CROP BIOTECH UPDATE
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A weekly summary of world developments in agri-biotech for developing countries, produced by the Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology, International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications SEAsiaCenter (ISAAA)
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May 20, 2026

In This Week’s Issue:

News

New Breeding Technologies
• Plant Biotechnology Associations Urge EU Parliament to Reject NGT Amendments
• Stanford University Bioengineers Speed Up Protein Testing to 24 Hours
• University of Florida Develops World’s First DNA-Guided CRISPR System



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NEWS
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New Breeding Technologies
PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATIONS URGE EU PARLIAMENT TO REJECT NGT AMENDMENTS

Four prominent European plant biotechnology associations have issued a joint open letter urging members of the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI) to swiftly pass a pending compromise regulation on New Genomic Techniques (NGTs). The letter, dated May 15, 2026, was signed by the French Association of Plant Biotechnologies (AFBV), Forum Grüne Vernunft (FGV), the Society for Plant Biotechnology (GfPB), and the Genomics and Genetic Engineering Research Circle (WGG). The coalition argues that a "green light" is desperately needed to counter accelerating global competition. In the letter, the coalition argues that a "green light" is desperately needed to counter accelerating global competition, noting that more than 50% of peer-reviewed NGT research currently originates from China, compared to just 15% from the European Union. 

The push is a direct response to a series of amendments tabled by several Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on May 4, 2026. These amendments seek to alter a hard-fought trilogue compromise proposal, which had previously garnered formal approval from a qualified majority of EU Member States on April 21, 2026. Critics of the current draft argue that it fails to adequately protect small and medium enterprises, farmers, and consumers, citing concerns over transparency and intellectual property safeguards. However, the biotech associations contend that adopting these amendments would trigger multi-year regulatory delays, severely crippling the EU agrifood sector's competitiveness amidst escalating climate challenges.

Dismissing the lawmakers' concerns as redundant, the associations detailed that existing frameworks and European Patent Office rules already offer robust protections against the patenting of natural traits and safeguard farmers from accidental patent liability. They further warned that additional transparency demands on NGT-1 products, such as full, downstream food supply chain tracing, are scientifically unworkable and legally unenforceable, given that NGT-1 mutations are biologically equivalent to conventional breeding. Urging parliamentarians to reject the amendments, the group concluded that the agreed-upon compromise remains the most legally secure path forward for European agricultural innovation.

For more details, read the open letter on the AFBV website.

Bioengineers from Stanford University have developed a new protein engineering method that can design, build, and test protein variants in just 24 hours. The technique, called MIDAS or Microbe-Independent Deep Assembly and Screening, could accelerate research in medicine, biotechnology, and environmental science by simplifying how proteins are engineered and tested.

Traditional protein engineering often requires a process that can take days or weeks. Using MIDAS, the team bypassed microbial cloning by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to rapidly assemble genes and transfer them directly into mammalian cells for testing. The researchers said the approach allows hundreds or even thousands of protein variants to be tested simultaneously.

In one experiment, MIDAS evaluated 384 protein variants in about four hours of laboratory work using around $2,000 worth of reagents. In comparison, conventional methods would require about 192 hours and nearly $20,000 to test only 24 variants. The researchers estimated that MIDAS is nearly 50 times faster and costs about one-tenth as much as traditional cloning-based methods.

For more information, read the press release from Stanford University.

A team of engineers at the University of Florida has developed the world's first CRISPR system that uses DNA instead of RNA to guide gene-editing enzymes. Published in Nature Biotechnology, the breakthrough challenges the long-standing assumption that RNA must be used as the guide in CRISPR-based RNA editing tools.

The team explained that while RNA acts as a working copy of genetic instructions, errors in these copies can cause serious consequences. The researchers engineered CRISPR to use DNA as a guide to improve the stability and precision of selectively targeting and regulating RNA molecules inside cells. “It gives us a way to fix or tune the instructions the cell is using in real time, without immediately changing the DNA,” said lead author Piyush Jain, an associate professor and the Shah Rising Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida.

The DNA-guided system showed significantly improved precision and could detect viral infections such as HIV and hepatitis C with 100% accuracy. After decades of research based on RNA-guided CRISPR systems, the study introduces a fundamentally new approach for directing one of biology's most powerful gene-editing tools. The team believes the technology could advance diagnostics and therapies, with early clinical applications possible within a few years.

For more information, read the article from the University of Florida.