Can virtual reality therapy help alleviate chronic pain?

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

5-Jun-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, June 5, 2014Chronic pain due to disease or injury is common, and even prescription pain medications cannot provide acceptable pain relief for many individuals. Virtual reality as a means of distraction, inducing positive emotions, or creating the perception of "swapping" a limb or bodily area affected by chronic pain in a virtual environment can be a powerful therapeutic tool, as described in several articles in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The articles are available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

Editor-in-Chief Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN and coauthors Kenneth Gao, Camelia Sulea, MD, and Mark Wiederhold, MD, PhD, FACP from the Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium and Virtual Reality Medical Center, San Diego, CA, created pleasant virtual experiences that patients could navigate through in simulated worlds to distract them from pain. They report both the patients' subjective ratings of relief and how those compared to physiological measurements to assess pain responses in the article "Virtual Reality as a Distraction Technique in Chronic Pain Patients."

In "Application of Virtual Body Swapping to Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: A Pilot Study," Bomyi Jeon and coauthors from Korea evaluated the effectiveness of virtual body swapping therapy in improving pain intensity and "body perception disturbance" in patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a chronic progressive disease characterized by severe pain and disturbed body perception.

Rocio Herrero, PhD and a team of researchers from Spain report significant improvement in multiple factors affecting quality of life for patients with fibromyalgia syndrome, a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition. They describe their therapeutic approach in the article "Virtual Reality for the Induction of Positive Emotions in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia: A Pilot Study over Acceptability, Satisfaction, and the Effect of Virtual Reality on Mood."

"Studies have shown that VR can be an effective adjunct for both chronic and acute pain conditions," says Dr. Wiederhold. "Future possibilities for VR's use in pain conditions may include such diverse groups as military personnel, space exploration teams, and our ever increasing elderly population."

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Can virtual reality therapy help alleviate chronic pain?

Cancer Nanomedicine – The Cancer Nanomedicine Blog

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The field of nanomedicine is inherently multidisciplinary requiring the involvement of those with knowledge of engineering, physics, chemistry, biology as well as medicine. The commercialization of nanomedicine adds further complexity and requires additional participation from those with experience in manufacturing, intellectual property, regulatory issues, strategic partnering, and raising investment. Suffice it to say, getting a nanomedicine to the clinic is a tremendous challenge. Given that nanomedicine is still a fairly nascent area, most nanomedicines are currently being developed in academia.

The Wyss Institute at Harvard University

The Wyss Institute at Harvard University is a collaborative effort between researchers, clinicians, corporations, and startups. The Institute is partnership between the following entities:

Programmable, or smart, nanomaterials can be formed from numerous types of materials including metals, polymers, and ceramics. At the Wyss Institute, nucleic acids (RNA, DNA) are the building blocks of their programmable nanomaterials. Nucleic acid-based nanostructures such as DNA origami are being developed to enable multiplexed diagnostic assays and medical imaging techniques and to form nanoparticle drug carriers targeting diseased sites within the body.

Heres a video from the Wyss Institutes website discussing DNA-based programmable nanomaterials.

To facilitate the launch of new ideas that may transcend into potential medical solutions, the Wyss Institute offers small grants to faculty at Harvard and collaborating academic institutions and medical centers. These grants enable exploratory research that would otherwise be too early-stage for government or industry funding. These early-stage grants are a much-needed source of financing as early-stage funding is extremely challenging to obtain, especially for life sciences efforts.

At the other end of the spectrum of commercialization, complementary to seed grants, the Wyss Institute actively seeks industrial partnerships. These partnerships can help with not only providing additional funding to promising projects, but also in giving insight to researchers regarding market opportunities. The industrial partners are also potential licensees of technologies developed at the Wyss institute, helping to bring the ideas to fruition and eventual commercialization.

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Cancer Nanomedicine - The Cancer Nanomedicine Blog

New Survey Shows Evangelical Christians Cheat On Their Spouses The Most

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A new survey shows the religions of people who cheat on their spouses, and according to the results, Evangelical Christians take the top spot.

