ABOUT US

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Hi, we are the Hickey Lab!

We are a highly motivated team of early-career scientists and PhD students who specialise in plant breeding innovation and are passionate about global food security. We are committed to supporting the development of more resilient and productive food crops for our future.

By bringing together diverse skill sets, we contribute to solving the most pressing issues caused by constantly evolving plant disease pathogens, climate change, and the growing world population.

SECURING AUSTRALIA’S MOST IMPORTANT CROPSDiscovery and applied research on food crops:

Bread wheat
Durum wheat
Barley
Chickpea
Mungbean
Banana
In collaboration with academic and industry partners Hickey Lab delivers new knowledge, breeding tools and technology to support efficient and targeted crop improvement.
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Hickey Lab was established in 2013
Situated within the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Our mission

Our genetic studies improve our understanding of gene effects, trait interactions, and interactions with specific environments. Our mission is to inform and provide tools to plant breeders, to better equip them, and help assemble improved cultivars for farmers.

Our research is focused on key abiotic and biotic factors that limit grain production, as well as the development of novel breeding tools and methodologies.

Our germplasm pipeline takes advantage of large nested-association mapping (NAM) populations, speed breeding technology, high-throughput phenotyping methods, and genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) marker platforms. We develop novel pre-breeding germplasm with adapted genetic backgrounds, along with validated marker-trait associations.

The global population is growing; by 2050, there will be 10 billion people. It means we must produce more food in the face of climate change.
Assoc. Prof. Lee Hickey
HICKEY LAB LEADER

OUR TEAMInnovators in Multidisciplinary
Crop Research

Yichen Kang

PhD STUDENTYichen Kang

Identifying traits to increase durum yield
Shanice Van Haeften

PhD StudentShanice Van Haeften

Increasing the productivity of mungbean
Dr Samir Alahmad

LABORATORY MANAGERDr Samir Alahmad

Improving root systems of durum wheat