GES Center Lectures, NC State University

GES Colloquium - Tuesdays 12-1PM (via Zoom) NC State University | http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-colloquium

Cotton, the most important natural fiber crop, also produces enough seeds containing ~10 million tons of protein. A broader use of this resource for food and feed is hampered by the presence of toxic gossypol in the seed. Twenty-five years of work in my laboratory has culminated in selectively eliminating this toxin from the seed and obtaining deregulation from USDA-APHIS and FDA approval for its food/feed use. More recently, we have demonstrated the potential utility of the ptxD gene (encoding phosphite dehydrogenase) in transgenic cotton in combination with phosphite as a system to manage weeds that are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides.

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Dr. Keerti Rathore joined Texas A&M University in 1995. His early education was in India, followed by a Ph. D. from Imperial College, London in electrophysiology. While working at Purdue University as a postdoc, he switched to plant biotechnology in 1990. At Texas A&M University, he is utilizing the biotechnology tools (cell and tissue culture, genomics, transgenics and gene editing) to improve cotton, sorghum, rice and potato.

GES Center - Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co

GES Colloquium - Tuesdays 12-1PM (via Zoom) NC State University | http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-colloquium

A discussion of the current state of native maize varieties breeding; their agricultural importance to maintain food security in developing countries; how researchers are using them to understand maize genetic diversity; and how they can coexist with modern, genetically engineered varieties.

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Dr. Rubén Rellán-Álvarez (@rellanalvarez) joined NC State as an assistant professor of molecular and structural biochemistry in 2019. He was born in the middle of the Asturian mountains, NW Spain. He studied Environmental Sciences at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2002) and then receive a Masters in Plant Biotechnology at the same university.  He earned a PhD in Plant Nutrition at Aula Dei Experimental Station, Zaragoza; Postdoc at Carnegie Institution in Stanford. Dr. Rellán-Álvarez then started a lab at the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity in Mexico. He currently runs the GEMMALAB (Genetics, Evolution and Metabolism of Maize Adaptation Lab).

GES Center - Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co

GES Colloquium - Tuesdays 12-1PM (via Zoom) NC State University | http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-colloquium

While engagement and risk assessment are frequently discussed separately for gene drive technology, how do we incorporate engagement into risk assessment itself?

In response to advances in gene drive and gene editing technology, there have been calls for both engagement and risk assessment to inform decision making around these powerful, complex, and controversial technologies. While engagement and risk assessment are frequently discussed separately, what does it mean to incorporate engagement into risk assessment itself? How do we understand the intersection of science and values within risk assessment and what are the implications for engagement? What should we consider when designing engagement for risk assessment? This presentation will explore these questions using the case study of engagement that was conducted to inform the risk assessment of gene drive technology proposed to address the Spotted-wing Drosophila fruit fly.

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Dr. Adam Kokotovich is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at NC State in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources and the Genetic Engineering and Society Center. An interdisciplinary social scientist, he studies and seeks to improve decision making related to emerging technologies, invasive species, and other controversial environmental issues. One of his areas of interest is examining how to enhance risk assessment by using engagement to recognize and reflect upon the consequential values-laden judgments present within risk assessment. He also uses qualitative methods to explore how to navigate different knowledges and worldviews in decision making.

GES Center - Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co

GES Colloquium - Tuesdays 12-1PM (via Zoom) NC State University | http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-colloquium

Empowering ordinary citizens with the capacity to deliberate is a core issue in science communication. Despite growing deliberative practices in developed nations, it is significantly less understood how public deliberation can happen among populations who live with limited educational resources and poor urban infrastructure in developing countries. This talk focused on the article by Dr. Chen (linked) which studied a case of a well-designed deliberation method, Deliberative Poll, in Tamale, Ghana.

