Daily Archives: March 25, 2020

From genetics to material to behavior

Introducing new genes into an organism can endow new biochemical functions or change the patterns of existing functions, but extending these manipulations to structure at the tissue level is challenging. Combining genetic engineering and polymer chemistry, Liu et al. directly leveraged complex cellular architectures of living organisms to synthesize, fabricate, and assemble bioelectronic materials (see the Perspective by Otto and Schmidt). An engineered enzyme expressed in genetically targeted neurons synthesized conductive polymers in tissues of freely moving animals. These polymers enabled modulation of membrane properties in specific neuron populations and manipulation of behavior in living animals.

Science, this issue p. 1372; see also p. 1303

The structural and functional complexity of multicellular biological systems, such as the brain, are beyond the reach of human design or assembly capabilities. Cells in living organisms may be recruited to construct synthetic materials or structures if treated as anatomically defined compartments for specific chemistry, harnessing biology for the assembly of complex functional structures. By integrating engineered-enzyme targeting and polymer chemistry, we genetically instructed specific living neurons to guide chemical synthesis of electrically functional (conductive or insulating) polymers at the plasma membrane. Electrophysiological and behavioral analyses confirmed that rationally designed, genetically targeted assembly of functional polymers not only preserved neuronal viability but also achieved remodeling of membrane properties and modulated cell typespecific behaviors in freely moving animals. This approach may enable the creation of diverse, complex, and functional structures and materials within living systems.

The rest is here:
Genetically targeted chemical assembly of functional materials in living cells, tissues, and animals - Science Magazine

While 70 million Americans are under lockdown to contain spread of the 2019 form of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in order to limit the spread of the COVID-19 illness that has cost 16,000 lives worldwide, American lawyers are teeing up to sue the one product the FDA and everyone else knows kills germs - Purell.

While political activists are yelling that hotels forced by threat of law to remain closed should not get any sort of government bailout, where is the yelling that other lawyers are profiteering from fear and doubt?It isn't just in the U.S. In Italy, a lawyer is trying to drum up support in a communist newspaper thatmodern genetic engineering makes coronavirus easier to spread.

Meanwhile, the philosopher Vandana Shiva, Ph.D, an avowed opponent of farming, is using the outbreak to promote her agenda against science.

Communists and anti-science activists and trial lawyers working together? Who saw that coming?

Well, everyone. Dark money runs deep in the environmental movement. In 2015, James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence during the Obama administration, warned that Russia was using offshore "donor advised" funds to send money to its allies in the US. And those allies in the US are a Who's Who of environmental groups opposed to farming and energy, Russia's top-two exports. COVID-19 ended up being kind of a win for China, since they had just been exposed as paying numerous American academics to help recruit others in the communist country's effort to move ahead of America.

Now those same groups are claiming that people who don't eat organic food are more susceptible to coronavirus. It's working. Some organic farms are reporting that their online sales have tripled.

It's a disgusting, despicable tactic that unfortunately works, no less successful than Dr. Shiva claiming that modern farming causes suicides and those who don't agree with her are rapists. Facts don't matter, greed does, and she makes $40,000 per speech promoting hatred of science.

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What Anti-Science Activists And Lawyers Have In Common During This Crisis They Share The Rest Of The Time: Fear Profiteering - Science 2.0

The impact of COVID 19 is far-reaching and profound. The virus is unseen and moving fast. It can infect without symptoms. Its use of innocent carriers makes everyone suspect.

It also attacks in a random fashion, with just enough victims to easily lead the rest to the edge of panic. And while COVID 19 appears to kill 20 to 30 times more people than the worst form of flu, it seems to still be like a common cold, in that it may not be strong enough for the body to develop a lasting immune system response.

In spite of the earlier hype, artificial intelligence (AI) has singularly failed to help much.

There was little in the way of predictive analytics about where the pandemic would strike and how it would develop.

The jury is also out on another much-touted darling, biotechnology. Biotech has yet to offer anything like a silver bullet.

Meanwhile, the entire world waits with baited breath for a designer drug or vaccine spliced and stitched up with genetic engineering tools like CRISPR, to vanquish COVID 19.

At the present stage, we cant even answer very simple questions: What comes when this current peak wanes?

All we seem to know is that there will be a new normal. For the foreseeable future, it may not be like anything before.

There is even a good chance some of the same questions we now face may still be around during the next peak of infections, and the one after.

