Oren Lab

Our primary goal is to develop resilient and nutritious cucurbit cultivars by leveraging genomic approaches and our extensive germplasm collection. We aim to bridge traditional breeding methods with innovative approaches to accelerate crop improvement and address global agricultural challenges.

Cultivar Development

• Forge partnerships with fellow cucurbit researchers and industry leaders to accelerate the integration of the latest discoveries, enhancing cultivar resilience and nutrition.
• What novel traits can we uncover and incorporate to develop cucurbit varieties that meet future agricultural challenges?

Predictive Phenotyping

• How do we digitize and integrate 40 years of phenotyping data with current ML approaches to approximate a “breeders score” based only on RGB data?
• Will these models assist international breeders in selecting for commercial fruit traits across diverse environments?

Improve Genome Annotations

• How do pan-genomic approaches enhance our understanding of genomic evolution in cucurbit species?
• Can insights gained from pan-genomic analyses in well-studied species be effectively transferred and applied to improve genome annotation and evolutionary understanding in cucurbits?

Advanced Genomic Selection

• Can DNA language models be effectively applied to genomic selection (GS) in cucurbits?
• How do we optimize GS for complex polygenic traits, like speciliazed metabolites (e.g. aromas)?
• Will GS approaches enhance breeding cultivars compared to current apporaches?

We're hard at work. Watch this space for news about our research, publications, and more.