The lecture “The New Biotechnology for the Agro-Food and Forestry sectors” took place this Thursday at Instituto Superior Técnico, within the Cycle of Conferences “Sustainability of resources and food scarcity: perspectives and challenges”.

The event was promoted by AGRO Network and brought together several speakers: professor Isabel Sá Correia and professor Frederico Ferreira, both members of the Department of Bioengineering at Técnico, and researchers from iBB – Institute of Biotechnology and Biosciences. Professor Arlindo Oliveira, president of Técnico, integrated the speakers panel as the Director of ELIXIR’s Portugal Node.

Based on their research projects, professor Isabel Correia and professor Frederico Ferreira explained some of the developments achieved in agro-food and forestry sectors.

Professor Arlindo Oliveira brought a different perspective to the debate, showing how bioinformatics can be useful “in developing some components within biotechnology projects”. The director of ELIXIR’s Portugal Node also explained the essence and the potential of Elixir, once it allows to integrate and access a great amount of data.

Many questions arose at the end of the conference, namely transferring such projects to industry. Professor Arlindo Oliveira answered that “Portugal has still a long way to go”.