Amidst all this hand-wringing and unleashing of previously unseen economic rescue packages, only the Anglo-Saxons and the Calvinist Dutch have asked the Mother of all Questions:

Who is prepared to pay the price for an abnormal, new normal ? And what exactly will this look like?

The first victim of COVID 19 is likely to be tourism. Which matters because it is one of the worlds biggest economic sectors.

The era of retirement voyages on cruise ships is probably sunk for good. But what about airlines, the lifeblood of the 21st centurys globalized economy?

After all, this is an industry where passengers are even far more densely packed than on cruise ships, sitting squeezed together for hours on end in an air-tight tube.

Worse, owing to the industrys mantra of operating a hub-and-spokes system at airports, a single asymptomatic carrier may be enough to kindle a burgeoning cycle of infections in many different countries.

That evidently is what happened at resorts in Austria and Italy during that fateful ski holiday week at the end of February.

Note as well that, in 2003 when COVID 19s SARS cousin sprouted in China, 1.65 billion people travelled by air that year. In 2018, the figure was already two-and-a-half times higher, at 4.2 billion.

Moving up and down the economic value chain produces only more of the same uncomfortable questions.

Here are some of the pertinent questions to be asked:

1. What is the business outlook for AirBnB, co-living, bars and cafes, discos and cinemas, open-air markets?

2. Will remote learning be the death knell for brick-and-mortar university campuses?

3. How virus-proofed are food and fruit supply chains from Spain to northern Europe, from Mexico to the United States?

4. Do the lorries backed up at borders within the Schengen area conceal refugees?

5. At a time when emergency services are stretched, what is the chance of a terror attack, and how effective would be a response?

6. And although it is clear that a lockdown reduces most targets for a mass casualty attack, there is one notable exception the public hospital.

Most of the world remains hopeful about vaccination against COVID 19. However, a successful vaccine is unlikely to be ready before the end of this year.

After this, there will be the challenge of ramping up production and organizing the immunization of billions of people.

In the meanwhile, should one or more pharmacological treatments be successful, the question remains: How many can be treated, and where?

With 5-10% of COVID 19 cases needing ventilator support, is there room for drive-in halfway houses, between home and hospital, or hospital and intensive care?

In many parts of Europe, serious debate about such questions have been derailed by newsbytes and occasional self-congratulation about hospitals and ICUs.

Way beyond this, tough questions need to be faced. One of the most immediate issues is strategic self-sufficiency.

Take the case of Germany, the presumed master of infrastructure spending and planning. With war out of fashion in Europe, little attention was given to the amazing finding that a large part of Germanys fighter jets, helicopters, tanks and submarines did not work when tested.

This was largely an ideological battle between the left and the political center. However, public health should be another matter.

Nobody is really surprised that there was a severe shortage of face masks even in hospitals in Italy. But why on earth is there one in Germany?

Health systems in ageing societies may lack nurses and lab technicians but face masks?

Just how off we are on our presumably modern reaction and thought patterns, consider this: Before the COVID 19 crisis, the world was obsessed about plastics, of doing away with them.

As is ironically turns out now, the best defense against viral contamination is a plastic barrier. All of a sudden everybody prays for plastics Great Return.

Amidst the many ethics questions we will have to ponder, there are two lessons which COVID 19 might teach us.

1. To pay for the panoply of ever-cheaper products we do not really need, we have lived our lives on a curve of diminishing returns. There will be a recession, probably a severe one, but the world economy will recover. To what degree is our choice.

2. As we sit locked down at home, we can celebrate the return of time. We do not need to overwork to save for free time, at a later date.

It may also be salutary to remember that refugees did not cause the 21st centurys first pandemic. Tourists did.

Link:
COVID 19: 21st Century Reality Check - The Globalist

What to read while youre self-isolating to avoid the coronavirus? How about books about all the various plagues humankind has survived before? There are classics like Giovanni Boccaccios 1353 classic The Decameron, about Italian aristocrats who flee the bubonic plague in Florence, or Daniel Defoes 1722 novel A Journal of the Plague Year, an account of the Black Death in London half a century before.

There are many more recent works about pandemics, some nonfiction, some historical fiction, some speculative fiction. On March 8, Stephen King resisted comparisons of the current crisis to his 1978 novel The Stand, set in a world where a pandemic has killed 99% of the population. King tweeted, No, coronavirus is NOT like THE STAND. Its not anywhere near as serious. Its eminently survivable. Keep calm and take all reasonable precautions.

