Biotech Updates

More than 150 executive and legislative officials from the Philippine House of Representatives, as well as selected members of the judiciary attended the Forum on the Global State of Biotechnology, a biotech outreach program conducted by the SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center in collaboration with the United States Embassy Manila, the House of Representatives, Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA), and the Philippine Association of Law schools (PALS). The Forum was held on two separate events held on September 6 and 7, 2018 as part of an outreach grant from the U.S. Department of State.

Argentina to Release Drought and Salt Tolerant Soybean

Argentina is set to commercialize the first drought and salt tolerant soybean in 2019. This is an important step towards combating the increased risk of drought globally because of global warming.

Blue-green Algae Promises to Boost Yields of Important Food Crops

Scientists at the Australian National University (ANU) have engineered tiny carbon-capturing engines from blue-green algae into plants. This breakthrough promises to help boost the yields of important food crops such as wheat, cowpeas, and cassava.

Scientists Use CRISPR-Cas9 to Accelerate Breeding for Modified Starch in Cassava

Cassava's increasing economic importance but difficulty to improve genetically are what motivated scientist Herve Vanderschuren from Institute of Molecular Plant Biology in Switzerland and colleagues to utilize genome editing to accelerate breeding for modified starch in cassava.