Initiative: Genetic Innovation Initiatives

Allan Brown obtained his PhD from the University of Illinois in 2004 and has considerable experience with both conventional and marker-assisted breeding of several vegetable and fruit crops. Throughout his academic and professional career he has worked with sweet corn (University of Minnesota), chili peppers (New Mexico State University), broccoli (University of Illinois), peas (Washington State University), and peach and blueberry (North Carolina State University). At NCSU, he was the lead PI on an international collaborative project to generate the first genomic draft sequence of blueberry (Vaccinum corymbosum) and was the first researcher to use high density SNP arrays of rapeseed to generate saturated genetic linkage maps of related plant species.

While on the faculty of NCSU, he served as an inaugural member of the Plants for Human Health Institute and conducted collaborative research with industry partners to identify genetic factors in broccoli and blueberry that enhanced or modified the profiles of nutrients and phytochemicals in plants that are associated with human health (calcium, iron, zinc, glucosinolates, carotenoids, and flavonoids).

He is a believer in translational science and believes that we can and should bridge the gap between basic and applied research to find real-world solutions to agricultural and health concerns.

Lucky Osabuohien Omoigui, a Nigerian national, has joined IITA-Kano Station as a Seed Systems Specialist. He obtained his BSc in General Agriculture from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, (1999), his MSc in Plant Science (2003), and his PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics also from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (2010). He received special training in Plant Molecular Biology and Genomic tools from the University of Virginia USA in 2008.

He started his career with IITA as a Research Technician in the cowpea breeding program (1990 to 1993) where he also worked as a Research Associate with IITA in the PROSAB project (2004-2009). He was also a Principal Investigator of the Kirkhouse Trust and AGRA cowpea breeding Projects that seek to develop improved cowpea cultivars that are resistant to Striga and Alectra using molecular tools. He has been collaborating with IITA and ICRISAT on the Tropical Legume seed systems in Nigeria since 2010.

Prior to this current appointment, he was an Associate Professor of Plant Breeding and Seed Science with the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, Nigeria.

Ousmane Boukar is a Cowpea Breeder at IITA-Kano Station. Ousmane obtained a BSc in Agronomy from the National Advanced School of Agriculture in Cameroon in 1988, and his MSc (1998) and PhD (2002) from Purdue University. Prior to his appointment with IITA, Ousmane was a cowpea breeder and regional scientific coordinator with IRAD. He is Cameroonian.

Elizabeth Parkes, a Ghanaian, is the HarvestPlus Cassava Breeder based in Ibadan, Nigeria.

She was an international consultant at the Cassava Breeding Unit of IITA Ibadan before this appointment. She obtained her PhD in Plant Breeding from University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 2011; MPil in Crop Science from University of Ghana in 2001; and BSc from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana in 1989.

Elizabeth was a Cassava Molecular Breeder and Head of the Pokuase Research Station of CSIR-CRI from 2004 to 2012. She started her research work with the root crop team of CSIR-CRI in Kumasi in 1992, working on agronomic studies of cassava, yam, cocoyam, sweet potato, frafra potato, and taro.

Andreas Gisel is a Bioinformatician at IITA and the Italian National Research Council. He has a Diploma and PhD in Natural Science (specialized in Molecular Biology) from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Switzerland. He has more than 10 years’ experience in molecular biology accumulated during his PhD, working for 4 years at UC Berkeley, USA and 2 years at Friedrich Miescher Institute (Novartis foundation) in Basel, Switzerland.

Over time he specialized in bioinformatics working at Novartis SA in Basel, Switzerland, focusing on cancer research and at the Institute for Biomedical Technologies, Bari, Italy specializing in plant-virus interaction. Over more than 10 years he developed skills in Next Generation Sequence data analysis, biological databases, and also has a long-standing experience in teaching.

At IITA he has been working for 6 years with cassava, yam, and maize, responsible for several projects on cassava improvement and looking at molecular features to propose biotechnological approaches to increase yield, starch content, and virus resistance; and improve food quality by biofortification.

Melaku Gedil is a Molecular Geneticist. He obtained his first degree (Plant Sciences) in 1985 from the Addis Abeba University, and second degree (Agronomy) in 1993 from the Alemaya University of Agriculture, Ethiopia in plant breeding. His Ph.D. thesis project (Oregon State University USA, 1999) focused on molecular biology (linkage mapping, c andidate resistance gene, diversity analysis). Later, he earned an MSc in biotechnology/bioinformatics to enhance his computational skill for application in molecular breeding. His experience encompasses a wide range of state-of-the-art molecular biology lab techniques and bioinformatics.

He has a decade of experience in application of molecular markers to improve crops. He hopes to draw on his background in plant breeding, statistical genetics, molecular biology, and bioinformatics as a foundation for studying and applying functional genomics techniques to develop an efficient and effective molecular breeding program mainly for cassava and maize but also for soybean, cowpea, and yam. He is particularly interested in introducing cost-effective and high throughput genotyping techniques that are feasible in developing countries.

Dr. Gedil, in collaboration with colleagues, is pursuing various approaches towards this goal including development of molecular markers associated with disease resistance, quality traits, abiotic stress, and other desirable agronomic and specialty traits. Among the approaches are marker-assisted recurrent selection, genome wide association study, genome selection, linkage/QTL mapping, comparative genomics, and functional annotation of genes. In the newly upgraded Bioscience Center at IITA, he leads the establishment of a nascent bioinformatics unit. One of the strategies of the unit is to partner with advanced labs for remote access to high performance computational facilities and cloud computing.