IGI Empowers Global Regulators With Crop Genome-Editing Workshop

Earlier this year, IGI hosted the International Regulatory Capacity Building for Genome-edited Agriculture Workshop in Berkeley.

As CRISPR revolutionizes plant biotechnology and expands the realm of possibilities, it has enabled researchers to more rapidly make genetic changes that can improve crops. In response, many countries are developing guidelines or reviewing their existing biosafety regulations to include genome-editing. But there is a notable capacity gap among regulators, especially from low- and middle-income countries, who typically have little or no experience with genome-editing. 

The goal of this workshop was to provide technical support for regulators evaluating applications for genome-edited crops and other agricultural products. The IGI workshop focused on countries that are either in the process of developing genome-editing guidelines, or have recently finalized new guidelines and are beginning to implement them. There were 20 participants from 18 different countries across the world including Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Malaysia, Malawi, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and Zambia. Experts from the USDA and regional agencies including the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and FAO provided oversight and shared their perspectives.

The workshop included a mix of lectures from UC Berkeley faculty, hands-on laboratory experiments, and discussion sessions highlighting topics including:

• The basics of CRISPR editing and its potential applications in agriculture
• DNA sequence analysis and other methods for evaluating genome-edited plants
• Lab tests to determine the presence of transgenes
• Regulatory challenges and lessons learned from countries with experience implementing genome-editing regulations
• Intellectual property issues for genome-edited crops 
• New genome-editing tools including base editing, prime editing, and epigenetic editing

Over the past couple years, IGI researchers have also met with regulators from the Philippines and Thailand to help build regulatory capacity and shepherd responsible use of CRISPR tools in agriculture. Learn more about IGI’s Public Impact work here.

By Elizabeth Njuguna

Elizabeth supports the Climate and Agriculture programs for the Public Impact team. She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from Ghent University, Belgium, an M.S. in Molecular Biology from KU Leuven University, Belgium and a B.S. in Biochemistry and Chemistry from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Before joining IGI Elizabeth was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Cape Town, South Africa. At ICGEB, she analyzed the policy and regulatory barriers impacting biopesticides adoption in sub-Saharan Africa and promoted biopesticide use as a sustainable pest control option for climate change adaptation. Previously for her PhD research at the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, she used the CRISPR genome editing among others tool to alter genes in maize and Arabidopsis to study drought, genotoxic and oxidative stress tolerance.