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Milena Ouzunova joined KWS in 1997. As Head of Biotechnology for Maize and Oilseed Rape she is responsible for the integration of applied biotechnology into maize and oilseed rape breeding, including results from genomics.
She holds a PhD in plant genetics and plant breeding from the University of Goettingen and MS in Chemistry from the University of Sofia.
KWS (www.kws.com) is one of the worldwide leading plant breeding companies, with subsidiaries, associated companies and distributors in more then
60 countries. The products of KWS are agricultural crops for temperate climates. The wide range of species and varieties is inevitably based on traditional plant breeding making increasing use of the latest innovations in biotechnology. KWS headquarters are located in Einbeck, Germany.

Presentation Outline:

KWS is investing substantially into the development of biotechnological breeding tools, including genomics programs for its major crop plants, sugar beet, corn, rape seed, rye and wheat, covering food, feed and renewable energy applications. Genomics programs first seek to elucidate the genetic, molecular, biochemical and physiological basis of the traits of interest. This information then allows a gene-guided search for native superior alleles in the gene pool or development of transgenic approaches. As a consequence, novel alleles for introgression into elite germplasm, allele-specific molecular markers or novel gene sequences for genetic engineering are made available to breeders, all potentially applicable for increasing the selection gain in the breeding process. Examples for genomics based molecular breeding approaches will be presented for monogenic and polygenic inherited traits.