Despite Kings protestations, readers often look to books to help explain real-world phenomena, especially in bewildering times like these. Here are a few more plague books to consider.

Fiction

Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939) by Katherine Ann Porter is a short novel set during the influenza pandemic of 1918, which killed five times as many Americans as did World War I. Its main character, Miranda, is a young reporter who falls in love with a soldier; the books fever-dream style captures the experience of the disease.

The Andromeda Strain (1969) by Michael Crichton is a bestselling techno-thriller that begins when a military satellite crashes to earth and releases an extraterrestrial organism that kills almost everyone in a nearby small town. Then things get bad.

Love in the Time of Cholera (1985) by Gabriel Garca Mrquez is the great Colombian authors beguiling tale of a 50-year courtship, in which lovesickness is as debilitating and stubborn as disease.

The MaddAddam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood, which includes Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013), is a masterwork of speculative fiction by the author of The Handmaids Tale. Set in a near future in which genetic engineering causes a plague that almost destroys humanity, its savagely satirical, thrilling and moving.

The Road (2006) by Cormac McCarthy is a bleak, beautifully written, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set after an unspecified extinction event has wiped out most of humanity. An unnamed man and boy travel on foot toward a southern sea, fending off cannibals and despair.

Nemesis (2010) by Philip Roth is the authors 31st and last novel, a sorrowful story set in Newark, N.J., in 1944, as the United States is in the grip of the polio epidemic that killed and disabled thousands of children.

Station Eleven (2014) by Emily St. John Mandel is a bestselling novel about a group of actors and musicians traveling through the Great Lakes region in future years after a mysterious pandemic called the Georgian flu has killed almost everyone.

The Old Drift (2019) by Namwalli Serpell is a dazzling debut novel set in Zambia, spanning a century but focusing in part on the disaster wrought in that country by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Nonfiction

The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance (1995) by Laurie Garrett is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters clear-eyed look at how rapidly the modern world has changed the nature of disease, how important preparedness is and how endangered we are without it.

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic (2013) by David Quammen is the great science writers fascinating look at zoonotic diseases, such as AIDS and Ebola (and now coronavirus), that jump from animal species to ours.

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Books about pandemics to read in the time of coronavirus - Greater Milwaukee Today

PALM BEACH, Florida, March 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncolytic viruses are becoming a new class of cancer immunotherapy weapons to combat cancer. These naturally occurring or modified viruses are a potent new weapon against cancer, according to recent reports on this growing market. The reports actually reveal that: " since the late 1800s, doctors have observed that some patients with cancer go into remission, if only temporarily, after a viral infection. Although the notion of using viruses in cancer therapy is old, the science only began to move forward in the 1990s with advances in genetic engineering technology with another shift around 2005, as people began to realize the true value of viruses in cancer therapy is in immunotherapy. When an oncolytic virus infects a tumor cell, it makes copies of itself until the cell bursts. The dying cancer cell releases tumor antigens and/or danger signals, which can change the tumor microenvironment to change an immunologically "cold" tumor (lacking T cells) into a "hot" tumor (influx of a multitude of immune cells and cytokines). Oncolytic viruses are alerting the immune system that something is wrong. This can lead to an immune response against nearby tumor cells (a local response) or tumor cells in other parts of the body (a systemic response)." Active biotech and pharma companies in the markets this week include Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCY) (TSX: ONC), Hoth Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOTH), ADMA Biologics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADMA), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), Aytu BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ: AYTU).

Oncolytic viruses are naturally occurring or genetically modified to target specific types of cancer cells. They selectively replicate within the cancer cell via a tumor-specific promoter element that is incorporated into the viral genome or in deletions in key portions of the viral genome. The oncolytic viruses must be genetically stable and be incapable of reverting back to its wild-type form while replicating inside cancer cells. In addition, transgenes encoding interferon alpha, granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and multiple cytokines have been inserted into oncolytic viruses to achieve a variety of immunomodulatory effect. The size of the oncolytic viral genome affects the transgene capacity, which makes certain oncolytic virus with larger genome more desirable.

