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Crop engineering and biotechnology

Prof. RNDr. Ivo Frébort, CSc., Ph.D.
Group Leader
Phone +420 585 634 922
E-mail ivo.frebort@upol.cz
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Tolerance to adverse growth conditions and yield improvement are paramount goals in modern agriculture. Cereals, the most widely cultivated crops globally, provide food for humans, feed for domestic animals, and essential raw materials. Our group maintains a unique crop transformation facility and is engaged in four major research directions supported by ongoing projects.

The group is a part of a broad European project consortium addressing the global food security crisis, promoting a circular economy, and mitigating air pollution. Our focus is on improving barley through genome editing using the CRISPR/Cas9 technique, encompassing laboratory experiments, greenhouse cultivation, and unique accredited field tests within the European Union.

The group participates in a nationwide project to unravel the mechanisms involved in response to abiotic stress at critical stages of plant growth and development, optimize biotechnological approaches for breeding applications, and enhance public awareness of new breeding techniques.

In collaboration with a major industrial partner, we have developed and patented molecular farming technology in green barley for the production of recombinant antimicrobial peptides, which is being evaluated for the manufacturing of antibacterial creams in cosmetics.

Together with research partners from fisheries and aquaculture, we are exploring the potential of subunit antigens based on coating proteins prepared by molecular farming for the oral vaccination of fish against viruses.

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