Hua-Zhi and LGC Cooperate to Increase Global Rice Production

Hua-zhi and LGC have announced a strategic cooperation agreement, for the application of LGC’s innovative KASP™ technology and SNPLine™ genotyping platform in developing a world-leading rice molecular breeding platform. The aim of this agreement is to improve the effectiveness of rice breeding programs in order to increase rice production and food security throughout the world.

Hua-Zhi uses the application of biotechnology, including molecular breeding tools, in both hybrid rice breeding and in the field of conventional breeding techniques. LGC’s KASP technology has been used to develop over 250,000 validated assays.

Jian Zhang, General Manager of Hua-zhi Rice Bio-tech Co. Ltd., said, “Choosing LGC’s SNP technology is just a starting point for the collaboration. Our aim is to set up the most advanced rice molecular breeding platform in the world, which will bring the effective rice breeding program up to a much higher level for the rice production and food security in the world. Hua-zhi aims to modernise China’s traditional seed industry through molecular breeding and other cutting-edge technology and this collaboration with LGC is a fundamental step in our achieving this goal. With a highly talented team and a close cooperation with LGC, Hua-zhi is well positioned to develop into a strong leader in global rice research and development.”

Giulio Cerroni, Managing Director, Genomics, LGC, said, “We are very excited that Hua-zhi have chosen to utilise KASP marker assays and deploy our SNPLine automation platform to accelerate their rice breeding program to improve food security in China. With experience in developing over 250,000 validated KASP marker assays LGC is uniquely placed to support Hua-zhi’s ambitions. The results of this cooperation with Hua-zhi will illustrate how LGC’s proprietary genomic technologies and capabilities enable our vision of ‘Science for a safer world’.”

Wei Wu, Business Manager, LGC, China, said, “We are in a business enabling and supporting our customers to achieve their missions through our innovative technologies. China is a fast developing market with incredible potential for LGC’s high throughput, low cost SNP Genotyping technologies, which are used throughout the world to increase diversity and improve crop security. The strategic cooperation with Hua-zhi has once again proven the attractiveness of LGC technologies. I am personally very excited to work with Hua-zhi’s high quality team in the frontier field of rice research.”