Isobel Parkin

Isobel Parkin is a Canadian research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. She is one of the world's premier canola scientists and her area of expertise focuses on brassica genomics, comparative genome organization, global gene expression analysis, and abiotic stress responses. She is well known for her work on an international project on the genetics of oil seeds, in particular the mapping and sequencing of the canola oil genome. She Co-led the Canadian Canola Genome Sequence (CanSeq) team that successfully deciphered the canola genome and developed a high-quality genome sequence. She has been an adjunct Professor at the University of Saskatchewan since 2004.

Career Parkin's career started with her recruitment to work on the Canadian Canola Sequencing Initiative (CanSeq) at the Global Institute for Food Security at the University of Saskatchewan, where she was involved in some of the earliest genetic mapping of canola or Brassica napus.

Parkin also led a Canadian research team that published its results on sequencing another brassica species, camelina, in 2016. Camelina is showing promise for Canadian agriculture as it can be produced on marginal lands with lower input than other oilseeds, and can be used as feedstock for bioproducts like plastic and protein-rich food for fish and livestock. Parkin continues research in the area of camelina and collaborated with researchers from Dalhousie and Memorial University on a project examining its use in farmed fish diets. Parkin says the goal of her genomics work is to improve the lot of farmers.