To facilitate academic exchange, explore and develop collaboration with the Academia Sinica and The World Vegetable Centre in the field of plant and agricultural biotechnology, a delegation led by Prof. Zhang Jianhua, the Director of State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology (CUHK) visited Taiwan on 25-28 Apr 2013. The delegation (Prof. Zhang Jianhua, Prof. Jiang Liwen, Prof. Ngai Sai Ming, Prof. He Junxian, Prof. Tan Baocai, Prof. Yu Weichang, etc.) fostered and developed strategic collaborations with our Taiwan partners.

Visit to Academia Sinica Biotechnology Centre Southern Taiwan:
Prof. Chan Ming-Tsair , Director of Academia Sinica Biotechnology Centre Southern Taiwan hosted an in-depth focus group meeting for the delegation and the representatives from the National Cheng Kung University including Prof. Liu Zin-Huang , Director of the Institute of Tropical Plant Sciences. Both research units are located in the Tainan Science Park. Taking advantage of the proximity of these research institutions, we had the chance to meet with their researchers with complementary expertise in both institutions and placed visits to their research facilities.
There has been joined publication between members of our SKL and members of the Academia Sinica Biotechnology Centre Southern Taiwan. Built on the existing foundation with the Academia Sinica, this visit not only re-strengthened the current partnership but also fostered future collaborations in our strategic partners in Southern Taiwan to make good use of their resources in terms of lab space and experimental field in a typical subtropical climate.

KL delegation and the representatives from Academia Sinica Biotechnology Centre Southern Taiwan and National Cheng Kung University

Left: Prof. Zhang Jianhua, the Director of State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology (CUHK) Right: Prof. Chan Ming-Tsair , Director of Academia Sinica Biotechnology Centre Southern Taiwan

Visit to AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center:
The delegation visited the Center’s headquarters and meet with the research team, especially in the field of Vegetable Molecular Biotechnology. The AVRDC Head of Communication, Ms Maureen Mecozzi gave an overview presentation on AVRDC followed with a meeting with the Head of Molecular Genetics, Dr. Roland Schafleitner. The team then placed a visit to their Seed Bank which is one of the largest public seed bank on vegetable breeding in the Asia region. This visit has been very fruitful and our delegation was impressed by the outstanding and dedicated work of the AVRDC on vegetable breeding and the well established gene bank.
As one of the research focus of our new SKL branch in Shenzhen is on vegetable breeding and we had established our “Engineering Laboratory for Vegetable Molecular Biotechnology” in Nov 2012. This visit provided essential understandings between AVRDC and our SKL, follow up communications have been initiated on developing collaboration between AVRDC and our SKL on vegetable breeding, particularly the molecular breeding of some indigenous vegetables.

4th from right: Ms Maureen Mecozzi, the Head of AVRDC Communication 3rd from right: Dr. Roland Schafleitner, the Head of AVRDC Molecular Genetics

SKL delegagtion visited the seed bank of AVRDC

Other Visits:
Apart from the above visits, the delegation also visited the headquarters and the experimental field of one of the biggest seed company in Taiwan, the Known-You Seed Co. Ltd located in Kaohsiung as well as the Yuen Sen Applied Botanical Garden located in Taitung.

SKL delegation and Ms Wendy Y.Wu (4th from left, Vice General Manager of Known-You Seed Co.)

SKL delegation visited the experimental field of Known-You Seed Co.

SKL delegation visited Yuen Sen Applied Botanical Garden