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCY) (TSX: ONC) BREAKING NEWS: Oncolytics Biotech Announces Favourable AWARE-1 Safety Update- Oncolytics Biotech currently developing pelareorep, an intravenously delivered immuno-oncolytic virus, today announced a favourable assessment from the Safety Committee following review of data from the window of opportunity study in early-stage breast cancer, known as AWARE-1.Consistent with the safety run-in with patients receiving pelareorep and Tecentriq, Cohort 1 demonstrated widespread viral replication in the majority of tumors with the creation of a pro-inflammatory effect in the tumor microenvironment. No negative effects to healthy tissue were noted.

The Committee evaluated safety parameters from patients participating in the safety run-in phase of the trial, consisting of select patients from cohorts 2 and 3, along with the fully enrolled cohort 1, and determined there were no safety concerns.The Committee also approved an amendment of the study to reduce the dose of Tecentriq to be consistent with the currently approved breast cancer dose of 840mg.The study will continue to enroll patients and the Safety Committee will meet again for an additional pre-planned meeting. Cohorts 1 and 2 represent our target tumor type of HR+ / HER2- and data from these patients will inform the design of the planned phase 3.

"After reviewing the totality of safety data, including patients receiving pelareorep plus the standard of care and those also receiving Tecentriq, the Safety Committee for AWARE-1 confirmed no significant toxicity resulting from treatment," said Dr. Rita Laeufle, Chief Medical Officer at Oncolytics Biotech. "The study is continuing as planned, recruiting additional patients and examining the combination of pelareorep, plus the standard of care plus Tecentriq.We look forward to presenting updated data at the ESMO Breast Cancer conference in May, which will describe meaningful changes to the tumor microenvironment, evidence of tumor infection, and of course, our biomarker correlated to immunogenic response and viral replication." Read this full press release and more news for ONCY at: https://www.financialnewsmedia.com/news-oncy/

Other recent developments in the biotech industry include:Hoth Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOTH) recently announced it has reached an agreement with Voltron Therapeutics, Inc. (Voltron) to form a joint venture entity, to be named HaloVax, to commence preclinical studies for the development of vaccine prospects toprevent the Coronavirus (COVID-19) based upon VaxCelerate, a self-assembling vaccine (SAV) platform exclusively licensed by Voltron from the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center (VIC) atMassachusettsGeneral Hospital (MGH).

Hoth and Voltron, with the support of MGH, will work jointly on exploring and developing this SAV technology as a means to aid patients at risk of being infected with COVID-19. The VaxCelerate vaccine platform was developed as a means of rapidly generating and pre-clinically testing a new vaccine against specific pathogen targets. The technology which received Department of Defense (DoD) funding has demonstrated proof of concept in Lassa Fever, an emerging infectious disease. HaloVax intends to use these same SAV principles to assist in the development of a potential vaccine against the COVID-19 pandemic.

ADMA Biologics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADMA) a commercial biopharmaceutical company dedicated to manufacturing, marketing and developing specialty plasma-derived biologics for the treatment of immunodeficient patients at risk for infection and the prevention of certain infectious diseases, recently announced financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2019, and provided an overview of its recent corporate achievements.

"To date, 2019 has been a transformational year for ADMA, marked most importantly by the recent re-launch and launch, respectively, and first commercial sales of our lead assets BIVIGAM and ASCENIV, both indicated for the treatment of patients with primary humoral immunodeficiency (PI)," said Adam Grossman, ADMA's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our commercial rollouts are off to an encouraging early start for our IVIG brands.As we look ahead to the remainder of 2019 and into 2020, we remain focused on maximizing these initial product launches and executing on several strategic corporate initiatives aimed at growing our overall revenues, including potentially expanding the capacity at our manufacturing facility, opening new plasma collection centers, as well as growing our commercial team and hiring additional staff to support the anticipated production ramp up for 2020 and beyond."

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced recently that JADE COMPARE (B7451029) met its co-primary efficacy endpoints. The Phase 3 study evaluated the safety and efficacy of abrocitinib, an investigational oral once-daily Janus kinase 1 (JAK1) inhibitor, in adults with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis who were also on background topical therapy. The study also included an active control arm, dupilumab, a biologic treatment administered by subcutaneous injection, compared with placebo.

"It was helpful to study abrocitinib in combination with topical therapies to provide data relevant to the real-world setting," said Michael Corbo, PhD, Chief Development Officer, Inflammation & Immunology, Pfizer Global Product Development. "The addition of an active control was also important to better understand the significance of this potential new medicine and we're encouraged by the positive data from this trial."

