Biotech Updates

Agricultural Economist Graham Brookes of PG Economics is the latest featured expert in the ISAAA Webinar series. His talk focused on the latest PG Economics' report on the economic and environmental impact of genetically modified (GM) crops globally for the past 23 years.

Human Trials Begin for COVID-19 Plant-Based Technology Vaccine

Medicago announced that it has administered the first doses of its vaccine against COVID-19 to human volunteers. The results are expected to come out as early as October of this year.

Researchers Turn to CRISPR Genome Editing to Make Cyanide-Free Cassava

Cassava goes by many names and is one of the world's most important root crops. Starch from this root crop is used to make the chewy pearls in boba tea, the blobs in tapioca pudding, and it is found in a wide variety of gluten-free products. Jessica Lyons, the principal investigator of the cassava genome editing project at Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) says roughly a billion people around the world rely on cassava as a calorie source, including 40 percent of Africans. Cassava, however, comes with a built-in problem: cyanide and the IGI team is working on cyanide-free cassava using CRISPR genome editing technology.

ISAAA Launches Open-access Resources on Genome Editing

ISAAA monitors the advances in genome editing and its implications in food and agriculture. Articles based on peer-reviewed journals are published every week in the Crop Biotech Update and are summarized in the Genome Editing Resource. This page is available for public use, aiming to stimulate informed discourses and decision making regarding the technology.