Genomics company NRGene announces the official opening of its new office and genotyping lab in Saskatoon, Sask. The opening event took place today at Innovation Place, in the presence of members of the legislative assembly of Saskatchewan, academia, industry leaders and government officials.
NRGene develops and commercializes AI-based genomic tools and provides some of the largest ag-based companies in the world with computational tools to optimize and accelerate breeding programs, to significantly increase crop yield, save time, costs and other resources.
In May 2020, NRGene announced its intentions to run local operations in Canada and Dr. Masood Rizvi, General Manager of NRGene Canada, was appointed to lead and oversee this expansion. Today this branch offers end-to-end solutions provided by a team of local genomics experts and breeders to allow ongoing support to partners in Canada and the US. The current team, which continues to grow, is learning the local needs and challenges for developing and optimizing solutions tailored to the Canadian ecosystem.
The office is strategically located in Saskatoon’s agriculture research cluster, close to research institutes such as the University of Saskatchewan, Agriculture-and-Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Canadian Light-Source (CLS), National-Research-Council (NRC) and more, allowing NRGene to maintain and strengthen long-term relationships with its current and potential partners throughout the Canadian Ag-tech community.
By opening its first genotyping lab in Canada, NRGene fulfilled its strategic decision to strengthen its presence in the industry value chain, the company said. This new lab will allow NRGene to provide its customers with full genotyping solutions and complement NRGene’s computational capabilities. Dr. Hashim Khan was appointed to lead the lab operations and will be applying his extensive experience in genomics. A fully automated and integrated lab with a LIMS platform will support high-throughput processing, facilitate local end-to-end solutions, improve service quality, shorten genotyping test cycles, and simplify logistic operations.
“NRGene believes in the Canadian ag-bio sector and is committed to grow together and bolster our relationship with Canadian partners” said Dr. Gil Ronen, NRGene’s Founder and CEO. “We are excited to open this new office and lab in Canada. It’s an important step toward our goal of expanding our operations in key geographic areas worldwide.”
