Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom
July 2010

PBL has entered into agreements with the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOB-CAS), and with the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences (JAAS). IOB-CAS has established a new Centre for Bioenergy which will develop sweet sorghum as a strategic bioenergy crop for China, while JAAS is the national centre for maize transformation and has a long track record of breeding and delivering maize and sorghum varieties for the Chinese market. Under the agreements, IOB-CAS and JAAS will introduce new plant biotechnologies from PBL into maize and sweet sorghum, bring to field testing and ultimately develop new varieties suitable for commercial release in China.

Dr Jan Chojecki, PBL’s MD, said “These partnerships represent an excellent mechanism for us to rapidly test in field situations the early stage discoveries emerging from public research in plant science. This is highly complementary to our existing technology transfer activities and as well as leading to new varieties for use in China, it will enable better and earlier datasets to inform commercial uptake decisions elsewhere in the world”.

Website: http://www.pbltechnology.com

Published: July 8, 2010