IGDB-Pioneer Workshop 2013 was held in Johnston, Iowa State, USA on July 24 - 26th. Over thirty representatives from IGDB and DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred attended the meeting. Yongbiao Xue, the director of IGDB and members of steering committee reviewed the progress of this collaboration project. Project leaders from IGDB and DuPont Pioneer reported their recent progresses. The scientists visited DuPont Pioneer’s Global Marker Technologies Laboratory at Beaver Creek Research Facility, FAST Corn and C6 Phenotyping Facility, and maize field at North Field Demo and Nitrogen Utilization Efficiency Testing.

After the review panel meeting, an IGDB-DuPont Pioneer joint symposium was also held at Johnston. Dr. Weicai Yang introduced IGDB to the audience and Dr. Andy Baumgarten from Pioneer presented their recent work on molecular breeding using genomic tool.

Steering committee is satisfied with the progress achieved. Participants of the workshop also discussed the possibility of further collaboration.