The 11th International Gluten Workshop (IGW) jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and CIMMYT, was held in Beijing, China, during 12-15 August 2012. 150 participants from 16 countries were welcomed by Xifeng Gong (deputy director general of the International Collaboration Department), Zhensheng Li (wheat geneticists and former vice president of CAS), Shumin Wang (deputy director of the Institute of Crop Science, CAAS), and Javier Peña on behalf of Thomas Lumpkin (CIMMYT director general).
The participants attended lectures and presentations on capturing discoveries from genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics; biosynthesis, structure, and functional analysis of protein storage; improvement of end-use quality of wheat by genetic and alternative approaches; and starch and health attributes of wheat grain. Zhonghu He (CIMMYT distinguished scientist and liaison officer for China) gave a keynote presentation on wheat quality improvement, progress, and perspectives, and Javier Peña delivered an oral presentation on reliability of gluten-related smallscale- tests to estimated dough visco elasticity and bread loaf volume. The participants also met with Xu Liu, the vice president of CAAS. Besides lectures and presentations, the workshop included a visit to the wheat research lab at CAAS and CAS and discussed the application of new science in gluten study and wheat quality research in China. This research has achieved a significant progress, largely as a result of the long-term collaboration between CAAS and CIMMYT. To expand the scope of the workshop and to attract more participants, the organizers plan to include wheat biotechnology as one of the major topics for the 13th IGW (International Gluten and Wheat Biotechnology Workshop), which will be held in 2015 in Perth, Australia.
Capacity development 