A panel of experts that advises the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided on Monday more research was needed before it could vote on whether to recommend approval to allow genetically modified salmon to be bred for human consumption in the US.

To make the genetically modified Atlantic salmon, they take the growth gene from the Pacific chinook salmon and insert it into the DNA of newly fertilized Atlantic salmon eggs. However, this of itself is not enough to keep the salmon growing all year round: to keep the growth gene permanently "switched on", the AquaBounty scientists also add a small piece of DNA from another fish called the ocean pout.

These mosquitoes are genetically engineered to kill — their own children.

The results, and other work elsewhere, could herald an age in which genetically modified insects will be used to help control agricultural pests and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria.

It is developing therapeutics to prove the validity of ddRNAi in treating cancer, infectious diseases, and disorders of the central nervous system.

The ddRNAi platform focuses on the long-term downregulation of genes, making it suitable for targeting chronic life-threatening diseases. “We are silencing genes instead of introducing new genes, which separates us from traditional gene therapy companies,” Dr. French asserts.

“This targeted treatment markedly enhanced the benefits of radiation therapy in both cellular and tumor models,” the researchers concluded. Other radiotherapy-resistant tumors may benefit from the shRNAs created for the prostate cancer study.

The applied insect genetics laboratory in the Entomology Department at the University of Georgia has focused on invasive subterranean term

Thus we continue to track and monitor through genetics the Formosan termite movements into and around Georgia. The knowledge of how they are coming into the state as well as how they are moving about the state can be invaluable for managing this traffic.

"This is the first synthetic cell that's been made," said Venter. "We call it synthetic because the cell is totally derived from a synthetic chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesizer, starting with information in a computer."

Venter and his colleagues created a special code, similar to Morse code, to "write" within the DNA itself. Instead of dots and dashes, they used the sequence of four DNA nucleotides, thymine (T), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and adenine (A), as a code for any letter, number or punctuation mark. Using the code, the team included the names of the study co-authors, a website, and even several philosophical quotes, complete with punctuation.