Benchmark Genetics and the Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences of the University of Chile have extended their partnership to develop R&D projects. The agreement, signed during the ISGA XIV conference in Puerto Varas, Chile, consolidates an existing collaboration between the two institutions including shortlisting for the Newton Prize in 2018 for work on sea lice and SRS resistance in Chile.
The new partnership will cover projects focused on developing genetic and biotechnology solutions to tackle sustainability challenges in the aquaculture industry. Selection for resistance to key disease threats to the Chilean salmon industry, improving the definition of resistance phenotypes, and harnessing the latest genomic and gene editing technologies will be the topics on which the partnership will focus.
“This agreement adds to the extensive and successful collaborative research and innovation program of Benchmark Genetics. We are pleased to be working with Dr. Yanez’s world-leading aquaculture research group and colleagues at the University of Chile. Benchmark Genetics sees such collaborations as a cornerstone of successful science and knowledge translation in aquaculture,” said Ross Houston, director of innovations at Benchmark Genetics.
“As one of the world’s leading aquaculture genetics and genomics research teams, we are pioneering applied research into the use of genomic tools to improve aquaculture production across a wealth of species. We expect that the partnership with Benchmark, a leading biotechnology company, will enable our research to be translated into applied genetics programs to benefit the salmon industry,” said Jose Yanez, director of research and development of the Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Science at the University of Chile.
“This partnership further underlines Benchmark Genetics’ commitment to the Chilean aquaculture industry, with the expectation that outputs from the research will be rapidly translated into practice to provide further improvements to the performance of our lines in Chilean production systems,” concluded Houston.
