26 February 2021 – STEAM@Soybean Breeding Workshop

STEAM@Soybean program has launched the 2nd Phase in which students would have a taste in the breeding exercise. On February 26, nearly 200 students from 18 participating schools have joined the preparation workshop in Zoom. In the workshop, Center Director Prof. Lam introduced on the theoretical basis and the conventional & modern technologies of seed breeding, including crossing, radiation, GM and genome editing. Research Associate Ms. Ling Wong, then demonstrated on-site the crossing techniques.

Participating students will try to cross breed the disease-resistant soybean cultivars in South Africa with the stress-resistant soybean cultivar developed by Prof. Lam, with a goal to develop a new soybean cultivar for the use in reviving South Africa’s marginal lands. Students have shown great interest in the breeding exercise, and are all excited to kick-start their own breeding research at schools.