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.

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.

Science: Trump’s agriculture department reverses course on biotech rules

It’s a predictable move by President Donald Trump’s White House to take another look at the policies of the previous administration, says Jennifer Kuzma, a social scientist who co-directs the Genetic Engineering and Society Center at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. “I expected them to eventually catch wind that this was something that USDA was doing, and reverse it.”

Mosquitoes, Zika and Biotech Regulation

Biotech policy expert Jennifer Kuzma argues that authorities are missing an opportunity to revise outdated rules related to modern innovations in biotechnology.

USDA to biotech: Call your own compliance

Steven Suppan, July 30, 2019 | The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants agribusiness to sell more genetically engineered (GE) seeds and food products all over the world, as soon as possible. This rule would go beyond already controversial genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to encompass hundreds of new products of new gene and genome editing techniques. The fastest way to do that?