Ashley Madison is a website for married people who discreetly want to find something on the side, and in a recent survey, they found that the majority of cheaters are Christian.

You can go and pray every Sunday, or Saturday, or three times a day, and it may not make a difference in how monogamous you are, said Ashley Madison founder Noel Biderman to the NY Daily News.

The survey shows that Evangelical Christians make up a quarter of the people who participated in the survey, while two other denominations of Christianty, Catholicism and Protestantism, take spots two and three, respectively; all falling above 20 percent. Other religions like Mormonism, Judaism, and Hinduism, account for less than two percent of participants, and non-belief systems like Atheism and Agnosticism fall very low on the list.

The survey questioned around 63,000 people, and of those people, 57 percent were male.

Take a look below at the top ten religious affiliations of cheaters, based on the Ashley Madison survey.

1. Evangelical: 25.1%

2. Catholic: 22.75%

3. Protestant: 22.7%

4. Agnostic: 2%

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New Survey Shows Evangelical Christians Cheat On Their Spouses The Most

California GMO Labeling Bill Fails; Means Win for Consumers

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Patrick McGreevy of The Los Angeles Times reported on SB 1381, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act. This bill would establish a requirement for companies to disclose if foods sold in California are genetically engineered (for raw commodities) to produced with genetic engineering or partially produced with genetic engineering (for processed foods).

McGreevy reaffirmed that the California GMO labeling bill failed in the Senate, 19-16, just two votes short of the majority needed for passage, after some Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the measure.

In November 2012, a more complex, yet similar labeling initiative, Proposition 37, was rejected by California voters. Its troubling to see that a similar bill resurfaced especially when economic analysis behind Californias Proposition 37 estimated annual food costs for an average-income family would increase by approximately $400.

State Senator Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) sponsored SB 1381, stating that its about consumer choice and information.If the product contains GMOs, label it. We shouldnt be hiding ingredients.

However, her right to know argument is weak. Consumer choice already exists in the market place. They can choose organic or Non-GMO.

Additionally, GMOs are safe for consumption. Scientific authorities such as the National Academies of Science, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of science have looked at HUNDREDS of scientific studies and have concluded that foods with biotech-derived ingredients do not pose any more risk to people than any other foods.

Lastly, genetic modification isnt an ingredient, its a (farming) technology just as organic is a (farming) technology, both regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA has also held that there is no significant difference between foods produced using bio-engineering, as a class, and their conventional counterparts.

It is important to the look at the bigger picture which The Los Angeles Times caught as it quoted Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) who notably said that the bill is overkill, and would undermine worldwide efforts to develop crops and other food to prevent starvation in developing countries.

Closing his piece, McGreevy reported how Senate action was welcomed by Cynthia Cory, director of environmental affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation, who greatly amplified the true messaging strategy behind anti-GMO activism, Were pleased the Senate did not fall for the proponents scare tactics and that they rejected this unnecessary, misleading and costly bill that would increase food costs for consumers.

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California GMO Labeling Bill Fails; Means Win for Consumers

11-Million-Year-Old Weird Worm Lizard Discovered

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They look like snakes, but don't be fooled: Legless, slithering amphisbaenians are more closely related to lizards than to boa constrictors.

Now, the first complete skull of the ancestor of today's bizarre "worm lizards" reveals that these strange reptiles have been largely unchanged for at least 11 million years. The fossil skull, discovered in Spain, is only 0.44 inches (11.2 millimeters long), but represents a new species, Blanus mendezi.

This family, known as blanids, includes the only worm lizards found on land in Europe, said study researcher Arnau Bolet, a doctoral student at the Institut Catal de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont in Barcelona.

"Their fossil record was until now limited to isolated and usually fragmented bones," Bolet told Live Science in an email. "Thus, the study of a complete fossil skull more than 11 million years old was an unprecedented opportunity." [The 12 Weirdest Animal Discoveries]

Lizards without legs

Worm lizards are found around the world today, though most of the 180 or so extant species live in the Arabian Peninsula, Africa and South America. Some have rudimentary legs, but most have no limbs at all, and resemble large earthworms.

