Calyxt, Inc., a plant-based synthetic biology company, and Cibus, which focuses on gene editing in agriculture, have announced that both companies will merge. They claim, "The combined company will be a leader in two key applications for gene editing in agriculture" – "productivity traits", including a pod shatter reduction trait in canola, and "renewable low-carbon ingredients... that can replace fossil fuel-based ingredients and diesel fuel". PR Newswire

 

 

China has approved imports of eight GM crops, permitting shipments of GM alfalfa for the first time after a decade-long wait, the country's agriculture ministry said. Beijing has a cautious approach to GM technology and has not approved any major food crops for cultivation, despite President Xi Jinping's backing of the technology. China allows the import of GM crops used in animal feed. Reuters

 

 

Speakers at a recent White House listening session pleaded with the Biden administration to "modernise" US regulatory oversight of gene-edited plant products to compete with other countries that have streamlined processes allowing for quicker approval. AgriPulse (paywalled)

 

 

Critics view pathogen research as the Wild West of science. Virologists have faced online abuse and even death threats amid fears that what they do is dangerous. Above all, conjectures that the coronavirus pandemic might have originated from secret laboratory research have cast a shadow over the field. Independent of that rancorous debate about COVID's origin, the National Institutes of Health is preparing an overhaul of the policies on government-funded research, with draft recommendations by its biosecurity board expected to be released Friday. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives, leveraging their newly acquired subpoena power, have launched an investigation of the pandemic that will include the origin of COVID and what they believe could be the involvement of American scientists and government officials. The Washington Post

 

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