A new study published in Nature looks at kidney transplants from GM pigs into primates.   Prof Dusko Ilic, Professor of Stem … read more

Improving livestock to boost food production for a growing global population is a long-standing aim. For the first time, scientists … read more

A study, published in PNAS, reports on a new method of utilising CRISPR techniques to produce surrogate sires in livestock and … read more

Oxitec Ltd, the company that developed a self-limited genetically engineered mosquito, has been working with health authorities in Piracicaba, Brazil, in attempt to reduce the population of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the species that transmits diseases including dengue, chikungunya and Zika. Dengue has been the main mosquito-transmitted disease affecting Piracicaba. Oxitec’s Head of Field Operations, Dr Andrew McKemey, and Dr Pedro Mello, the Secretary of Health for Piracicaba in Brazil, will be in the UK next week and are available to answer any questions you might have about the science behind the GM mosquito, what stage their current mosquito release programme is at, and what the situation is in Piracicaba. Piracicaba City Hall partnered with Oxitec in March 2015 to use the mosquitoes and that programme is now being extended to a larger area of the city. read more

On Wednesday 20th July the Home Office published its 2015 statistics on animals used in scientific procedures as well as the Animals in Science Regulation Unit (ASRU) annual report. Journalists came along to hear the latest figures from two Home Office officials, along with responses from three leading experts who have a broad overview of animal research and gave their thoughts on the reasons behind any rise or fall in the statistics or issues raised in the report. read more

The House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee has published its report on GM insects which recommends that field trials begin. The Committee has been investigating the use of GM insect technologies to fight infectious disease and to control agricultural pests as the technology now exists to render insects unable to transmit diseases, and to reduce insect populations to minimise their threat to animals and crops. read more

The House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee publishes its report on GM insects on Thursday 17 December. The Committee has been investigating the use of GM insect technologies to fight infectious disease and to control agricultural pests. It’s estimated that nearly half the world’s population live in areas that put them at risk from malaria and dengue fever, while in the UK and across the globe, insect damage causes billions of pounds of agricultural losses. But the technology now exists to render insects unable to transmit diseases, and to reduce insect populations to minimise their threat to animals and crops. read more

The US Food and Drink Administration has approved a new application for a genetically engineered Atlantic salmon named AquAdvantage Salmon. read more

Publishing in the journal Science, a research group has reported their use of the CRISPR-Cas9 system to modify genes in pigs with the aim of improving acceptance of organs transplanted into humans. read more

A group of researchers have published their work into the transfer of genes between species in nature, and report in the journal PLOS Genetics that the genomes of some species of butterfly have acquired genes from a virus associated with parasitic wasps, some of which they report protect the caterpillar species from infection by a separate virus. read more

Genetic modification strategies to control pests are being developed as an alternative to the use of chemical pesticides, and a paper published in the journal BioMed Central Biology has reported the modification of moths to select for male offspring in order to suppress total population size.
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Writing in the journal PNAS, a group has reported the generation of a genetically modified breed of cattle which are more resistant to tuberculosis than their unmodified counterparts, a trait which could be passed onto subsequent generations. read more

Nature Communications published a study showing that genetically modifying mosquitos to distort the sex ratio of their offspring suppressed their breeding capabilities as a population. read more

The front page of the Independent newspaper lead on CRISPR, a technique that allows precise editing of DNA. read more

The SMC invited one of the UK’s leading experts on GM animals, Professor Helen Sang, to describe some of the on-going applications of GM technologies in farm animals and the issues around regulation and public acceptance. read more

Researchers writing in PNAS* used RNA interference, a process that inhibits the expression of certain genes, to engineer a dairy cow capable of producing high-protein milk with hypoallergenic qualities. read more

A study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives described how zebrafish had been genetically modified to glow when exposed to particular pollutants. read more

Scientific Reports published a proposition that genetically modified monkeys might be used to conduct research into human brain diseases. read more

The UK bioscience firm Oxitec implemented a programme to test GM mosquitoes as a means of combating dengue fever in developing world countries. read more

Scientists in the US demonstrated a method of genetically modifying the domestic cat, which could provide an important new technique in HIV research. read more