Today, there are three groups of worm lizards in the Mediterranean region: one group is eastern, one is Iberian and one is northwest African. The Iberian and northwest African groups probably arose from one western Mediterranean group that only later subdivided, Bolet and his colleagues explain today (June 4) in the journal PLOS ONE.

The new skull was found in sediments excavated in 2011 in the Valls-Peneds Basin in Spain's Catalonia region. Manel Mndez, a technician at the Institut Catal de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, was sifting through the dirt for fossils using a screen when he found a lumpy, pinkish rock that he knew was something more.

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11-Million-Year-Old Weird Worm Lizard Discovered

AERA Announces New Editors for Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics

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Newswise WASHINGTON, D.C., June 4, 2014 The American Educational Research Association (AERA) has named Daniel McCaffrey and Li Cai as the new editors for the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics (JEBS). McCaffrey and Cai will begin reviewing manuscripts on July 1, 2014, and will become editors of record for a three-year term beginning in January 2015.

Cosponsored by AERA and the American Statistical Association, JEBS provides an outlet for research papers that develop original statistical methods useful for the applied statistician working in educational or behavioral research.

Daniel McCaffrey is a principal research scientist at the Educational Testing Service. He is a founding co-editor of Statistics and Public Policy, a new online journal of the American Statistical Association. Previously, he was an associate editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association and the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics. He has also been a member of several scientific review panels at the Institute of Education Statistics and the National Institutes of Health and has reviewed proposals for the National Science Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Li Cai is a faculty member in the advanced quantitative methodology program at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he also serves as co-director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. In addition, he is affiliated with the UCLA Department of Psychology in the quantitative area. His methodological research agenda involves the development, integration, and evaluation of innovative latent variable models, as well as computational algorithms and software implementations that have wide-ranging applications in educational assessment and evaluation, psychological measurement, and health-related domains of study.

We are honored to be the next editorial leaders of the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, said McCaffrey and Cai. We will maintain and grow JEBS as the first choice of methodologists across the education and behavioral sciences by publishing papers on emerging topics that will help drive research in these fields. This approach will ensure JEBS continues to lead the methodological research agenda.

McCaffrey and Cai will assume the editorship currently held by Matthew Johnson, associate professor of statistics and education at Columbia Universitys Teachers College, and Sandip Sinharay, chief research statistician at CTB/McGraw-Hill.

About AERA

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the largest national professional organization devoted to the scientific study of education. Founded in 1916, AERA advances knowledge about education, encourages scholarly inquiry related to education, and promotes the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. Find AERA on Facebook and Twitter.

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New glaucoma treatment replaces the hassle of applying eyedrops daily

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SINGAPORE - Under the treatment, a drug contained in millions of tiny capsules is injected into the eyeball. These nanomedicine capsules slowly release their contents over six months, replacing the need for daily eyedrops.

Get the full story from The Straits Times.

Here is the statement from the Nanyang Technological University:

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) have jointly developed a new nanomedicine that will allow glaucoma patients to do away with daily eye drops.

Glaucoma is a disease which could lead to blindness. This new sustained-release drug therapy can provide months of relief to glaucoma patients with a single application, compared to just hours with today's conventional eye drops.

The new therapy has successfully gone through a pilot study with six patients conducted at the Singapore National Eye Centre and has yielded exceptional results, having shown to be both safe and effective in the treatment of glaucoma.

A leading cause of blindness in the world especially for the elderly, glaucoma is caused by high intra-ocular pressure in the eye which then leads to damage to the optic nerve. Conventionally, the first line of treatment for glaucoma patients is the daily application of eye drops which can lower the high pressure in their eyes. This treatment is usually required for the rest of the patients' lives as glaucoma is a chronic disease.

Co-lead scientist Associate Professor Tina Wong, who is the head of the Ocular Therapeutics and Drug Delivery Research Group at the Singapore Eye Research Institute, said the new nanomedicine will benefit the elderly, as they often forget to use the daily eye drops, leading to the worsening of their conditions.