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Dr. Kaiping Chen (@Kaiping_Chen) is an assistant professor in computational communication in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an affiliate of the UW-Madison Robert & Jean Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies and the Center for East Asian Studies. Chen’s research employs data science to examine how digital media and technologies affect political accountability to public well-being and how deliberative designs can improve public discourse on controversial and emerging technologies. Chen’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation. Her works have been published in peer-reviewed journals across disciplines including American Political Science Review, Public Understanding of Science, Journal of Science Communication, International Public Management Journal, Politics, Frontiers In Sustainable Cities, and The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, among others.

GES Center - Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co

GES Colloquium - Tuesdays 12-1PM (via Zoom) NC State University | http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-colloquium

A European perspective on GMO risk and regulations and the larger contextualization of the GMO debate in Europe in the current public discourse about the transformation of our agro-food systems.

In Europe, the discourse about risks and regulations took right from the beginning in the 1980s a very different course than in the US. The European public across the continent has been and continues to be critical and sceptical about GMOs, regardless if created with older oder newer genetic engineering tools. Among the core issues of concern have been and continue to be safety and risk issues for the environment and human health. In response, the developers took a very narrow perspective on risks and safety issues leading to sweeping ‘no risk’ and ‘all safe’ claims for the public, while the civil society took a broader perspective on risks and safety issues that led to opposite conclusions. Hence, it was clear from the early days that without proper regulations, commercialization of GMOs would be near impossible in Europe. Hence, the design of what constitutes ‘proper’ regulations became the battlefield – not only in Europe but worldwide.

Dr. Angelika Hilbeck holds a Master’s degree in Agricultural Biology from the University of Hohenheim, Germany, and a PhD degree in Entomology from North Carolina State University, USA. Since 30 years, her research centers around biosafety issues, regulations and agroecology. Her research and conceptual work includes environmental risk assessment, ecological biosafety research with genetically modified plants and farmer-participatory agroecology research in eastern and southern Africa. Through her international work with UN, governmental and non-governmental organisations, she became increasingly involved in broader issues of technology development towards a democratically legitimated, sustainable global future and actively contributes to the debate on biosafety, international agriculture, hunger and poverty alleviation.

Links & Resources

GES Center - Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co

GES Colloquium - Tuesdays 12-1PM (via Zoom) NC State University | http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-colloquium

Agriculture from its inception has been the exploitation of people and nature. “Modernity” has exacerbated that mode of operation. In the 21st century, will we be able to do better?

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Dr. Ricardo J. Salvador (@cadwego) is Director and Senior Scientist of the Food & Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in Washington DC. He leads a team of scientists, economists, policy analysts and organizers to make the case that modern, sustainable practices can be highly productive while also protecting the environment, producing healthy food, and creating economic opportunity for all. He is a member of the Board of Agriculture and National Resources of the National Academy of Sciences, and of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food. He has advised a range of leading organizations in sustainable and equitable agriculture, including the Food Chain Workers Alliance, the Fair Food Program of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, The Land Institute, FoodCorps, National Farm to School Network, Center for Good Food Purchasing, Food System 6, and the HEAL Food Alliance.

He is an agronomist with a focus on sustainability and systems analysis. His undergraduate degree in agriculture is from New Mexico State University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in crop production and physiology are from Iowa State University. 

GES Center - Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co

GES Colloquium - Tuesdays 12-1PM (via Zoom) NC State University | http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-colloquium

This talk will provide some background on the global vegetable seed industry including touching on topics of trade, quality seed health and phytosanitary testing, and highlight the challenges of global trade against a new disease threat on tomatoes, Tomato Brown Fruit Rugose Virus (ToBRFV). ToBRFV emerged in 2014 in the Middle East and since then has spread throughout the globe into all high-value tomato production markets. The disease results in deformed discolored fruits that are unmarketable and may lead to plant collapse. In the past two years, there have been numerous regulations imposed that have made it difficult to ensure seed delivery to customers, including seed that is used for the US food supply.

