The vision of the CEG is to make it possible for agricultural breeding and research programs, initially in India but ultimately in many other parts of the world, to fully utilize modern molecular genome analysis methods.
 

Efficient plant breeding requires high-throughput allele determination at low cost for better prediction of an individual’s phenotype from its genotype. This is the primary reason for the establishment of ICRISAT’s Center of Excellence in Genomics (CEG). The CEG is being established through financial support from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India and will provide a unique opportunity for enhancing ICRISAT and its partners’ utilization of molecular tools in breeding and research
  
Why the Need for a Center of Excellence
Molecular genomics can revolutionize breeding and research, but for this to become a reality, scientists must be allowed to focus on the research problem, and not on the technology. The CEG will make this possible by making the highly sophisticated equipment required for this research available to scientists. Most importantly,through high-throughput and continuous operation, the costs for data production will be minimal. We believe that the CEG will be a model for similar efforts in other regions, and already interest has been shown by the CGIAR Science Council’s Task Force on Genomics, as well as Biosciences East and Central Africa (BecA).
 
CEG Timeline
CEG Team
 
Leader: Dr Dave Hoisington - Genomics
 
Co-Leader: Dr Rajeev Varshney - Genomics
 
Scientists: Dr S Senthilvel - Genomics
  Dr Tom Hash - Molecular Breeding
  Dr Vincent Vadez - Physiology
  Dr Jayashree Balaji - Bioinformatics