, including 5 years with Tesco. She completed an MBA at Stanford University before returning to the UK and agriculture when she acquired PBS International, a company which makes specialist pollination control products for plant breeders and seed producers around the globe.
Hannah’s business career brought her into plant breeding but her contribution to this discipline goes further than PBS International. She has championed communication about plant breeding and highlighting the diversity of perspectives through activities like the podcast series she created called Plant Breeding Stories, and as President of the National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB).
Hannah’s interest in plant breeding sits alongside her interest in AgriTech entrepreneurship more generally.[nbsp] She holds Board and advisory positions with several AgriTech companies including Crop Health and Protection, the UK’s government-backed Agritech centre for Crops.

PBS International: https://www.pbsinternational.com/

NAPB: https://www.plantbreeding.org/

Podcast - Plant Breeding Stories: https://www.pbsinternational.com/podcast/

Book recommendation: Braiding Sweetgrass from Robin Wall Kimmerer

In this episode Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Crop Trust, gives comprehensive insights on the background, history and purpose of the Crop Trust. Learn how conserving seeds works and how it is ensured that the seeds are safe and secure. What is the difference between seed banks in general and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault? Why is the Global Seed Vault located in Svalbard and what is so extraordinary about it?

Stefan Schmitz joined the Crop Trust as Executive Director in January 2020. He previously worked as Deputy Director-General and Commissioner for the “One World – No Hunger” Initiative at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). He also chaired the Steering Committee of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP). For more than 10 years, Stefan was leading the food security, agriculture and rural development work at BMZ. From 2007 until 2009 he worked as senior advisor to the Secretariat of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Before joining the BMZ in 2001, Stefan held various posts in the German federal administration in the fields of geographical information systems, regional planning and international cooperation on urban issues. He received scholarships of the McCloy Fellowship of the American Council on Germany and of the German Academic Exchange Service. After studying in Bonn and St. Andrews, he graduated from Bonn University in geography and mathematics and received a doctorate in geosciences from the Free University of Berlin in 2000.

More information about the Crop Trust: https://www.croptrust.org/