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Officials in Panama have ruled that AquaBounty Technologies' has been operating in violation of environmental regulations as it experiments with genetically engineered (GE) salmon in that country. In a decision that could challenge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ongoing safety assessment of AquaBounty's GE salmon, Panamanian officials fined the company $9500. Food & Water Watch, Center for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth called on the FDA today to terminate its regulatory review and deny AquaBounty's pending regulatory application to sell the company's GE fish in the United States.

"After the Rainbow" is a video safety message focusing on preventing accidents in high school chemistry laboratories

Although there have been more than two thousand studies documenting that GMOs do not pose an unusual threat to human health, questions about the safety of genetically modified foods remain in the minds of many consumers.

Biotech foods ('GMOs') are safe. Period. That may seem like a bold statement, but it comes with the weight of a huge body of research and global consensus among preeminent health organizations. To understand the safety of food biotech, it helps to look at the numbers. There are thousands of studies on biotech crops published, billions of pounds of biotech foods eaten, and there are zero illnesses (human or animal) resulting of consuming biotech foods.

1783 GMO food safety studies

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has made a name for itself by tackling the food industry's big guns on everything from artery-furring entrees to misleading label claims. But where does it stand on genetically modified organisms (GMOs)? Elaine Watson quizzed Gregory Jaffe, CSPI director of biotechnology, on everything from GM labeling initiatives to super weeds…

As the prevalence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) continues to rise, there has been an increasing public interest for information concerning the safety of these products. Concerns generally focus on how the GMO may affect the environment or how it may affect the consumer. One specific concern is the possibility for GMOs to negatively affect human health. This could result from differences in nutritional content, allergic response, or undesired side effects such as toxicity, organ damage, or gene transfer.

Based on a comprehensive analysis of the scientific evidence, as required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), the FDA has determined that AquAdvantage Salmon meets the statutory requirements for safety and effectiveness under the FD&C Act. The salmon are safe to eat, the introduced DNA is safe for the fish itself, and the salmon meet the sponsor's claim about faster growth. Because the sponsor has met these requirements, the FDA must approve the application. The FDA has also analyzed the potential environmental impact that an approval of the AquAdvantage Salmon application would have on the quality of the human environment in the United States and has issued its final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact.

CRISPR still has a long way to go before it can be used safely and effectively to repair-not just disrupt-genes in people. That is particularly true for most diseases, such as muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis, which require correcting genes in a living person because if the cells were first removed and repaired then put back, too few would survive. And the need to treat cells inside the body means gene editing faces many of the same delivery challenges as gene transfer-researchers must devise efficient ways to get a working CRISPR into specific tissues in a person, for example. CRISPR also poses its own safety risks. Most often mentioned is that the Cas9 enzyme that CRISPR uses to cleave DNA at a specific location could also make cuts where it's not intended to, potentially causing cancer.

A kind of salmon that's been genetically modified so that it grows faster may be on the way to a supermarket near you. The Food and Drug Administration approved the fish on Thursday - a decision that environmental and food-safety groups are vowing to fight. This new kind of fast-growing salmon was actually created 25 years ago by Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies. A new gene was inserted into fertilized salmon eggs - it boosted production of a fish growth hormone. The result: a fish that grows twice as fast as its conventional, farm-raised counterpart.

This interdisciplinary case study uses the format of a progressive disclosure to explore certain advances in biotechnology and evaluate them within the framework of societal needs, concerns and pressures.  When faced with a heart valve transplant, a high school student and her mother must decide between multiple approaches, some current and others emergent. Highlighted in this case study are the topics of xenotransplantation, 3D bioprinting and the mature minor rule. The case includes a role-playing, public hearing activity that can be used to explore many aspects at the interface of technology and culture: religious rights, parental rights, public health care policy and safety, animal rights, economic issues of organ marketing, and psychological issues of body image.  This case study was originally designed for first year collegiate classes (introduction to biology, introduction to psychology) but is also applicable to AP high school. The flexible nature of the case also allows for expansion of several aspects for advanced classes across multiple disciplines.

Lessons on the immune systems and disease. Print and go!

The protagonist of this two-day flipped case study, "Maria," has two problems. She doesn't like it when the apple slices in her lunch turn brown, and she needs to find a project for her biology class that includes molecular biology, preferably one that incorporates plants. Students are enlisted to help Maria understand Arctic Apples™, which don't turn brown because they have been genetically modified to suppress the expression of polyphenol oxidase via RNAi. The case also explores the health, environmental, and safety aspects of growing and eating plants that have been genetically modified to use RNAi. The case applies the central dogma of biology to the creation of genetically modified foods and RNAi and includes a discussion of whether genetically modified foods should be labeled. Several videos are included with the case, including one created by the author specifically for the case. The case is appropriate for use in an introductory level biology or survey level biochemistry course.

Module 1: Understanding Bacteria Module 2: Farm Module 3: Processing and Transportation Module 4: Retail and Home Module 5: Outbreak and Future Technology Labs, videos, and activities in manual

Clinical trials are essential to providing the scientific data to determine whether new drugs, diagnostics or procedures are both safe and effective when used to diagnose and treat people.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or genetically engineered (GE) foods have the potential to cause a variety of health problems.  For example, they may produce new allergens and toxins, and spread harmful traits to non-GMO crops. In addition, at least one major environmental impact of genetic engineering has already reached critical proportions: overuse of herbicide-tolerant GE crops has spurred an increase in herbicide use and an epidemic of herbicide-resistant "superweeds," which will lead to even more herbicide use. The long-term impacts of GMOs are unknown, and once released into the environment they cannot be recalled.