HomeProduct Complimentary download Roeland van Ham, KeyGene's head ofbioinformatics,appointed Professor, special chair of computational plant biotechnology, Delft University of Technology

Roeland van Ham, KeyGene's head ofbioinformatics,appointed Professor, special chair of computational plant biotechnology, Delft University of Technology

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Publish time: 22nd December, 2014      Source: Wageningen, The Netherlands
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Roeland van Ham, KeyGene's head ofbioinformatics,appointed Professor, special chair of computational plant biotechnology, Delft University of TechnologyRoeland van Ham, KeyGene's head ofbioinformatics,appointed Professor, special chair of computational plant biotechnology, Delft University of Technology" title="Share this link on Facebook">Wageningen, The NetherlandsDecember 4, 2014Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and KeyGenejoin forces by appointing KeyGene's head ofbioinformatics, Roeland van Ham as part-time professor inplant computational biology at TU Delft. With thiscollaboration TU Delft’s Data Science initiative, that hasan excellent reputation in data analytics, and KeyGeneaim to change the field in plant genomics research. SinceKeyGene is a pioneering company in plant research usingao plant genomics that generates huge amount ofcomplex data, the new position of Roeland van Ham at TUDelft generates great opportunities to turn ‘big data’ intoknowledge and knowledge into useful applications forsociety.We talked to Roeland about his new and challenging jobat Delft University of Technology.Roeland, this special chair connects biological knowledge with computer models andalgorithms. What is the relevance of connecting these research areas?The relevance is born out of necessity, really. Biology is about variation and variation,unfortunately, makes things very fuzzy. Up to about half a century ago, description andqualitative models helped us to understand the fundamental processes in biology. Whenchallenged, however, to make accurate predictions, such models were insufficient. To dealwith fuzziness and complexity when we try to understand biological phenomena, we performexperiments and do measurements on the many different components from which biologicalsystems are built. And we do so on a very large scale, using repetitions under many varyingconditions. It is this practice that has turned biology into an information science: we now tryto manage massive amounts of data, to connect these and turn them into knowledge andunderstanding. At many levels, this endeavor has become way too complex to be left tohuman intuition only. Computational methods, from data management and processingalgorithms to statistical and mathematical models, now provide indispensible and novel waysto turn our “Big Data” into knowledge and knowledge into useful applications for society.What are the main goals of your job?The overarching theme is predicting a plant’s phenotype from its genotype and to directbiotechnological approaches to steer both in creating better crops.The primary focus of my research will be on developing and applying new computationalapproaches. Firstly, to predict the function of genes and other elements in the DNA of plants.And secondly, how these can be altered to give improved performance. Knowing what genesdo, how they do it, and how we can improve what they do, helps us enormously creatingbetter agricultural crops.Two further areas of attention will be on how we can best computationally reconstruct thecomplex genomes of plants from large amounts of DNA sequencing data, and on how toautomate the description of variation in plant traits using digital imaging techniques.How could your job at Delft University benefit from your work at KeyGene and vice versa?At KeyGene our primary focus is on turning knowledge into practical applications andinnovative products for the seed, agro and food industry. As a high-tech R&D company, wework mostly from the center of that spectrum and we sometimes need to stop whenquestions get too fundamental. Delft University will provide great opportunities to venturefurther in that direction and benefit from the environment with ample expertise intechnologies. At the same time, in KeyGene we have much plant biology data and knowledgethat relate directly to real-life problems in crop improvement. These will provide opportunitiesfor novel research directions in Delft, novel applications for bioinformatics techniques. Therewill also be excellent training opportunities for students who can take on research questionswith direct relevance for industry. Working on bioinformatics in the green domain will alsooffer inspiration: after all, plants have among the most complex genomes and they provideopportunities for experimentation that are impossible with other types of organisms.Global challenges such as population growth, climate change and shortages of arable landand water supply are expected to rise. To address these challenges, agriculture has toproduce ‘more with less’. How could this special chair contribute to finding answers?The challenge is to help shorten the cycle in which new and better performing crop varieties can be developed. Agronomic techniques, and more recently, green biotechnology have been enormously successful in doing so. However, the global developments have also accelerated, so all the challenges remain. The one way forward to create better adapted crops is through understanding of how plants and traits develop and what mechanisms and variation in their genomes underlie traits of agricultural relevance. This is similar to our efforts to really understand the human genome and use this to develop personalized approaches to cure diseases and to help contribute to human health. This too has become an “information” or “Big Data” science in which computational methods to integrate and analyze data are taking us further. It is my ambition, through this chair, to contribute to a similar path in plant biotechnology.What motivates you?That’s a package. For one, the fact that I can work and contribute to a most relevant societalchallenge, that of global food security, is enormously satisfying. To try and make a realdifference is a strong driver to me. To now also being able to do this from both an industrialand academic environment is like having my bread buttered on both sides. And last but notleast, to work together with other scientists and young students, from very differentbackgrounds at the crossroads of scientific disciplines is inspiring, a privilege and outrightfun.More news from: Keygene NVWebsite: http://www.cnchemicals.com/: December 22, 2014The news item on this page is copyright by the organization where it originatedFair use notice