Aytu BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ: AYTU) announced yesterday that it has received confirmation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the company may begin distribution of its Coronavirus Disease 2019 ("COVID-2019") IgG/IgM Rapid Test throughout the United States. The COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test is intended for professional use and delivers results between 2 and 10 minutes at the point-of-care.

Aytu expects delivery of its first shipment of 100,000 tests this week. The Company has been in discussions with healthcare distributors, healthcare institutions, medical practices, and government agencies and is working quickly to begin distribution into the U.S. healthcare supply chain.

DISCLAIMER: FN Media Group LLC (FNM), which owns and operates FinancialNewsMedia.com and MarketNewsUpdates.com, is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels.FNM is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein.FNM and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. FNM's market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities. The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material.All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks.All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release. FNM is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers.Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks.For current services performed FNM expects to be compensated fifty nine hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press releases issued by Oncolytics Biotech Inc. by a non-affiliated third party.FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.

This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and FNM undertakes no obligation to update such statements.

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Biotech Brief: Why Oncolytic Viruses are Becoming a Potent Weapon Against Cancer - PRNewswire

The growth in protein expression market is due to rise in prevalence of chronic disease such as diabetes, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, pharmaceutical companies are significantly investing in R&D expenditure thereby propelling the market growth.

The global protein expression market is expected to reach $4 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 10.2% from 2018 to 2026, in terms of value.

Protein expression is defined as a biotechnological procedure, which includes generation of precise proteins. These proteins are formed through manipulation of gene expression in organisms of interest.

The procedure leads to expression of large amounts of recombinant gene in organisms. Furthermore, this has led to many possibilities of expression and isolation of heterologous proteins for research, clinical, and industrial purposes.

This, in turn, has led to advancements in genetic engineering and recombinant technologies. Significant advancements in the field of biotechnology have enabled expression and isolation of recombinant proteins on large scale.

Some of products which are used to perform protein expression present in the market include reagents, expression vectors, competent cells, instruments, and others.

These products are used in designing therapeutics and conducting research related to medicines.

Report: http://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/6463

The factors that boost the growth of the protein expression market include surge in geriatric population and increase in prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer. Moreover, increase in spending on protein research also fuel the growth of the protein expression market.

However, high monetary inputs associated with the production of protein products restrict the growth of the market. In addition, significant shortage of trained healthcare professionals and lack of local expertise also restrains the market.

Conversely, emergence of microfluids, along with growth potential in emerging economies is expected to create lucrative opportunities for the market during the forecast period.

The global protein expression market is segmented based on product, application, and region. Based on product, the market is bifurcated into reagents, expression vectors, competent cells, instruments, and services.

By application, it is divided into therapeutic, industrial, and research. Based on region, it is analyzed across North America (U.S., Canada, and Mexico), Europe (Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, France, and rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (Japan, China, Australia, India, South Korea, and, rest of Asia-Pacific) and LAMEA (Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and rest of LAMEA).

Report: http://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/6463

The Major Key Players Are:

Key Findings of the Study:

Access Full Report atwww.alliedmarketresearch.com/proteinket-A06098

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Protein Expression Market estimated to grow according to forecasts - WhaTech Technology and Markets News

Johnson has championed deregulation and divergence from the EU on GM

In the three years after the UK's referendum on EU membership, it was often said Brexit had monopolised the political agenda leaving precious little "bandwidth" for anything else. But who would have imagined an issue of such magnitude was about to emerge that would consign Brexit to the "and in other news" section of TV bulletins?

That the biggest Brexit story last week was that EU negotiator Michel Barnier had tested positive for coronavirus and David Frost, his UK counterpart, is self-isolating after showing symptoms, tells its own story.

A few critical and challenging issues had dominated the long debates over the UK's membership of the EU, while undeniably important topics, including the country's differences with Brussels over genetic modification and biotechnology, were relatively little discussed. However, UK prime minister Boris Johnson is going some way to correcting that.

Boris backs British biotech

Since securing his premiership and withdrawal from the EU, Johnson has repeatedly made a point of championing deregulation and divergence from the EU on GM as a Brexit boon for the UK and a priority for his administration. Johnson also appointed George Eustice, a longstanding and vocal critic of the EU approach, as Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Based rigidly on the precautionary principle, EU regulations both on planting GM crops and commercialising foods made from GMO ingredients are consideredby many scientists overly restrictive and lengthy. Over the years, governments and policymakers from across the political divide have sympathised with that view but could do no more than push for reform in Brussels.

