When: 8th May 2025 | 14.00 -15:30 BST
The International Barley Hub is pleased to announce the next seminar in its 2025 series, run by leading barley scientists and industry experts. This seminar will be presented by Professor Lee Hickey is a plant breeder and crop geneticist at The University of Queensland’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation.
Summary:
Professor Hickey will explore opportunities to enhance climate resilience in barley through strategic modification of root systems. We’ll examine how CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing offers unprecedented potential to target key regulatory genes controlling root development, creating novel phenotypes with improved water and nutrient uptake. The seminar will also showcase how innovative machine learning methods can enable non-destructive root phenotyping at scale using vegetation indexes captured by UAVs, overcoming a critical bottleneck in root-focused research. Our approach will be demonstrated through a case study on elite Australian barley populations, where predicted root phenotypes reveal the genetics of field-based root distribution for the first time. By integrating these cutting-edge technologies, we can develop barley varieties better equipped to withstand drought and other climate stresses, contributing to more sustainable agricultural systems.
Speakers bio:
Professor Lee Hickey:
Professor Lee Hickey is a plant breeder and crop geneticist at The University of Queensland’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation. As an ARC Future Fellow and Director of the ARC Training Centre in Predictive Breeding, his research focuses on breeding innovations for crop species. He integrates genomic prediction, AI, speed breeding and genome editing technologies in his projects. With over 90 publications in journals including Nature Plants and Nature Biotechnology, his research has been featured in BBC World News, National Geographic, and the New York Times. He mentors 18 PhD students, with 20 alumni now working for leading breeding companies and research institutes globally.
