With two decades of experience innovating DNA and RNA-based diagnostic methods, 20/20 Seed Labs R&D Manager Kim Kenward — based in Nisku — has built one of Canada’s largest portfolios of molecular tests offered in agriculture, a comprehensive service portfolio that detects bacteria, fungi, viruses, weeds, and crop traits in seed, tissue, and soil to assess risks associated with use of a given sample.
And she’s done it because she lives in a country where industries like hers are allowed to explore their potential for innovation.
“Canada has been allowing seed, germination, and disease testing to be handled by the private sector for over 30 years now,” says Kenward. “Meanwhile, the U.S. still relies heavily on state colleges and universities to manage these processes, which keeps it largely under government control.”
She chairs the Canadian mirror committee for ISO/TC 34/SC 16 (Horizontal methods for molecular biomarker analysis), providing expert opinions to form the Canadian government stance on International Standard development. She is also active in the Analytical Excellence in Industry Excellence (AEIC) Nucleic Acids working group, and part of the International Seed Federation Genetic Resources Working Group on behalf of Seeds Canada.
Recent work has involved bringing a new test to market originally developed by the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) for malt barley varietal identification and purity assessment, making it more readily available to grain growers throughout the value chain.
“Single seed analysis remains the gold standard for varietal identification, but this new method offers a more cost efficient way to analyze larger numbers of potentially mixed seed to identify the dominant variety within a seed lot and estimate its purity level,” she says. “We were all quite pleased with how well it worked.”
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