"Lateral thinking is in our DNA"

“The 35-year history of KeyGene can easily be characterized by a number of technological innovations that have changed the world of plant breeding. Looking at these innovations from a distance, you could also characterize these three and a half decades by a set of virtues that we are very proud of.”

“Our stakeholders allow us to take risks in research and development, to engage in lateral thinking, to fail from time to time, and in the end expect us to come up with truly innovative approaches in plant breeding. It puts us in the heart of an ecosystem that produces, together with our partners, improved crops as an answer to societal challenges and the need of a sustainable and responsible agro-industry.”

“Starting with the so-called Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism, that was developed and patented by KeyGene in 1992, we connected a series of biotechnological innovations on our 35-year journey. From the scattered bits of genetic information that we obtained through the AFLP-technique, we switched to the smaller genetic jigsaw of shotgun genome sequence analyses. Now, many years later, it has almost become routine to fully characterize any plant’s genome.”

“Apart from being upfront in these evolutions in genetic characterization of plants, KeyGene has also been a crucial player in the evolution of mutagenesis in plants. Where mother nature may take many years, or even decades, to create variation in crops that breeders can select from, we are now able to create and detect variation in high throughput and very specifically in genes of interest.”

Flight simulator

“Apart from three experimental R&D departments, one of which is based in the US, that are all involved in concrete, laboratory and greenhouse-based research, KeyGene has created a data-crunching R&D-department as well that has become increasingly important in the past 35 years. This department has, for instance, created the possibility to select and breed new crops almost like a young pilot is trained in a flight simulator.

Big Data and Artificial Intelligence tell us how breeding can take the shortest path towards a disease-, drought- or salt resistant crop. Already, this artificial intelligence approach has taught us that often computer-generated ways of breeding and selecting can reach our goals fast and effectively.”

“The added value of biotechnology to plant breeding goes without saying. In the general public, however, biotechnology will often be met with skepticism or negative feelings, even. Especially when ‘genetics’ are involved, misunderstandings are just around the corner. Therefore, as the CEO of KeyGene, I highly value transparency as one of our key virtues. Only by explaining what we do, rather than debunking what we don’t do, we can create understanding.”

“Genome editing is a good example. It is our way to speed up the process of mutations in plants very precisely. In essence, it is not very different from what mother nature does. However, where sunlight randomly creates mutations, we specifically target the genes that we know can make a difference in creating more sustainable crops.”

Innovative

“One of the numerous innovations that we are very proud of, is the so-called 2S1® graft hybrid technology. In traditional grafting, a branch of a particular cultivar can be vertically placed on top of another plant. In the 2S1-technology, we ‘horizontally’ graft on the tissue level. This way, we have been able to develop for example a productive and nutritious potato in the skin of wild potato.”

Taking risks

“It goes without saying that success comes with failures as well. That makes it crucial for us that our four shareholders, who are competing seed companies by nature, allow us to take risks, and we are very thankful for that. KeyGene is a research company that is characterized by a high level of diversity and creativity. This enables us to combine knowledge from different scientific fields and perspectives. Only by thinking laterally on the paved roads, true innovations can be born.”