West Sacramento, California, USA
December 1, 2020
With a focus on collaboration, Nuseed’s R&D teams across the globe are advancing what canola, carinata, sorghum and sunflower crops can deliver and are helping solve some of today’s biggest problems in the process.
Nuseed’s Carinata Renewable Fuel Feedstock Program with certifiable best in class greenhouse gas reductions, and its Omega-3 Canola Program, providing the first sustainable land-based source of the essential nutrient, are creating new markets, building new value chains and demonstrating how agriculture can help meet important global challenges with new plant-based solutions.
Here we speak with three members of Nuseed’s R&D team based at Nuseed’s Innovation Center in West Sacramento, California, to find out what their roles entail and to discover more about how they are inspiring innovation at Nuseed.
Leon Streit
Leon Streit is Nuseed’s Global R&D Lead, driving the global R&D strategy and its programs. He is also a member of Nuseed’s Steering Team and sits on the Nuseed Global Innovations Board.
Leon ensures there is a collaborative approach throughout the product pipeline, providing a unique advantage and ability to deliver value beyond yields.
Leon says: “Our R&D advantage is our rich bank of global germplasm focused on four crops with incredible genetic potential, that can be grown across all our four regions, as well as our plant scientists working at our world-class Nuseed Innovation Centers in each hemisphere.
Our focus, in combination with our industry collaboration and commercial teams on the ground in each region, enables efficiency and considerable advancements proven in local conditions.”
With his Ph.D. in plant breeding from Iowa State University, Leon’s 30-year R&D career has focused on advancing plant traits from breeding, to leading research teams and programs and infrastructure development.
Fabiane L. Poole
Fabiane L. Poole is Nuseed’s Research Laboratory Manager at the new Nuseed West Sacramento Innovation Center. Fabiane’s priority is to enable breeding programs and seed production by applying gene specific, trait-linked and genome-wide markers in a safe, accurate and timely manner.
Fabiane says: “Like Sir David Attenborough says, ‘the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water, and air. It is the most precious thing we have, and we need to defend it’. I truly believe that the innovative approach we’re taking at Nuseed offers new solutions to market leaders looking to improve our air, ocean and soil quality.”.”
Before Nuseed, Fabiane was Genotyping Lab Leader at Corteva in Brazil. She also holds a Ph.D in Genetics and Plant Breeding from the State University of Maringa.
Wenxiang Gao
Wenxiang Gao joined Nuseed in 2013 and is Molecular and Analytical Laboratory Manager. Wenxiang heads a talented team of scientists and associates performing innovative research to support crop breeding activities.
Wenxiang says: “I’m passionate about advancing science by working on hard-to-solve problems and coming up with novel solutions, and at Nuseed, scientific and technological innovation is at the core of what we do. We are able to compete on a global scale with the largest industry players by being highly efficient and productive. The amount of progress we’ve made in terms of innovation and growth has been tremendous.”
Wenxiang has a Ph.D. in Genetics from Texas A&M University and before Nuseed he worked at Dow Agrosciences (now Corteva) working on trait genetics and technology.
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