EnviroLogix and Danforth Plant Science Center to Improve Nutrition in Staple Crops

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, MO, the world's largest non profit research institute, and Envirologix Inc, a manufacturing company on agricultural-based diagnostics will collaborate to develop the technology that will quantify the expression of two proteins involved in the production of beta carotene, a precursor to vitamin A - in rice, sorghum, cassava and banana. The technology will be used in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations' Grand Challenge #9 research in the Center which is focused on the appropriate technologies to increase micronutrients, vitamins and essential amino acids in a bioavailable form in staple crops rice, sorghum, cassava, and banana.

"Use of these assays will streamline the crop evaluation process and reduce the timeline toward delivering these nutritionally improved crops to subsistence farmers in Africa. Further, these assays are essential for generating data required for regulatory approvals in the countries where these crops will be cultivated," said Paul Anderson, executive director, Office of International Programs, Danforth Plant Science Center.

For details, see the press release at http://www.envirologix.com/artman/publish/article_329.shtml