Welcome in INRA - GABI
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Context and issues
Enhancing synergies through major integrative biology programs
Today, agriculture and food industry face the immense challenge of adapting to provide good quality food within a context of climate change and competition between food and non-food uses of agriculture production and with the aim of being socially acceptable, respectful of the environment, of natural resources and biodiversity.
Heavy demands are placed upon research to meet this challenge. Knowledge must progress in fields that include economic, environmental and societal aspects of a sustainable agricultural production. Of course, high standards of quality, food safety and the health value of food must also be taken into account. To meet this challenge, the farming industry is required to respond to an increasing demand for animal products worldwide. They also need to take part in society's debates on production conditions, competition between animal and human foods, impact on consumer's health and contributions to climate change and land management.
INRA focuses its scientific guidelines on these problems, which results for the Animal Genetics division and for GABI in two major research objectives: 1) to increase knowledge on the genetic variability of biological functions associated with efficient economic objectives, quality and food safety, a reduced impact of unfavourable effects on the environment or climate, adaptation to varying conditions and systems of production under specific constraints; 2) to develop tools targeted at improving genetically animal production with these new objectives while guaranteeing the management and preservation of genetic diversity. Currently, methods and tools are rapidly evolving. The use of "high-throughput" technologies along with computing and data analyses will lead to the complete description and modelling of complex biological processes (integrated biology). As in the past, the Animal Genetics division will continue to play an important role in the development of genomics and integrative biology at INRA while adapting its tools and structures and relying on specialised infrastructures (genotyping and sequencing centres, resource centres, technological and bioinformatics platforms, shared data bases, . . .). For the research units, this situation implies that tools are shared and that, in a certain number of cases, scientists from complementary fields join together via integrative biology projects or shared structures. Debates on how to reorganise the existing research strengths of the Animal Genetics division at Jouy-en-Josas began in 2006 with the following objectives:
This restructuration led to the merging of six laboratories of the Animal Genetics division:
Writing:
Translation W. Brand-Williams and H. Hayes
Creation date: 08 January 2010 Update: 30 August 2011 |