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Rehovot, Israel
June 9th, 2004
Evogene Ltd, a privately
owned pioneer in plant biotechnology, and
CIRAD, a French scientific
organization, announce the signature of a multi-year
collaboration for the development of abiotic stress tolerant
cotton.
Evogene is an emerging company focused on the improvement of
crops and the production of plant derived products. The company
is unique in merging state-of-the-art predictive computational
biology and molecular biology with the most advanced classical
breeding technologies.
CIRAD (Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche
Agronomique pour le Developement) is
the French Agricultural Research Centre for
international Development
for the tropics and subtropics.
The multiyear
collaboration includes technology exchanges, screening by
Evogene in high abiotic stress conditions in Israel of a broad
collection of wild cotton germplasm from CIRAD and introduction
into cotton of proprietary gene constructs discovered by Evogene
using its predictive computational
biology capabilities. Each partner will be free to
exploit the product of the joint collaboration in certain
geographic areas and with third parties consistent with the
fulfillment of its mission.
Julien Meissonnier, VP of Business Development for Evogene,
stated: “We are very pleased to enter a long term cooperation
with CIRAD which has first class cotton research activities and
decades of experience in developing cotton varieties adapted to
difficult climates”. Dr Raphael Meissner, VP and Head of R&D,
stated: “In collaboration with CIRAD we will be able to get the
best performance in cotton and add value to Evogene’s constructs
for improved abiotic stress tolerance discovered and already
validated in other plants.”
Jacques Pages,
Head of Cirad Cotton research program looks forward to promising
perspectives: "Research activities in which we are engaging with
Evogene are based upon the most advanced techniques in the field
of molecular biology and gene operating process. The goal at
stake is to improve cotton resistance to drought stress. This
scope is clearly in CIRAD’s mandate to contribute through
scientific knowledge and its application to the improvement of
southern farmers’ living conditions.
The project
will also give opportunity to both partners to master techniques
that could lead to numerous applications. It will eventually
strengthen collaboration between French and Israeli scientists
within the international scientific community”.
About CIRAD
CIRAD, the “Centre de coopération internationale en recherche
agronomique pour le développement”, is the French Agricultural
Research Centre for international Development.
Its mission is to contribute to the economic development of the
tropical and subtropical regions through research on
agriculture, training, and dissemination of its results. It
employs 1,850 people, including 950 senior staff, working in
French overseas departments and some fifty other countries. Its
budget amounts to approximately 180 million Euros. CIRAD has
seven research departments: annual crops; perennial crops; fruit
and horticultural crops; animal production and veterinary
medicine; forestry; land, environment and people; and advanced
methods for innovation in science. CIRAD operates through its
own research centres, collaborating with national agricultural
research systems, universities and international centres, as
well as development projects.
CIRAD runs a cotton program with a staff of 50
including 40 researchers and 10 technicians, in Africa, the
Americas, South East Asia and Montpellier (France)
About Evogene
Evogene Ltd. is a pioneer in integrating
predictive computational biology and plant genomics with
classical breeding to generate improved crops and new
agricultural biotechnology products. This objective is
accomplished through the development of high-throughput,
economically efficient platforms that accelerate, direct and
mimic the natural evolution process.
Evogene’s current
research efforts are focused in three areas: key trait
improvements in cotton; gene discovery for abiotic stress
tolerance and plant nutrient uptake; and a proprietary platform
for the production of therapeutic proteins in plants.
Evogene’s activities were initiated in 1999 as a division of
Compugen (NASDAQ: CGEN); in 2002 Evogene was created as a
separate company founded by Compugen and
Drs. Hagai
Karchi and Rafi Meissner. |
