Click on the provided link to read about the poster being presented by researcher Dr. Predrag Rajsic.

When a group of over 350 high school students at an Agriculture ... Careers That Grow event (hosted by the Career Education Council of Guelph, Wellington and Dufferin http://careereducationcouncil.ca/home ) was asked “what did you learn today that made you think “wow! .. I did not know that?” one enthusiastic young man put up his hand and exclaimed “I learned about bean protein, and that you can make plastic from it ... now that’s cool!”

Several of our researchers have been invited to submit research articles to the journal Frontiers in Plant Science. Frontiers is doing a special edition entitled "The Bean Genome". 

Dr. Frederic Marsolais and his group at University of Western Ontario continue to search for ways improve the protein quality of the common dry bean.  Dr. Marsolais is working towards identifying sulfur-rich proteins whose levels are elevated in seed lacking phaseolin and phytohemagglutinin.  The group is also hoping to discover which sulfur metabolic genes regulate the quality of bean protein.

Members of our research group and other research collaborators presented talks, posters and articles for the 2011 annual meeting of the Bean Improvement Cooperative. The entire 2012 BIC annual report is available at : http://bic.css.msu.edu/_pdf/Reports/BIC_2012_Annual_Report.pdf

We have been busy .... publishing book chapters and journal articles, graduating our fist Masters Student and presenting over 30 talks and posters at meetings and conferences world wide.  See below for what we accomplished the first year alone .. and check back later this spring for an update on our more recent work.

Our last quarterly meeting, a workshop on the use of Gbrowse, the software system being developed under the leadership of Bill Crosby (project Co-PI) was attended by 25 of our current researchers.  GBrowse is being used to interrogate and annotate the sequence data as it becomes available. Release to the public of the entire genome sequence for Phaseolus vulgaris var Rex is expected to happen within the next few months.

http://seedoftheyear.ca/east/
Ex Rico 23, the first white bean variety introduced through the University of Guelph bean breeding program won Seed of the Year Award at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair 2012.

http://www.uoguelph.ca/oac/tags/globe-and-mail

Does this ad look familiar? It was recently published in The Globe and Mail. We're celebrating the fact that the University of Guelph is Canada’s most inventive university, according to a survey conducted by The Impact Group.

An edible and 100% biodegradable substitute for plastic that is being developed by our researchers will be on display in the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada booth at the 2012 Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. http://www.royalfair.org/
The biofilm material composed of only bean protein and glycerol is being developed for uses such as product packaging, medicinal capsules, and a spray on coating for fresh fruits and vegetables to preserve freshness http://www.beangenomics.ca/research/projects/view/phaseolus-storage-protein-genomics

Dr William Crosby discusses the bioproducts and genome sequencing aspects of the project in an article posted on the University of Windsor webpage.
http://web4.uwindsor.ca/units/pac/nvdailynews/nvdn.nsf/ba/6ADA1CC5ADF409E28525786900622AB8

Over this past summer our self-starting summer students were asked to write, direct, and star in 4 videos reflecting the work they do on the project. They were asked to target the video content to elementary students... in other words, by young scientists for the even younger scientists! . The four videos cover working in the field, bean DNA extraction, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) analysis of DNA, and DNA electrophoresis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NR1V5yEmyI

Jane Thorpe from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada recently wrote an article about the Bean Genomics Project.
For more media coverage on the story please follow the links bellow:
Genoming could mean more profits for bean farmers
http://www.agri-media.ca/2012/07/19/genoming-could-mean-more-profits-for-bean-growers/
Genoming could mean more profits for bean farmers
http://www.1017theone.ca/news.php?area=details&art_id=24276
Mapping Bean Genome Means New Markets Ahead
http://www.ontariofarmer.com/sitepages/?aid=6085&cn=FEATURES&an=Mapping%20bean%20genome%20means%20new%20markets%20ahead
Mapping Bean Genome Means New Markets Ahead
http://www.atlanticfarmer.com/search.php?q=bean+genome