"It is estimated that at least ten per cent of blindness from glaucoma is directly caused by poor patient adherence to their prescribed medications," says Dr Wong, an Adjunct Associate Professor with NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering.

"Many patients find it difficult to adhere to their doctor's prescribed regime for many reasons, such as forgetfulness, finding it too troublesome, or they lack understanding of the disease. The results in this clinical study will open up a new treatment modality for glaucoma other than taking daily eye drops, and will greatly enhance patient compliance and improve treatment outcomes," she said. Professor Tina Wong is also a senior consultant ophthalmologist with the Glaucoma Service at Singapore National Eye Centre.

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New glaucoma treatment replaces the hassle of applying eyedrops daily

New nanomedicine by NTU and SERI scientists to bring relief to glaucoma patients

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

3-Jun-2014

Contact: Lester Kok lesterkok@ntu.edu.sg 65-679-06804 Nanyang Technological University

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) have jointly developed a new nanomedicine that will allow glaucoma patients to do away with daily eye drops.

Glaucoma is a disease which could lead to blindness. This new sustained-release drug therapy can provide months of relief to glaucoma patients with a single application, compared to just hours with today's conventional eye drops.

The new therapy has successfully gone through a pilot study with six patients conducted at the Singapore National Eye Centre and has yielded exceptional results, having shown to be both safe and effective in the treatment of glaucoma.

A leading cause of blindness in the world especially for the elderly, glaucoma is caused by high intra-ocular pressure in the eye which then leads to damage to the optic nerve. Conventionally, the first line of treatment for glaucoma patients is the daily application of eye drops which can lower the high pressure in their eyes. This treatment is usually required for the rest of the patients' lives as glaucoma is a chronic disease.

Co-lead scientist Associate Professor Tina Wong, who is the head of the Ocular Therapeutics and Drug Delivery Research Group at the Singapore Eye Research Institute, said the new nanomedicine will benefit the elderly, as they often forget to use the daily eye drops, leading to the worsening of their conditions.

"It is estimated that at least ten per cent of blindness from glaucoma is directly caused by poor patient adherence to their prescribed medications," says Dr Wong, an Adjunct Associate Professor with NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering.

"Many patients find it difficult to adhere to their doctor's prescribed regime for many reasons, such as forgetfulness, finding it too troublesome, or they lack understanding of the disease. The results in this clinical study will open up a new treatment modality for glaucoma other than taking daily eye drops, and will greatly enhance patient compliance and improve treatment outcomes," she said.

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New nanomedicine by NTU and SERI scientists to bring relief to glaucoma patients

Early Dogs Helped Humans Hunt Mammoths

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Early dogs may have helped human hunters track and kill mammoths in Ice Age Europe and Asia. The fierce dogs may have then guarded the meat from their wolf relatives.

Penn State archeologist Pat Shipman recently calculated that the age ranges of mammoths found in these ancient boneyards suggest that the animals were hunted, not just scavenged after a catastrophe killed an entire herd.Shipman suggested that the domestication of wolves, along with improvements in projectile weapons, may have allowed people to successfully hunt large numbers of mammoths. The journal Quaternary International published her results.

From approximately 40,000 to 15,000 years ago, human campsites from Siberia to central Europe contained tremendous numbers of mammoth bones, sometimes from more than 100 individual pachyderms. In many cases, humans constructed buildings using the mammothbones, tusks and hides.

Shipman noted that high numbers of wild wolf and Arctic fox bones appear along with the mammoth bones. Dogs may have helped guard the mammoth meat by alerting people when other carnivores came sniffing around. The wolves and foxes were then killed and skinned for their pelts and meat.

Earlier archeological discoveries, published in the Journal of Archeological Sciences, described a breed of dog, or semi-domesticated wolf, from approximately 32,000 years ago in what is now Belgium, the Ukraine and Russia. Genetic and skeletal evidence show that the dog-like creature was different from known wolves, yet its genetic signature didnt survive in modern dog populations. This could mean the mammoth-hunting dogs either died out, or interbred with other dogs and wolves until they became indistinguishable.

