Gene Editing’s Extra DNA Problem: Déjà Vu All Over Again
By Belinda Martineau,
Biotech Salon
| 09. 06. 2019
UC Davis researcher Alison Van Eenennaam described the experience of learning that the “poster animals for the gene-editing revolution” do not, after all, comprise the “same outcome [that] could be achieved by breeding in the farmyard,” like she and her collaborators at Recombinetics had been claiming for years, to Antonio Regalado of the MIT Technology Review by saying simply that “We were surprised, but when you get new information, you proceed ahead, that is what science does.”
My reaction back in the early 1990’s to hearing similar news about extra, unintended DNA being inserted into Flavr Savr™ tomatoes, the poster GMOs for the first generation of genetic engineering technology, was somewhat more intense. My boss at Calgene, Inc. at the time, Bill Hiatt, gave me the news as we were traveling on the subterranean moving walkway system that connects the United Airlines terminals at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. I stopped in my tracks (although I kept moving). It just couldn’t be true, I said to myself; the flashing lights and recurrent United theme song intensifying the surrealism I felt at that...
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The Center for Genetics and Society is delighted to recommend the current edition of GMWatch Review – Number 589. UK-based GMWatch, a long-standing ally, was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Matthews as an independent organization seeking to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the GMO industry and its supporters. Matthews and Claire Robinson are its directors and managing editors.
CGS works to ensure that social justice, equity, human rights, and democratic governance are front...