Another successful year has ended and the Bean Genomics Project is making great progress. The team achieved all year two milestones and we are making significant headway in achieving the objectives set out for years three to five. After having submitted our second annual report to the Ministry of Research and Innovation, we were pleased to learn that the ministry considers our project a positive research initiative commenting that “The Ministry is always looking for success stories coming out of our Research Excellence portfolio. This project is an obvious success”.  At the request of the ministry a project summary that could be used as a presentation for the general public was written:

As part of the Guelph Food Research Center Seminar Series, Dr. Frédéric Marsolais will speak on:
Investigating beans lacking major storage proteins to identify traits useful for nutritional improvement
Date: May 17th, 2012
Time: 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Place: 95 Stone Rd West. Conference Rm B,C

Several of our project collaborators are invited speakers at the “Phaseomics-The Genome” conference in Guanajuato, Mexico on June 21-23.

• Dengqun Liao, Agnieszka Pajak, Frederic Marsolais, AGR, Canada will speak on: Transcripts of sulfur metabolic genes are coordinately regulated by protein demand in seed lacking phaseolin and major lectins
• Peter Pauls, Univ. of Guelph, Canada will speak on: Searching for genes associated with quality traits in beans
• William Crosby, Univ. Windsor, Canada will speak on: Ab initio Assembly, Annotation and Analysis of the Phaseolusvar. OACRex Genome
• Additionally, Paul Gepts and Phil MacLean, members of our Scientific Advisory Board will also be speaking.
• Paul Gepts, Univ. of California, Cavis. USA will speak on: Development of genomic tools to study farmes selection and enhance marker-assited selection in common bean
• Phil MacLean, North DakotaState Univ. USA will speak on: Genome-wide Association Studies and the PhaseolusGenome

Peter Pauls, Univ. of Guelph, Canada
Searching for genes associated with quality traits in beans
  

Our reserch group was extremely well presented at the recent Ontario Pulse Crop Committe workshop in Hensall Ontario this February.
http://www.gobeans.ca/about.php
Presentations were given by several of our members (see links below for a select few). 
 

Project faculty, post docs, graduate students and high school student Annie Cheng all interacted with the interested public at the University of Guelph's annual College Royal Open House event on the weekend of March 17 and 18.

The Applied Bean Genomics and Bioproducts project was featured at the extremely well attended Western Fair Farm Show, March 7 to 9 2012 in London, Ontario.  

BIC is a voluntary and informal organization to effect the exchange of information and materials for the improvement of bean production worldwide. Members include scientists, students, private organizations and lay-people.

All in attendance could feel the excitement at the Bean Genomics project launch event. Spark Air’s video report on the project opening captures the importance of the study to the local community, the agricultural community and society as a whole. The project will not only provide a boost to bean farmers and the bioproducts manufacturing sector, but could also become a key tool in solving issues such as world hunger. Bean Genomics marks a step in a new direction, highlighting the University of Guelph and Ontario as industry leaders and pioneers.

We welcome to the Applied Bean Genomics and Bioproducts project, in postdoctoral positions, Drs Gregory Perry, Weilong Xie and Marcus Shi. Both Weilong and Greg are now working out of the University of Guelph and Marcus is at the AAFC research center in Harrow, Ontario.

We are pleased to announce the opening event for the newly awarded Ministry of Research and Innovation - Research Excellence grant entitled "Phaseolus Genomics and Improved Bioproduct Development." The event will allow all of our collaborators, funding agencies and interested parties to meet and mingle.

As a collaborative effort between the University of Guelph, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Windsor, the project "Phaseolus Genomics for Improved Bioproduct Development" was awarded a prestigious research grant from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. Specifically, the Ontario Research Fund — Research Excellence grants are awarded to institutions that clearly demonstrate a capability for research excellence of strategic value to Ontario. The award supports new leading-edge, transformative and internationally significant research with strong commercialization potential. Under Ontario's Innovation Agenda, the award was created to ignite growth in industries that will shape our future and create Ontario's next generation of jobs and prosperity. The Phaseolus Genomics project addresses the Bio-economy and Clean Technologies component of the Innovation Agenda.