Johnson now has the opportunity to put the UK on a different footing. His intended direction of travel is clear, though GM is a highly contentious issue that could challenge even his libertarian instincts.

There has been strong support for deregulation on biotech in the scientific community for many years, so Johnson's remarks have been welcomed enthusiastically by crop scientists.

Professor Jonathan Jones of The Sainsbury Laboratory crop research institute, a practitioner and energetic proponent of GM technology for three decades, bemoans the "glacial" progress of GM regulation, but says the Johnson rhetoric is "exciting".

However, he cautions: "Of course, he's not delivered everything he's promised in the past but I think he's serious on this one. How rapidly we get there from here I don't know. It's complicated."

Consumer fears easily provoked

A prime challenge is the consumer concern and suspicion GM has always attracted. This has engendered a highly cautionary approach by retailers, as reflected in a comment from Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at UK food retail trade body The British Retail Consortium, for this article. "Retailers do not currently sell genetically-modified food under their own brands and would not do so unless there is a change in consumer demand," Opie says.

"Activist groups often behave irresponsibly in terms of inflaming public fears about something that is totally benign"

Others would say consumer fears which, while borne partly out of the understandable natural caution people have about technology related to food, are stoked by misinformation and sensationalised reporting, resulting in the retailers' and public policy being led by the least well informed on the topic. "Activist groups often behave irresponsibly in terms of inflaming public fears about something that is totally benign," Prof. Jones contends.

Food manufacturers have also been somewhat reticent about supporting GM publicly, even if they recognise the benefits of the technology.

Asked by just-food for its view on where the UK should go on biotech, the UK food manufacturing representative body The Food and Drink Federation, states: "FDF believes that modern biotechnology, including genetic modificationand new breeding techniques, offers considerable potential to improve the quality and quantity of [the] food supply and could contribute to sustainability by helping to produce more food using fewer resources and with less impact on the environment. FDF recognises that the impact of biotechnology must be objectively assessed, based on sound science and evidence, and be underpinned by an effective regulatory landscape."

The recognition of the potential benefits but a reluctance to go into battle on behalf of GM can clearly be seen in that statement. While Prof. Jones brands current policies on GM as the "tyranny of the more risk-averse", he says he "totally understands the brand reputation pressures both manufacturers and retailers are under". They see "a little bit of upside in terms of cost reduction but a vast amount of downside in terms of risking damage to my precious brand".

All this means biotech has been somewhat friendless, not receiving the widespread support from the private sector that technological innovation in other fields often can. Its backing by "Big Agri" has obviously been significant globally but the associations within that sector help foster some of the distrust, giving environmental campaigners a potent focus for their activities that has resonated with the public.

Farmer support

The National Farmers Union has generally been more publicly supportive of GM, however. Helen Ferrier, chief science and regulatory affairs adviser at the NFU, says it supports a "proportionate and enabling" regulatory framework on GM.

Vicki Hird of food and environment pressure group Sustain, however, suggests the picture is more mixed. "There's a lot of farmers I know who aren't members of the NFU [who] have a position on GM and biotech which is quite different from the NFU," Hird says, adding that protection of their European market will be a prime concern for many, underlining the influence ongoing negotiations could have on the UK's biotech ambitions.

"The UK currently remains aligned with the EU in its approach to genetically modified food. The UK's stance beyond January 2021 will depend very much on the outcome of trade negotiations," the BRC's Opie says.

Gene-editing move?

Where there could be more immediate progress is in the field of new gene-editing techniques. Dr Richard Harrison, director of Cambridge Crop Research, part of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), is leading research utilising modern gene-editing techniques, including CRISPR-Cas9, to modify the genetic make-up of the Fusarium venenatum fungus, the mycoprotein source for meat substitute brand Quorn, owned by Philippines group Monde Nissin.

"We're trying to understand how the fungus uses different carbon sources, and also how it regulates responses to nitrogen as well, because if we could understand that, then we'd be able to use a far greater range of crop-based carbon sources to produce mycoprotein," Harrison explains.

Being able to vary what mycoprotein is fed on could broaden the options for how and where mycoprotein can be sustainably produced as a meat alternative. The research is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, with Quorn manufacturer Quorn Foods, a subsidiary of Monde Nissin,as a project partner and co-funder.

