Biotech Updates

Radical reforms in Kenya's agricultural sector are set to inject fresh impetus to Bt cotton farming in the country, should a fibre crops legislative Bill pass into law. The Government shall be mandated to promote and market fibre crops and products locally and internationally, a development that will invigorate Bt cotton production.

Genetically Engineered Probiotic Yeast Produces Beta-Carotene

Researchers at North Carolina State University (NC State) have genetically engineered a probiotic yeast to produce beta-carotene in the guts of laboratory mice.

Researchers Use CRISPR to Prevent Eucalyptus Trees from being Invasive

An international research team led by Oregon State University reported that Eucalyptus, a pest-resistant evergreen valued for its hardy lumber and wellness-promoting oil, can be genetically modified not to reproduce sexually, a key step toward preventing the tree from invading native ecosystems.

MIT and UCSF Researchers Create On and Off Switch for CRISPR

CRISPR has just got better with the latest gene editing technology called CRISPRoff. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) described the new reversible CRISPR method in the Cell journal.