The University of Arizona's BIO5 Institute and World Wide Wheat LLC, two of Arizona’s leading research groups, announce a partnership to develop foods that will help reduce obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol levels and cancer. This research partnership will develop new wheat, barley and oat varieties with major health benefits.

This synergistic public/private collaboration combines BIO5’s cutting edge genomics, proteomics and metabolomics bioresearch with World Wide Wheat’s extensive germplasm (plant breeding material), grain collection and expertise in plant breeding to produce superior varieties with properties that produce better-tasting, healthier food with improved nutritional value.

The goal of this combined effort is to achieve high-quality outcomes that will efficiently and successfully introduce new products to the marketplace that benefit society. One example that will benefit diabetics is a new variety of wheat that will produce flour that doesn’t rapidly increase blood sugar levels, while producing good-tasting bread with lower fat content.

“World Wide Wheat is an ideal partner for us, as it shares common goals and brings complimentary expertise," said Vicki Chandler, director of BIO5. “This partnership exemplifies BIO5’s mission to translate research findings into real-world applications that benefit the public.”

“BIO5 is one of the finest biotech research groups in existence and brings incredible expertise to a partnership destined to be one of Arizona’s most important assets,” said Kirk Kroloff, executive vice-president of World Wide Wheat.

BIO5 is a collaborative interdisciplinary research institute at The University of Arizona that brings together top scientists from five disciplines - agriculture, medicine, pharmacy, engineering and basic science - to solve some of the world’s most important problems. BIO5 creates science, education and industry partnerships to disseminate knowledge and apply the knowledge gained to treat disease, feed humanity and preserve livable environments.

World Wide Wheat, headquartered in Phoenix, is one of the world’s leading independent plant-breeding companies whose research is devoted to the improvement of wheat, barley and oats - major food crops of the world. World Wide Wheat operates 17 research stations in seven different countries, producing superior varieties of cereal grains that are not genetically modified.