Relatives of modern humans, including Neanderthals, likely hunted mammoths too. Chemical signatures in their bones suggest Neanderthals ate the extinct creatures. However, no known Neanderthal campsites contain the remains of hundreds of mammoth bones.

Photo: Wikipedia Commons

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Early Dogs Helped Humans Hunt Mammoths

House Passes FY 2015 Funding Bill for NASA, NIST, NOAA, and NSF

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A primary area of focus in the bill this year is scientific research, innovation and competitiveness. Investing in basic research is key to growth and job creation, and it is the foundation for the economic security of future generations which enables us to stay ahead of China. So said Frank Wolf (R-VA), Chairman of the House Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee at the start of two days of deliberations by the House on an FY 2015 bill to fund a wide range of federal agencies, including NASA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.

The House passed this legislation on Friday morning by a vote of 321-87. Although scores of amendments were offered the bills provisions regarding the four science agencies were left largely unchanged.

While there was discussion about the appropriateness of some NSF grants, the partisan divisions seen at last weeks House Science Committeemarkupof their FIRST bill were much less apparent. Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Ranking Member on the Commerce, Justice Science Appropriations Subcommittee saidAs for the Democrats, I want to say a number of things. One if that we are very pleased that in this bill the science accounts have been a focus of high priority.

The subcommittee wrote the FY 2015 bill under difficult circumstances. Overall funding was about $400 million less than the current level. In the last five fiscal years the subcommittee has cut total spending by $13.3 billion or 20 percent. Thisbill, H.R. 4660, is the last that Wolf will be writing as he is retiring at the end of this Congress.

Grants made by NSFs Social, Behavioral, and Economics (SBE) Directorate were discussed as was the foundations grant making process. In introducing his bill, Wolf said,With increased funding comes increased responsibility. I respect the NSF to follow through on the commitments it has made to the committee to increase accountability and transparency in its grant decision making. No funny grants is what I am trying to say. The new director must take every necessary step to ensure that research grants are scientifically meritorious, that funding allocations reflect national priorities and that the taxpayer investments in science are being used wisely. Later in the debate, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) offered an amendment to reduce the bills FY 2015 funding for the SBE directorate by $15.4 million, resulting in level funding of $256.9 million. This funding would be shifted to NSF physical science and engineering grants. The amendment passed by a vote of 208-201.

The bills funding level for NOAAs Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research was increased by $12 million under a successful amendment offered by Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK). Arguing that the increased money would accelerate R&D and the development of new technologies, Bridenstines amendment shifted the money from the Census Bureau. Both Wolf and Fattah supported the amendment and it passed the House by a vote of 340-71. In announcing his support for the amendment, Wolf described H.R. 4660s strong funding for the National Weather Service, explaining the bills appropriation was $16 million above the Obama Administrations request. The bill also provided funding above the Administrations requests for information technology officers, the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program, and a tsunami community education awareness program.

Efforts to increase funding for NOAAs climate research programs were unsuccessful. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) sponsored an amendment to shift $37.5 million, within the bills appropriation for NOAA, to maintain the current level of funding. Explained Holt:This bill would cut critical investments that are needed for ongoing climate research, and failing to provide the resources necessary to study our changing climate wont make the problem go away; it will just make it harder to predict and more difficult to understand. Denial is the result of ignorance and only deepens our ignorance. We need to support the science behind climate change. We need to develop policies that would help us mitigate and adapt to the threats of climate change. Four of Holts Democratic colleagues offered lengthy remarks supporting the amendment but it was rejected on a voice vote. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) offered an amendment to fully fund the administration request for NOAAs Integrated Ocean Acidification research program but she withdrew it before a vote was called.

