Crispin Howitt

About him:

Crispin completed his PhD at the Australian National University, studying respiratory pathways and photorespiration in cyanobacteria and the chloroplasts of higher plants. His first postdoctoral fellowship was at Arizona State University where he studied the interaction of respiration and photosynthesis in cyanobacteria.  In 2000 he moved to CSIRO in Canberra, Australia, for a second postdoctoral fellowship using gene technology to modify starch structure and function in the model plant Arabidopsis. At the end of 2002 he moved into the area of cereal quality.  Since then he has had a diverse range of interests: carotenoid biosynthesis in cereal grains, how manipulation of protein content and composition impacts end product functionality, the genetics of end product quality in wheat and modification of grain composition for health benefits. He is currently the Group Leader of the Cereal Quality Group at CSIRO.

About his talk:

"Kebari® barley: moving beyond beer"

The diets of people who must, or chose to avoid gluten, are often higher in fat and sugars and have lower mineral and fibre content than equivalent gluten containing diets.  Using conventional breeding we have developed a barley, Kebari, in which the gluten content has been reduced to approximately 5 ppm.  The first version was in a hulled background suitable for malting. In this talk I will provide a brief overview and then focus on the current status of the development of a hull-less version, suitable for the food industry, and design progress of the clinical trials which are underway.