New Professor in Molecular Plant Breeding - 22.07.2008

New professor in Molecular Plant Breeding

Søren K. Rasmussen has been appointed to a new professorship in Molecular Plant Breeding at the Department of Agriculture and Ecology as from 1 August 2008.

 

Søren K. Rasmussen headed up a research programme at the Risø National Laboratory until he transferred to LIFE in 2005.

 

Trained as a biochemist at DTU, he has subsequently worked with molecular analysis of genes, mutants and traits in barley.

 

In recent years his work has been focused on the generation and analysis of mutants in the biosynthetic pathway for phytic acid.

 

The aim here has been to achieve a low-phytate phenotype as a possible means of improving the phosphate and micronutrient bioavailability in cereal feed.

Søren K. Rasmussen will continue to focus on quality improvement in food and fodder and it is his ambition to set up a knowledge pipeline bringing advanced marker technologies into action in breeding programmes of cereals, oil crops, grasses, pulses and vegetables.

 

His goal is to utilize existing biodiversity in cultivars and landraces and to create new diversity through mutation and the development of innovative marker procedures.