Jared blends data analytics, engineering, genetics, and agronomy to enhance plant breeding through an interdisciplinary approach. Jared’s primary interest is combining phenotypic and genotypic data to improve plants for crop production. He is currently working to understand the genetics of intermediate wheatgrass (IWG, Thinopyrum intermedium), which is being domesticated as a perennial grain crop. Jared uses genomic selection to identify seedlings that have desirable allele combinations for traits such as seed yield and reduced shattering. Applying genomic selection has reduced the breeding cycle in half, potentially doubling genetic gains and enhancing the economic viability of this crop.
In addition to using genomics for plant breeding, Jared studies domestication traits using genome-wide association studies. He has also worked with high-throughput field phenotyping to establish methods and protocols to collect phenotypic data and create links between genomic and phenomic data, increasing the efficiency of plant breeding.