However, Harrison stresses the objective is not to produce a genetically engineered Fusarium venenatum that Marlow Foods might then commercialise, but that the gene-editing techniques are being used as "a research tool to validate our hypotheses".

Speaking to just-food last year, then Quorn Foods CEO Kevin Brennan said the company would "never go anywhere near genetic modification". This is not surprising and is common position among food companies. Owing to a 2018 European Court of Justice ruling, any food produced from ingredients derived from the gene-editing processes Harrison's team is employing would be subject to the EU's GM regulations and would have to be labelled as containing GMOs.

Brennan said the research "provides underpinning science for alternative carbohydrates but also to support feed optimisation". He continued: "If we can understand at a granular level what the organism reacts to we can optimise feedstock to encourage the ideal growth".

Ironically, some older and less accurate mutagenesis techniques, such as using gamma radiation and chemicals to alter genetic profile, fall outside the EU regulation. "All scientists are asking for is an objective evaluation rather than emotive one," Harrison adds.

In common with many scientists, Harrison believes EU regulations on genetic modification and gene editing to be overly restrictive and an impediment to scientific progress, not least as it discourages private-sector investment. So, would there be greater commercial opportunities for food companies, and consequently more investment in research, if the UK were to diverge from EU biotech regulations?

"Would a more proportionate regulatory framework bring in more investment? I think the answer is yes"

Harrison has no doubt there would, and Prof. Jones concurs. "Would a more proportionate regulatory framework bring in more investment? I think the answer is yes."

The NFU's Ferrier also believes regulatory reform will boost investment. "What we're interested in as an organisation is that you're able to move from the research into private-sector R&D and then commercialisation, because as long as seed companies don't see the EU and the UK as somewhere that they want to invest in, then you can do as much brilliant science as you like but the UK, farmers, society, environment, won't get any of the benefit because it will just stay in the research community."

Climate emergency

With regard to the regulation of genetic technologies in food production overall, Harrison urges a strictly evidence-led approach, not least given the challenges posed by climate change.

"There is enormous potential to grow crops with fewer pesticides by using naturally-occurring, disease-resistance genes. You could do that through traditional breeding but that takes a long time and costs a lot of money. Genetic technology makes it a lot faster and we should really have access in the 21st century to those technologies because we rapidly need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Genetic technology could really be a powerful tool to accelerate our decarbonisation of the foodchain."

Prof. Jones adds: "We need every tool in the toolbox to address the perfect storm of rising temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions and rising population."

While recognising the benefits of separating gene-editing technology from GM, Prof. Jones is concerned arguing in favour of this may unintentionally lend weight to the view that there is still something to be feared in genetic engineering. "There are literally dozens of technologies like that that would be fantastic for the sustainability of agriculture, that you can only really accomplish by moving genes from one plant to another or by moving genes between bacteria and plants which is something that's happened naturally in evolution scores of times," he says, strongly urging the government to follow through on its supportive stance on GM.

Nevertheless, gene editing could be the more immediate movethat is easier to negotiate politically and practically. It is also almost impossible to imagine the UK moving out of the transition period with an ECJ ruling featuring in its legislation. Ferrier believes the UK could also work with other member states, many of which were concerned by the ECJ ruling, to move EU opinion on the issue. "This is the opportunity to work with other member states who are similarly concerned about it. That is an area that the UK research sector can have a strength in and it is a really exciting area for developing products that farmers could grow."

While the UK government is so far holding to its December deadline, the coronavirus pandemic seems highly likely to result in the extension of the transition period. When it does finally leave the EU, the UK is likely, at the very least, to have a different regulatory approach to gene editing, if not immediately on GM overall.

When exactly the transition period will now end, however, may depend more on how successful scientists have been at understanding the genome of Covid-19 than the genetic composition of any food crop.

See more here:
If and when it has time, the UK must ponder its post-Brexit biotech options - just-food.com

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Manufacturer Detail

By Market Players:Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., GenScript, Amgen Inc., Genentech, Inc., Merck KGaA, Horizon Discovery Group plc, Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc., Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., OriGene Technologies, Inc.

By Application

By TypeArtificial Selection, Cloning, Gene Splicing, Others

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2020-2025 Global and Regional Genetic Engineering Industry Production, Sales and Consumption Status and Prospects Professional Market Research Report...