Scientific American article on public acceptance of CRISPR features Delborne and Kuzma

“Without transparency, we might see a kind of hyperpolarization,” says Jason Delborne, a professor of science, policy and society at North Carolina State University. Concerned groups will feel marginalized, and advocates won’t receive critical feedback needed to improve design and safety. “This puts the technology at risk of a knee-jerk moratorium at the first sign of difficulty,” he notes.

Kuzma examines benefits, regulation of gene edited crops in EMBO

In this article, published by EMBOpress, researchers look at how new genetic-engineering (GE) technologies based on gene editing can help to generate crop varieties to address critical challenges in agricultural development. However, governance systems for these crops are poorly defined and currently uncertain.

GES Co-Directors Gould and Kuzma Quoted in Audubon Story on Using Gene Drives to Save Island Birds

A new story in Audubon Magazine, How Genetically Modified Mice Could One Day Save Island Birds, features quotes from GES Co-Directors Dr. Fred Gould and Dr. Jennifer Kuzma.

The article tells the story of how Dr. John Godwin, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, and Ph.D. student Megan Serr became part of GBIRd (Genetic Biocontrol of Invasive Rodents), a global partnership working to save island birds from extinction by using the cutting-edge (and controversial) CRISPR and gene drive technologies to eradicate invasive species of mice.

Genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in Florida and Texas beginning this summer – silver bullet or jumping the gun?

Jennifer Kuzma, June 3, 2020 | Release of GM mosquitoes in Florida is imminent. But a multidisciplinary team of scientists believe that more studies are needed first. They encourage a publicly accessible registry for GM organisms.

GES Center awarded half-million dollar grant to study responsible innovation of food nanotechnology

July 25, 2019 | Khara Grieger and Jennifer Kuzma will lead a two-year, USDA-funded study of responsible innovation of food nanotechnology.

Biotechnology Oversight Gets an Early Make-Over by Trump’s White House and USDA: Part 2 – The USDA-APHIS Rule

Jennifer Kuzma, July 2, 2019 | USDA-APHIS has proposed an oversight process for GE crops that appears to be a significant departure from the current one. This article discusses the features of the proposed new rule, along with its strengths and weaknesses and my recommendations for how it should be amended.

Biotechnology Oversight Gets an Early Make-Over by Trump’s White House and USDA: Part 1—The Executive Order

Jennifer Kuzma, June 18, 2019 | Last week, the Trump administration set the tone for its oversight of agricultural biotechnology (ag biotech) through two major actions: 1) Signing the Modernizing the Regulatory Framework for Agricultural Biotechnology Products Executive Order; and 2) Proposing a draft rule on the Movement of Certain Genetically Engineered Organisms (GEOs), changing how USDA reviews GE plants.

Procedurally Robust Risk Assessment Framework for Novel Genetically Engineered Organisms and Gene Drives

Jennifer Kuzma, March 8, 2019 | This article reviews the current state of gene-editing regulation for crops, illuminating the ways in which technology developers are repeating practices that may lead to the public and ethical failures of the first generation genetically engineered crops, and argues that the contentious socio-political history of genetic engineering will repeat itself for gene editing if these continue.

WP: Gene-edited farm animals are coming. Will we eat them?

“We’re at this inflection point in society, where gene editing is really taking off, and now is the time we could have a more sustained public conversation about how we want it used in our world and how we don’t want it to be used,” said Jennifer Kuzma, co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center at North Carolina State University. “All the polls indicate that people are less comfortable with animal biotechnology than plant biotechnology… A regulatory system cannot be based 100 percent on science or scientific risk, and values come into play when setting the standards.”

Editing nature: Local roots of global governance

Dr. Jennifer Kuzma, Goodnight-NC GSK Foundation Distinguished Professor and Co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center, was one of the lead authors on an interdisciplinary team calling for global oversight of environmental gene editing in this Science Policy Forum, Editing Nature: Local roots of global governance.