Dr John Buchanan, CEO
As 2025 comes to a close, we celebrate another year of reaching milestones and accelerating genetic advancements for our clients through CAT’s Next-Gen Breeding™ approach.
When asked to share his highlights, CEO Dr. John Buchanan reflects on a noteworthy year for the Center for Aquaculture Technologies (CAT) and offers a glimpse of what’s ahead for 2026 and beyond.
Commercializing Genome Editing
This year marked a major leap forward in the commercialization of genome editing for aquaculture. CAT’s collaboration with tilapia producer Brazilian Fish was announced in early 2025, celebrating the first introduction of commercial-scale, genome-edited tilapia in Brazil. This partnership highlights that the integration of genome editing into breeding programs is no longer theoretical – it’s happening.
Stay tuned in 2026 for updates on how genome editing has fast-tracked the selection of desirable traits that traditionally would have required many generations, driving faster genetic improvement and unlocking value across the entire supply chain for our partners.
Genetics: A Key Tool to Increase Value
In today’s competitive global market, we’ve continued to help our clients maximize returns by designing breeding strategies that balance input costs with genetic and economic gains. It’s been rewarding to see how these improvements compound generation after generation, supporting clients in building stronger, more sustainable operations.
This year, we added 10 new genotyping tools to our growing library of solutions developed specifically for aquatic species. This enables our team to match the right tool to each client’s program needs, ensuring they receive the insights required to maximize their genetic improvement plans. CAT’s collaborative approach brings innovative solutions to meet the increasing technical demands of our clients.
In addition, we added 6 new breeding programs to our portfolio of clients for Genetic Services, expanding our role in helping companies design and execute elite genetic improvement strategies.
CAT’s genotyping lab in San Diego, CA
Industry Leadership
Throughout the year, our team shared insights at major industry events and scientific conferences on topics including use of genomic tools, the practical benefits of selective breeding, commercial-scale genome editing, evolving regulatory frameworks for new technologies, benefits of sterility for the aquaculture industry, and new advancements in genome editing for P. vannamei. Thank you to everyone who invited us to speak, and to those who attended and engaged in our discussions – we look forward to sharing even more in 2026.
5th INFOFISH World Tilapia Trade and Technical Conference 2025, Bangkok
Looking Ahead
As we look ahead, CAT remains focused on supporting our core mission of feeding people responsibly by delivering customized precision breeding solutions that drive value and sustainability for our clients. From advancing our Sterility+® solution which enabling CAT to add sterility as a foundational trait in genome editing, to expanding access to the latest genotyping tools across aquatic species, our global team is committed not only to pushing the boundaries of aquaculture genetics through R&D, but also to ensuring these innovations are practical, scalable, and accessible to the entire aquaculture industry.
Following our recent partnership announcement with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), there will be more to share as we bring Morpholino technology to clients where sterility is immediately needed, as genome-editing approaches to introduce sterility into breeding populations continue to progress. In species such as salmonids, where breeding cycles are longer, the morpholino technology provides a timely and practical solution, and we look forward to delivering this capability to the industry.
Thank you to our incredible clients, partners, and team – your trust, collaboration, and dedication are the foundation of our success. We’re excited to continue this journey together, making our industry more productive, resilient, and sustainable.
Here’s to a collaborative and successful New Year, and to making 2026 our best year yet!