Wageningen, The Netherlands
January 9, 2026
Maureen van Eijnatten, team leader in systems biology, data science, and software development at KeyGene, will be a speaker at the PAG33 workshop on Scientific Machine Learning for Systems Biology in San Diego, Saturday, January 10, 2026.
She will present the concept of KeyGene’s Systems Biology platform for plant breeding and research, and will use relevant breeding targets to illustrate the potential positive impact of the platform’s application.
Complex Traits
Unlike simple traits governed by single genes, breeding for complex traits is often extremely challenging because they involve many genes, each with small effects and interacting with one another. Yet at the same time, they are increasingly targeted by breeding programs. In the past decades, Systems Biology has been the go-to method to unravel complex traits, but so far the translation to crop species has been limited. Existing approaches have been hindered, in particular, by a lack of explanatory or actionable power.
Combining AI and biological understanding
KeyGene has developed a breakthrough Systems Biology platform for plant breeding, focusing on understanding the causal mechanisms and dynamics (‘white box”). The platform uses high-quality gene expression and other functional genomics and phenotypical data, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) innovations. Through distinct cycles of data collection, modelling and experimentation, the approach identifies a minimal set of components that are both necessary and sufficient to understand the trait. Among these, the genetic variables that act as control points of the trait represent potential novel targets for breeding.
Reducing needed number of data points
Researchers at KeyGene have recently extended the platform with an advanced phenotypical data integration method based on AI. This method (further) reduces the number of gene expression time points and contrasts needed for the discovery of new breeding targets. Phenotypical data is much easier and less expensive to acquire compared to gene expression data.
With research using KeyGene’s Systems Biology platform, breeders can add radically new approaches to their toolbox to help improve complex traits. This is especially valuable when breeding for less well-known and less studied traits and crop species.
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