CAMCORE Associate Director visits FABI 2023-07-11
Dr Juan Jose “JJ” Acosta, Associate Director of CAMCORE and Associate Professor at North Carolina State University visited FABI on 6 July to explore opportunities for future collaboration. Mr Ben Pienaar and Dr Marius du Plessis from Mondi accompanied him for this visit. The group was welcomed by Profs Mike Wingfield, Brenda Wingfield, Irene Barnes, Tuan Duong, Almuth Hammerbacher, Brett Hurley, and Sanushka Naidoo, and Dr Marja O’Neill who engaged with the visitors in a round table discussion. The discussions were chaired via a virtual connection by FABI Director Prof. Bernard Slippers who is currently on research sabbatical Germany. The group discussed the many common research interests and goals of CAMCORE and FABI, particularly noting the fact that a large number of CAMCORE members are also FABI collaborators. Dr Acosta was then taken on a tour of FABI and the FABI Biocontrol Centre on the Innovation Africa @UP campus. After a brief lunch, further discussions continued with Prof. Zander Myburg and other member of the Forest Molecular Genetics research group in FABI.