Other science-related amendments discussed on the floor included one by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) to move $7 million in NASA funding from space operations to space technology. It was accepted by House members. The House rejected an amendment offered by Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) to shift $10 million from NASAs Exploration program to an international trade enforcement program. An amendment by Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) to reduce NSFs FY 2015 appropriation by $67 million was rejected by voice vote. Rep. Matt Salmons (R-AZ) amendment to eliminate NSF funding for research on climate change impacts on Chinese tea was accepted by voice vote. Another amendment that would have affected specific NSF research grants was ruled out of order.

Action now shifts to Senate appropriators. Today Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and her colleagues approved their version of the FY 2015 bill. It will be considered by the full committee, which she also chairs, on Thursday.

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House Passes FY 2015 Funding Bill for NASA, NIST, NOAA, and NSF

DGAP-News: MagForce AG: MagForce AG to present at dbAccess German, Swiss & Austrian Conference 2014, held by Deutsche …

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02.06.2014 / 09:00

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Berlin, Germany and Nevada, USA, June 2, 2014 - MagForce AG (Frankfurt, Entry Standard, XETRA: MF6), a leading medical device company in the field of nanomedicine focused on oncology, today announced that it will participate in the dbAccess German, Swiss & Austrian Conference 2014 held by Deutsche Bank from June 11 until June 13, 2014, in Berlin, Germany.

Meeting Details:

Speaker: Dr. Ben J. Lipps Date of presentation: Friday, June 13, 2014; 08:00 am CET Location: Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Unter den Linden 77, 10117 Berlin Availability for 1-on-1-meetings: Wednesday, June 11, 2014; 12:30 - 18:30 CET & Friday, June 13, 2014; all day

The presentation will be also made available on Magforce's website on http://www.magforce.com.

About MagForce AG

MagForce AG, listed in the entry standard (MF6), together with its subsidiary MAGFORCE USA, Inc. is a leading medical device company in the field of nanomedicine in oncology. The Group's proprietary NanoTherm(R) therapy enables the targeted treatment of solid tumors through the intratumoral generation of heat via activation of superparamagnetic nanoparticles. NanoTherm(R), NanoPlan(R), and NanoActivator(R) are components of the therapy and have received EU-wide regulatory approval as medical devices for the treatment of brain tumors. MagForce, NanoTherm, NanoPlan, and NanoActivator are trademarks of MagForce AG in selected countries. For more information, please visit http://www.magforce.com.

Disclaimer

This release may contain forward-looking statements and information which may be identified by formulations using terms such as "expects", "aims", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "seeks", "estimates" or "will". Such forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and certain assumptions, which may be subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties. The results actually achieved by MagForce AG may substantially differ from these forward-looking statements. MagForce AG assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements or to correct them in case of developments, which differ from those, anticipated.

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DGAP-News: MagForce AG: MagForce AG to present at dbAccess German, Swiss & Austrian Conference 2014, held by Deutsche ...

GMO ban, research at odds?

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Hawaii County set itself apart from much of the rest of the state in December by effectively banning the large biotech seed companies that have become a major, though controversial, part of Hawaii agriculture.

But with a ban also on the outdoor testing of transgenic crops, can the Big Island, home to genetically modified papaya, still be a place for genetic research?

Six months later, the answer might be clearly no for some researchers while a bit hazy for others.

Because of the law, Russell Nagata, Hawaii County administrator for the University of Hawaiis College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, said his staff will not pursue genetic engineering.

It will prevent us from using biotech as a solution to agricultural issues, he said following a panel discussion on genetic modification Thursday evening.

It forces us to look at it in a different manner. It may be slow, it may not be as effective.

Scientists interviewed say growing modified crops, that are still under development, in open fields is necessary to test their effectiveness.

While they say they take steps to prevent the spread of genes, including the removal of plants before flowering, critics of genetic modification believe outdoor testing presents too much risk. They also question the approval process.

We are looking at the precautionary principle, said Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille during the panel discussion sponsored by the Hilo chapter of the American Association of University Women. Wille introduced the bill restricting the use of transgenic crops.

Under the countys law, testing can occur but it must be done indoors.

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GMO ban, research at odds?