HZPC has announced the opening of a new office on the Wageningen Campus. In Plus Ultra II, a small bioinformatics team analyzes DNA sequencing data.

Remco Ursem, bioinformatics program head, explainedf that HZPC has long desired to have a presence on the Wageningen Campus.

“HZPC is the international leader in the field of potato breeding. This year, we are celebrating our 125th anniversary. The company has its roots in Friesland, where we are still located. The head office, where over 200 people work, is in Joure, and a state-of-the-art R&D building has just been opened in Metslawier, near Dokkum. But we have offices all over the world. Our bioinformatics team consists of four employees. Our main task is processing DNA sequencing data. The sequencing of genomes is performed elsewhere, but the measurements are stored in the cloud. We then carry out the complete data analysis,” Ursem mentioned.

The company’s jobs opportunities are now more accessible to students, who are potential workers and interns. All of the bioinformaticians hired by HZPC studied there, and they may not have been eager to go to Friesland.

“It’s great in every way. We were unlucky with the timing because the COVID pandemic canceled out the advantages of this location. But then it came to life again. We interact with various other companies on campus, and I think the number of startups has increased since StartLife. That’s wonderful. Our neighbor in Plus Ultra II is RADICLE Crops, which works on quinoa breeding. We sometimes exchange information with them: what are you running into; how do you approach things? We also have contacts with the OnePlanet Research Center, about sensors, for example,” he declared.

Furthermore, the company is involved in partnerships, including TKI initiatives. HZPC is also a partner in the upcoming Holland Innovative Potato (HIP) and CropXR projects. WUR and other breeders are also involved. Furthermore, HZPC collaborates with the NPEC (Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Center).

“I hope we will grow, as a company and in Wageningen. At the moment, we are becoming increasingly aware of data-driven breeding. The future is bright there. I therefore expect that we will bring in more people who can perform data analyses. They don’t have to be in Friesland, they can work in Wageningen. We will also continue to follow other developments, such as AI, sensors, and drones. These are all fields in which Wageningen is very active,” Remco Ursem concluded.