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• Mission Statement • Board of Directors • Corporate Documents • Multimedia • Resources |
Board of Directors
• President/Director
Albert
P. Kausch, Ph.D.
additional
bio info | email
Dr. Albert Kausch
is a Professor at the University of Rhode Island in the Department of
Cell and, Molecular Biology with a research focus on molecular improvement
and gene discovery in grasses and cereal crops.
After completing a Ph.D. in molecular biology at Iowa State University,
Dr. Kausch accepted an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at The Rockefeller
University in New York working in the laboratory of Dr. Tony Cashmore
on early gene transfer methods to plants. He also did postdoctoral work
in collaboration with Dr. Marc Van Montague’s laboratory in Ghent,
Belgium, where they conducted seminal research on chloroplast protein
targeting in transgenic plants that resulted in several landmark publications
and four international patents. This technology is now utilized in all
commercial varieties of Round-up Ready plants, which includes seventy
percent of last year’s US soybean crop.
He then joined the plant molecular biology group with DeKalb Genetics
Corp., at that time in association with Pfizer Inc., to work on gene transfer
technologies for genetic engineering of corn. During that time, Dr. Kausch
worked with a team that developed the first genetically modified corn
plants. He has directed diverse research areas in agricultural biotechnology
of corn, rice, alfalfa and other crop plants including: herbicide and
insect resistance, drought tolerance and yield stability, nutritional
improvement, gene regulation, transformation technology development, site
specific recombination using FLP/FRT and Cre/lox systems (and a range
of other projects). Albert Kausch has over eighteen years experience in
commercial agricultural biotechnology. His broad industry experience includes:
management, research, intellectual property rights and patents, licensing,
regulatory affairs, marketing and public perception. He has been involved
with three biotechnology start-up companies, and maintains several active
research collaborations world-wide on genetic modification of crop plants.
Dr. Kausch has extensive academic experience and has taught at Mount Holyoke
College, The University of New Hampshire, The University of Connecticut,
Connecticut College, and the University of Rhode Island, where he currently
teaches a new general undergraduate course titled “The Way We Work
With Life: Issues in Biotechnology” and a two semester project-based
training program titled “Modern Techniques in Plant Biotechnology”.
This latter course, “Modern Techniques in Plant Biotechnology”
is unique in the United States and provides each student with experimental
genetic constructs to introduce and evaluate in transgenic grasses and
rice. With HybriGene, Inc. and the University of Rhode Island, Dr. Kausch
has also developed a paid, or for-credit, undergraduate student internship
program for hands-on training in plant biotechnology.
Dr. Kausch has founded a new nonprofit organization, called lifeedu.org to create and produce educational materials, workshops, and programs on biotechnology. Lifeedu has developed CDs as educational teaching tools for DNA, Genetics and Biotechnology for General Undergraduate, K-12 teachers and the General Public. He has authored or co-authored numerous research papers, book chapters and review articles and is an inventor or co-inventor on over 20 U. S. and world-wide patents in various stages of issuance in fields of molecular and agricultural biotechnology. More on Dr. Kausch
©2003-2005 Lifeedu.org |
