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 It is now widely accepted that the expansion of human society threatens our habitat. This growth currently places an ever-increasing burden on the earth’s natural resources (oil, water, farm land, forests) and is, therefore, not sustainable. There is no doubt that in the coming decades plants will play a significant role in easing these major challenges facing mankind. Plants will provide more food and feed but also renewable sources of energy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and other commodities.
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 Dirk Inzé is part-time Professor at the Ghent University and Scientific Director of the Department of Plant Systems Biology at the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) where he heads a group of 280 employees. |
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 The department is built on the foundations of the Laboratory of General Genetics, pioneered by Jeff Schell and Marc Van Montagu. The research in the early days was focused on microbial genetics: the study of restriction and modification in Escherichia coli, and the search for the tumor-inducing principle (TIP) in Agrobacterium tumefaciens. It was with here that the laboratory achieved its first international breakthrough in the mid-70's with the discovery that the TIP resided on an extrachromosomal element: the Ti plasmid. |
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Department
