Reinvention, Part 2: Teosinte. Credit: Youting Lin

Biotech: An Environmentalist’s Dilemma

January 21, 2021 | Todd Kuiken

Biodesigned, Jan. 21, 2021 | Environmental scientist Todd Kuiken weighs the pros and cons of deploying biotechnology to protect vulnerable ecosystems. Can altering the DNA of species save them from the impacts of human induced climate change, or will it wreak a new form of havoc?"...

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Owain Edwards – Accelerating evolution: Engineering resilience in corals to elevated sea temperatures | GES Colloquium (Zoom)

July 20, 2020 | Patti Mulligan

Coral bleaching can be prevented by replacing the coral's symbiotic microalgae with strains that have been made more heat tolerant using assisted evolution....

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Blog: We must do better…

June 11, 2020 | Todd Kuiken

Todd Kuiken, June 11, 2020 | The following reflection was part of a special GES colloquium held on June 5, 2020, discussing the new USDA regulations on GM crops. Which was held in the midst of national protests against police brutality. They are my personal reflections in support of #blacklivesmatter and the systemic racism and inequalities seen throughout our institutions....

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photo of Jose Alonso

Jose Alonso – Implementing recombineering to study gene function in plants | GES Colloquium

January 3, 2020 | Patti Mulligan

Dr. Alonso to discuss how high-efficiency homologous recombination in bacteria facilitates the study of gene function in plants...

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Elizabeth Bennett – Synthetic biology and biodiversity conservation | GES Colloquium

January 3, 2020 | Patti Mulligan

Elizabeth Bennett, of Wildlife Conservation Society, on the possible applications of synthetic biology to biodiversity conservation, and their pros and cons...

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Lessons Learned for Risk Governance of Synthetic Biology, Nanomaterials, and Other Emerging Technologies in a Post-2020 World

December 13, 2019 | Todd Kuiken

Khara Grieger and Todd Kuiken, Dec. 13, 2019 | On December 9th, a symposium was held at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis, entitled “Risk Analysis of Engineered Nanomaterials: Where Have We Been, Lessons Learned, and Transfer of Knowledge to Other Emerging Technologies,” as a part of the Advanced Materials and Technologies Specialty Group....

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Does the US public support using gene drives to control agricultural pests?

September 11, 2019 | Guest Author

Mike Jones, Sep. 11, 2019 | The development of gene drives is progressing more rapidly than our understanding of public values towards these technologies. Findings from this research can inform responsible innovation in gene drive development and risk assessment....

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Todd Kuiken speaking at iGEM 2017, where he served on the Human Practices committee. Credit: iGEM Foundation and Justin Knight.

Todd Kuiken – Updates and Opportunities in the International Synbio Policy Space | GES Colloquium

August 19, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

GES Colloquium, 9/10/19 | Dr. Todd Kuiken will provide an update on major international treaties and discussions around synthetic biology, and ways for NC State and the broader synbio community to participate in these activities....

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Image of seedling in the field with molecular background

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

July 25, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

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

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Genetic frontiers for conservation

IUCN Report: Genetic frontiers for conservation – An assessment of synthetic biology and biodiversity conservation

May 9, 2019 | Todd Kuiken

Todd Kuiken, May 9, 2019 | Synthetic biology – altering or redesigning genes to meet human objectives – is a fast-developing field with significant potential impacts on nature conservation, according to the Genetic frontiers for conservation assessment report. So far mostly applied in agriculture and medicine, synthetic biology could have substantial knock-on effects on conservation – including modified genes spreading to non-target species and affecting broader ecosystems, but also benefits such as saving threatened species, reduced fertiliser use or diminished demand for products derived from threatened species....

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GES Colloquium | Aditi Mankad – Social Science and Synthetic Biology: Maximising Impact

January 2, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

GES Colloquium, 3/5/18 - Aditi Mankad - Social Science and Synthetic Biology: Maximising Impact | This talk will provide an overview of Australia's investment into synbio via the Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform (SynBio FSP) and how the social science application domain plays an important and integrative role in the future development of synbio technology in Australia. ...

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Publication: Comparative, collaborative, and integrative risk governance for emerging technologies

May 7, 2018 | Patti Mulligan

GES Co-director, Dr. Jennifer Kuzma and affiliated faculty member, Dr. David Berube, have published an article in the journal Environment Systems and Decisions that argues for a risk governance approach to emerging technologies, such as synthetic biology...

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Space for the Social Sciences in Engineering Biology

March 14, 2018 | Jennifer Kuzma

I had the pleasure of attending the Canada SynBio 2018 Conference “Engineering Biology for Health, Food and the EnvIronment in Toronto last week. While I’ve been to many such events in the United States, this...

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Gould quoted in Nature on synthetic organisms unable to breed with wild counterparts

January 16, 2018 | Patti Mulligan

Fred Gould is quoted in Nature, discussing a gene editing technique designed to make interbreeding between synthetic and wild organisms impossible. The technology, which targets gene expression, could be applied to mosquitoes to control infectious diseases, such as malaria, or to invasive species, like Asian carp. "This is an ingenious system."...

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Photo of Dr. Jennifer Kuzma, Co-Director of the GES Center

Jennifer Kuzma on Institute for Emerging Issues First in Future podcast

December 12, 2017 | Patti Mulligan

December 12, 2017 Dr. Jennifer Kuzma speaks with Leslie Boney, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) at NC State on the First in Future podcast. In this pod, Dr. Kuzma discusses gene edited...

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