Full Name
A. Mark Cigan
Job Title
Director
Speaker Bio
Biography
Dr. A. Mark Cigan, PhD
Dr. Cigan is the Trait Development Director at Genus R&D. Through internal and external collaborations, Mark leads research teams which use gene editing, gene sequencing and mammalian cell and reproductive biology to discover and develop disease resistance traits to improve animal health in livestock.
Prior to joining Genus in 2016, Mark was at DuPont Pioneer (now Corteva Ag) for 24 years focusing early in his career on plant reproductive biology to develop genetic solutions for the generation of hybrid seed. Upon completion of the Pioneer Seed Production Technology process, as Senior Research Manager, Mark then led the Genome Modification group at Pioneer (now Corteva Ag). The group was seminal in advancing editing and insertion of plant genes for commercial applications in maize, sorghum, wheat and soybean to speed trait development and deployment.
Mark has authored more than 40 science publications, and enjoyed professional collaborations with US, European and Australian laboratories focusing on aspects of genetics, plant reproductive biology and genome modification. Mark is an inventor on over 30 US and International granted patents and has served on the Maize Genetics Steering Committee and an invited speaker at plant and animal conferences.
After earning his doctoral degree in Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University, Chicago, Mark extended his graduate studies as a National Research Council Fellow at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. Working in yeast as a model, his biochemical work contributed to the understanding of how eukaryotic cells control protein synthesis of genes under stress.
Selected plant and animal publications:
1. Targeted Mutagenesis, Precise Gene Editing, and Site-Specific Gene Insertion in Maize Using Cas9 and Guide RNA S. Svitashev, et al Plant Physiology 2015
2. Genome editing in maize directed by CRISPR–Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes S Svitashev et al Nature Comm 2016
3. Concurrent modifications in the three homeologs of Ms45 gene with CRISPR-Cas9 lead to rapid generation of male sterile bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) M Singh et al Pl Mol Bio 2018
4. Complex Trait Loci in Maize Enabled by CRISPR-Cas9 Mediated Gene Insertion H. Gao et al Front in Plant Science 2020
5. Superior field performance of waxy corn engineered using CRISPR-Cas9 H Gao et al Nature Biot 2020
6. The use of cells from ANPEP knockout pigs to evaluate the role of aminopeptidase N (APN) as a receptor for porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) Stoian A et al Virology 2020
Dr. A. Mark Cigan, PhD
Dr. Cigan is the Trait Development Director at Genus R&D. Through internal and external collaborations, Mark leads research teams which use gene editing, gene sequencing and mammalian cell and reproductive biology to discover and develop disease resistance traits to improve animal health in livestock.
Prior to joining Genus in 2016, Mark was at DuPont Pioneer (now Corteva Ag) for 24 years focusing early in his career on plant reproductive biology to develop genetic solutions for the generation of hybrid seed. Upon completion of the Pioneer Seed Production Technology process, as Senior Research Manager, Mark then led the Genome Modification group at Pioneer (now Corteva Ag). The group was seminal in advancing editing and insertion of plant genes for commercial applications in maize, sorghum, wheat and soybean to speed trait development and deployment.
Mark has authored more than 40 science publications, and enjoyed professional collaborations with US, European and Australian laboratories focusing on aspects of genetics, plant reproductive biology and genome modification. Mark is an inventor on over 30 US and International granted patents and has served on the Maize Genetics Steering Committee and an invited speaker at plant and animal conferences.
After earning his doctoral degree in Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University, Chicago, Mark extended his graduate studies as a National Research Council Fellow at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. Working in yeast as a model, his biochemical work contributed to the understanding of how eukaryotic cells control protein synthesis of genes under stress.
Selected plant and animal publications:
1. Targeted Mutagenesis, Precise Gene Editing, and Site-Specific Gene Insertion in Maize Using Cas9 and Guide RNA S. Svitashev, et al Plant Physiology 2015
2. Genome editing in maize directed by CRISPR–Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes S Svitashev et al Nature Comm 2016
3. Concurrent modifications in the three homeologs of Ms45 gene with CRISPR-Cas9 lead to rapid generation of male sterile bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) M Singh et al Pl Mol Bio 2018
4. Complex Trait Loci in Maize Enabled by CRISPR-Cas9 Mediated Gene Insertion H. Gao et al Front in Plant Science 2020
5. Superior field performance of waxy corn engineered using CRISPR-Cas9 H Gao et al Nature Biot 2020
6. The use of cells from ANPEP knockout pigs to evaluate the role of aminopeptidase N (APN) as a receptor for porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) Stoian A et al Virology 2020
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