Biotech Updates

VIB and Bayer Team Up for Plant Research

June 13, 2008

Today’s agriculture is contending with huge losses due to climate change. Conditions may worsen in the coming decades, considering not only climate change but also the diminishing availability of arable land and ever-growing demand for food and biomass. Crops resistant to abiotic stresses, such as high temperatures, drought and waterlogged conditions, will be needed. To this end, the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) and Bayer BioScience NV, the Flemish agro-biotech center of Bayer CropScience, are teaming up to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that make plants stress-resistant. The project will be carried out in close collaboration with the VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology in the Ghent University. Experiments will mainly focus on the roles of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) as important regulators of plant stress response.

Read the press release at http://www.vib.be/NR/rdonlyres/E8FB2BC8-3D32-4D76-BFC1-9609FA07C689/2595/20080611_ENG_phoenixBayer_web.pdf