Blog: Interdisciplinary Reflections on the U.S. Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy

January 24, 2024 | Khara Grieger

In December, GES-affiliated faculty and students participated in a roundtable discussion on the EO at the recent Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting, held in Washington, DC. The roundtable aimed to discuss the strengths and limitations of the recent EO on bio-innovation from interdisciplinary perspectives, highlighting aspects of biotechnology regulation and risk in particular....

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Apply to the GES Minor Fellowship

January 18, 2024 | Patti Mulligan

Please complete this application in its entirety and remember to click ‘Submit Application’ at the end. If you need any assistance, please contact us at gesocietycenter@ncsu.edu or (919) 515-2596....

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Dolphin Tank: Team-based innovation competition to win prizes!

March 14, 2023 | Patti Mulligan

Come join us for a team-based competition to develop pitches for biotechnology innovations that are socially responsible. Participants each receive a $30 Amazon gift card, Free Lunch & a chance to win a Wolfpack sweatshirt....

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Gould, Fred, et al. "Toward product-based regulation of crops: Current process-based approaches to regulation are no longer fit for purpose." Science 377, 1051 (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abo3034 Figure 1. We propose a strategy for evaluating crop varieties using omics technologies [adapted from (1)] to compare a new genetically engineered (GE) or non-GE variety to a set of varieties that are currently in markets.

Publications Relevant to the new Executive Order on Biotechnology

September 29, 2022 | Patti Mulligan

On September 12, 2022, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14081, Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy, intended to “accelerate biotechnology innovation and grow America’s bioeconomy across multiple...

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Photos of Jason Delborne and Katie Barnhill-Dilling

NC State University Awarded BioMADE Funding to Advance U.S. Bioindustrial Manufacturing by Educating Future Workers

March 3, 2022 | Guest Author

With a new project funded by BioMADE — led by professor Gary Gilleskie — NC State will help train the workforce needed to advance bioindustrial manufacturing in the U.S....

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

June 3, 2020 | Jennifer Kuzma

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....

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Jonas Monast – Natural Resources Law as a Model for Biotechnology Governance | GES Colloquium

August 19, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

Jonas Monast joins us from the UNC School of Law to discuss the emerging conflicts between biotechnology governance and natural resources management, and explore how existing natural resources laws can inform biotechnology governance challenges....

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Figure 1 Summary of GE Plants Oversight in Proposed Rule - J. Kuzma

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

July 2, 2019 | Jennifer Kuzma

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. ...

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Word cloud created from the language in the Regulation of Ag Biotech Executive Order

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

June 18, 2019 | Jennifer Kuzma

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....

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Todd Kuiken Seminar: CRISPR and Risk (RIT)

February 25, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

CRISPR and RISK - A Critical Discussion of Gene Editing; Rochester Institute of Technology, Feb 26, 2019. Speakers: Stephen Hilgartner, Cornell University, Department of Science and Technology Studies; Todd Kuiken,  Senior Research Scholar, Genetic Engineering and Society Center North Carolina State University; Patti Durr, RIT/NTID, Department of Cultural and Creative Studies...

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AgBioFEWS Response Form

February 19, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

Please complete this application in its entirety and remember to click ‘Submit Application’ at the end. If you need any assistance, please contact us at gesocietycenter@ncsu.edu or (919) 515-2596.  ...

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Todd Kuiken Seminar: Governance of Emerging Biotechnologies in a World Without Borders

January 18, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

Innovative Genomics Institute, UC Berkeley, Jan 22, 2019 | Todd Kuiken Seminar: Governance of Emerging Biotechnologies in a World Without Borders. As synthetic biology, genome editing, gene drives, CRISPR, and the biotechnologies of tomorrow continue to emerge, international treaties are struggling to keep pace. While recognizing that biotechnologies are rapidly developing, with potential benefits and potential adverse impacts; how will treaties develop governance systems to both enable benefits while preventing or minimizing adverse effects? How do international treaties that address access and benefits sharing agreements based on “physical genetic material” incorporate (or not) digital sequence information? If engineered gene drives do not recognize a country’s or indigenous community’s sovereign lands; how does the international community address a situation where one country decides to move forward while another, or indigenous community, says no? And how does the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it, incorporate (or not), the tools of biotechnology? These are just some of the complicated questions international treaties have been debating over the last 10 years. Join us for a discussion as I examine these and other issues through my personal experiences inside these debates....

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Can genetic engineering save disappearing forests?

January 18, 2019 | Jason Delborne

Jason Delborne, January 18, 2019 | Forests in the US face many threats: climate change, invasive species, pests and pathogens. Could genetically engineering trees make these plants more resilient?" ...

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Webinar: NASEM Forest Health and Biotechnology Report Release

January 3, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will hold a public release webinar for the new consensus report Forest Health and Biotechnology: Possibilities and Considerations on Tuesday, January 8 at 2:00 pm ET. Register below to watch the report release webinar. The recording will be posted 1 week afterwards....

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GES Colloquium | Jason Delborne: The Potential for Biotechnology to Address Forest Health

January 2, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

GES Colloquium, 2/19/18 - Jason Delborne | In 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine formed a committee of experts to explore the potential for biotechnology to address forest health. The committee focused on threats to forest health from pests and pathogens and considered challenges and opportunities of biotech trees (genetically engineered or gene-edited) as solutions. NASEM released this report in January 2019, and Jason participated in the public release of this report in Washington, DC and a session at the AAAS annual meeting to summarize findings of the report....

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