Dr. Jessica Lyons has been studying crops of international importance for over a decade. As a postdoc in Dan Rokhsar’s lab at the University of California, Berkeley, she applied a genotyping-by-sequencing method she developed to cassava, to improve the genome assembly and elucidate cassava’s genomic diversity and ancestry. She was project lead on a similar project for yam, funded by the NSF-BREAD program. As a staff scientist she was the PI of an Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) project using genome editing to remove the toxin cyanide from cassava. While serving as Partnerships and Translation Manager on the Public Impact team at the IGI, she established international collaboration and technology transfer initiatives. Jessica is currently an independent consultant with a focus on crop biotechnology, genomics, and international agriculture. She is passionate about partnerships and the leveraging of innovations in genome engineering to rapidly improve crops to meet the challenges posed by climate change and other threats. She holds a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley.

Dr. Allen Van Deynze is the Director of the Seed Biotechnology Center and Associate Director of the Plant Breeding Center at University of California, Davis. He has a Ph. D in plant breeding from University of Guelph, Canada. As part of the SBC’s mission to serve as a liaison between public institutions and seed industry, Allen is responsible for developing, coordinating and conducting research and generating and disseminating scientific and informational content for the Seed Biotechnology Center’s and Plant Breeding Center’s educational and outreach programs. His research focuses on developing and integrating genomics into plant breeding of California and African crops. He has programs on breeding for disease resistance and quality in pepper and spinach, and development and application of genomics in crops. With Dr. Kent Bradford he co-developed and is organizer for the Plant Breeding Academysm and past chair of the US Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee. He has been involved in International and National policy including US Regulations for Biotechnology. He is an instructor for the Plant Breeding Academy(s) and Scientific Director for the African Orphan Crops Consortium.