Parallel session 5: New breeding technologies: Prospects and regulatory hurdles
Tracks
Breakaway 1
| Monday, May 1, 2023 |
| 16:00 - 17:30 |
| Illinois / NY Central |
Details
Organized by Thorben Sprink, Julius Kuehn-Institute, Germany
Novel breeding technologies have been boosting plant breeding for almost a decade and the first promising products are pushing to the market. In contrast to this, in many countries, the current Directives regulating genetically modified plants and animals have been established more than 20 years ago, based on clear differentiation between transgenic and conventional breeding. To date, only a few of those directives are suitable to face the new challenge of genetic engineering. This workshop will discuss the use of new breeding technologies in plant breeding and will discuss how these techniques will further change breeding in the future. Furthermore, this workshop will give an insight into the current legislative frameworks and will discuss and evaluate the existing frameworks for the regulation of genetically modified plants in a worldwide comparison and discuss if there is a need for an updated worldwide harmonized legislation, regulating the use of organisms produced by novel genome editing techniques and by genetic engineering and how such legislation could be composed matching the scientific progress made.
16:00 - 16:05 Chair: Thorben Sprink Introduction
Novel breeding technologies have been boosting plant breeding for almost a decade and the first promising products are pushing to the market. In contrast to this, in many countries, the current Directives regulating genetically modified plants and animals have been established more than 20 years ago, based on clear differentiation between transgenic and conventional breeding. To date, only a few of those directives are suitable to face the new challenge of genetic engineering. This workshop will discuss the use of new breeding technologies in plant breeding and will discuss how these techniques will further change breeding in the future. Furthermore, this workshop will give an insight into the current legislative frameworks and will discuss and evaluate the existing frameworks for the regulation of genetically modified plants in a worldwide comparison and discuss if there is a need for an updated worldwide harmonized legislation, regulating the use of organisms produced by novel genome editing techniques and by genetic engineering and how such legislation could be composed matching the scientific progress made.
16:00 - 16:05 Chair: Thorben Sprink Introduction
Speaker
Dr Thorben Sprink
Senior Scientist
Julius Kuehn-Institute
Jens Kahrmann
Legal Officer
Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL)
The current and potentially future legal situation of genome edited plants in Europe
16:20 - 16:35Biography
Legal Officer for the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety in the field of Genetic Engineering Law since October 2015. Lecturer on state-approved courses for Project Leaders and Biosafety Officers.
Dr Ralf Wilhelm
Director
Julius Kuehn-Institute
Report from the International Conference on GMO Analysis and New Genomic Techniques, Berlin March 2023
16:35 - 16:50Biography
Dr. Ralf Wilhelm is the head of the "Institute for Biosafety in Plant Biotechnology" at the Julius Kuehn-Institut (JKI) - Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants in Quedlinburg, Germany. Since 2001, he has been working in the area of biosafety research, risk assessment, and regulation of GMOs. Key research topics are monitoring, coexistence, methods for risk assessment, and regulation of plant biotechnology. He is currently a senior lecturer at the University of Goettingen and held training courses for plant biotechnology (EU, FAO, other). From 2001 to 2008, he was also working part-time as an independent business consultant for biotechnology.
Dr Heidi Mitchell
Director – Contained Dealings Evaluation Section
Office of the Gene Technology Regulator
Regulation and risk assessment of new technologies
16:50 - 17:05Biography
Dr Heidi Mitchell
Heidi Mitchell is the Director of the Contained Dealings Evaluation Section at the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR). The Section conducts scientific risk assessments and develops risk management plans for work with GMOs in contained facilities (including maintaining guidelines and certifying contained facilities) and for clinical trials of GM vaccines or gene therapies.
Heidi joined the OGTR in 2006 as an evaluator, preparing risk assessments for a range of GMOs. She has also worked in the Regulatory Practice section of the OGTR at the interface between scientific risk assessment and operational regulatory policy. Heidi has been involved in work around the scope of the gene technology legislation. She has represented Australia at OECD and CBD SBSTTA meetings and presented talks at domestic and international conferences on regulation of GMOs in Australia.
Heidi has a PhD in plant biochemistry and post-graduate research in plant-fungal interactions and on using bacteria other than Agrobacterium for plant transformation. She has published research papers in peer-reviewed journals including Nature.
Dr Hennie Groenewald
Executive Manager
Biosafety South Africa
Induced genetic variation: Innovation opportunities & challenges from a South African perspective
17:05 - 17:20Biography
Dr Hennie Groenewald is the Executive Manager of Biosafety South Africa, a national service platform under the auspices of the Department of Science and Innovation, which facilitates sustainable bio-innovation. It is the principal instrument within the national bio-innovation system which enables compliant, sustainable, and effective research, development, innovation, and commercialisation. Hennie has >25 years of experience in biotechnology research and development, teaching, biosafety risk analysis and governance, science communication, business development and innovation management in the public, private and academic sectors. Prior to joining Biosafety South Africa, he also worked at Stellenbosch University, the South African Sugarcane Research Institute and North-West University. Hennie is a founding member of two successful South African biotech start-ups and has served on numerous international and national bodies tasked with responsible research and innovation, biosafety, risk governance, capacity building, medicine regulation, science communication and sustainable biotech- and agricultural innovation.
Chair
Thorben Sprink
Senior Scientist
Julius Kuehn-Institute
