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Articles in Nature Biotechnology

BASF moves GM crop research to US

8 March 2012 – 10:45 |

BASF Plant Science is relocating from its European headquarters to the US, a move prompted by the European public’s hostility to genetically modified (GM) crops, its president Peter Eckes said. The German company is also …

Monsanto to face biopiracy charges in India

10 January 2012 – 13:27 |

An Indian government agency has agreed to sue the developers of genetically modified (GM) eggplant for violating India’s Biological Diversity Act of 2002. India’s National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is alleging that the developers of India’s …

Transatlantic PML

10 November 2011 – 20:10 |

The European Medicine Agency and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published in September the proceedings of a joint workshop held to address questions related to progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare and sometimes fatal …

E. coli crisis opens door for Alexion drug trial

9 August 2011 – 19:23 | Comments Off

This story was the lead news story in the August Nature Biotechnology: [html] [pdf].
This spring’s outbreak of a virulent form of Escherichia coli in Germany and France provoked a rapid response from public health authorities …

New self-reporting for GM crops

12 July 2011 – 20:16 | One Comment

My latest news item for Nature Biotechnology is about how the government agency which regulates new genetically-modified crops is out-sourcing some of its work. [html] [pdf]
Companies seeking approval for new biotech crops can now …

Monsanto dips into algae

8 June 2011 – 13:18 |

Monsanto acquired a stake in Sapphire Energy, a San Diego–based algae fuel company known for its prominent backers, including Bill Gates’s firm Cascade Investment, in Kirkland, Washington, and the Wellcome Trust, in …

Sugar beets still in the game

18 October 2010 – 12:00 |

Seed producers will be allowed to plant biotech sugar beets again following a September decision from the United States Department of Agriculture’s crop approval arm to allow planting under interim guidelines. The …

Brazil bans Bayer

10 September 2010 – 18:12 |

A judge has prohibited Bayer Cropscience from marketing Liberty Link corn, a genetically modified crop resistant to Ignite and Liberty herbicides, in Brazil. If the Leverkusen, Germany–based company fails to suspend marketing, …

EC woos SMEs

10 September 2010 – 18:12 |

The European Commission (EC) is inviting biotech firms to apply for research grants, if partnered with academia. For the first time, a quarter of the biotech-specific grants will require the participation of …

African GM safety drill

10 June 2010 – 20:11 |

The African Union has set up a school to educate and train future regulators in genetically modified (GM) crop biosafety. The African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE) was officially launched in April in Ouagadougou, Burkina …