Biotech Updates

The European Sustainable Agriculture through Genome Editing (EU-SAGE) network and its members from 132 European research institutes and associations urge the European Council, European Parliament, and the European Commission to reconsider their stance on genome editing, which is one of the tools needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. In an open statement, the EU-SAGE network said that developing new crop varieties need tools that are safe, easy, and fast, and the latest addition to these tools is precision breeding or genome editing.

International Team of Researchers Identify Evolutionary Origins of SARS-CoV-2

An international team of researchers from China, Europe, and the United States has discovered that the lineage that gave rise to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, has been circulating in bats for decades and likely includes other viruses with the ability to infect humans.

ISAAA Video Shows How to Genetically Engineer a Plant

A short video from ISAAA titled Inside the Biotech Lab seeks to dispel doubts and fears about crop biotechnology by showing step-by-step footages of what actually happens when using a gene gun inside a laboratory. The clips were filmed at the Institute of Plant Breeding, University of the Philippines Los Baños.