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Dr. Samantha Thomas (Sam) has earned a MS and Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from Ohio State University. She has been with legacy companies now compromising Bayer Crop Science for 14 years. Currently she holds the position of External Engagement Strategy Lead. Sam works across seed industry and regulatory partners to develop and use quality tools to address the phytosanitary risks of seed movement. Her areas of expertise include seed pathology and seed health testing, seed movement, best management practices for vegetable seed production to which this expertise was recognized by her acceptance into the Bayer Fellow program in 2017.

GES Center - Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co

GES Colloquium - Tuesdays 12-1PM (via Zoom) NC State University | http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-colloquium

Phytohormones are critical regulators of plant development and environmental responses. In the past three decades, the molecular pathways that govern hormone biosynthesis, signaling, and catabolism have been largely mapped out using a combination of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell biology approaches. Despite the major progress, our ability to monitor and precisely control hormone action remains limited. With the development of inexpensive DNA synthesis technologies and the rise of synthetic biology as a new discipline at the intersection of molecular genetics and engineering, new molecular tools can now be built to enable hormone tracking and targeted hormone manipulation. We have generated a synthetic biology toolbox that allows rapid construction of multi-hormone transcriptional reporters. In addition, we are building CRISPR-based logic gate devices to confer novel, highly restricted patterns of expression to any genes of interest using a limited set of available native and synthetic drivers.

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Anna Stepanova (@AlonsoStepanova and @ANStepanova45) is an Associate Professor of Plant Biology and Genetics at NC State University. Her primary research interests continue to center around plant hormones, specifically the mechanisms of ethylene signal transduction, auxin biosynthesis, hormone pathways’ crosstalk, and translational regulation of hormone responses. In her work, Anna is employing classical and molecular genetics, genomics and synthetic biology in Arabidopsis and tomato to decipher the mechanisms governing plant adaptation and phenotypic plasticity.

GES Center - Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co

GES Colloquium - Tuesdays 12-1PM (via Zoom) NC State University | http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-colloquium

Environmental justice scholarship and practice often focuses on distributive or procedural dimensions of justice. While these are important, here I argue that the politics of recognition is foundational to these other two dimensions of environmental justice. Drawing on the case study of the Genetically Engineered American Chestnut tree and working with Haudenosaunee environmental and tribal leaders, I put forth that recognizing sovereignty and worldview are critical to a just governance of chestnut restoration. This framework also offers insight into other environmental biotechnologies, particularly those being proposed for species protection.

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Dr. Katie Barnhill-Dilling (@barnhilldilling) is a postdoctoral research scholar at North Carolina State University in the Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources. She is a social scientist, exploring just environmental decision-making. Broadly, her research focuses on engaging diverse communities and stakeholders in complex environmental and natural resource governance questions. More specifically, she explores the politics and social science around emerging applications of biotechnology in biodiversity conservation and restoration. Katie situates herself at an intersection of Science, Technology, and Society studies — in particular public engagement with science and technology — and Environmental Justice. Her focus is primarily on qualitative methodologies, including in-depth interviews, focus group facilitation, and participant observation.

GES Center -  Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co

GES Colloquium - Tuesdays 12-1PM (via Zoom) NC State University | http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-colloquium

Session organized by the Genetic Engineering and Society (GES) Center

Societal impacts of climate change will not be distributed equally among geographies and populations. Proponents of gene editing forecast conservation applications whereby gene editing might aid in climate change adaptation (and, sometimes, mitigation) for vulnerable communities and ecosystems. Yet these technological solutions may create their own inequities and risks, both ecological and social. This session will explore what is at stake — including both risks and benefits — in the use of gene editing to address climate justice/equity issues.

CRISPRcon is a unique forum bringing diverse voices together to discuss the future of CRISPR and related gene-editing technologies across applications in agriculture, health, conservation, and more. CRISPRcon sparks curiosity, builds understanding, and highlights societal histories and other context relevant to decisions on gene editing technologies. CRISPRcon is a program of the Keystone Policy Center.

GES Center -  Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co