Plant Gene Editing panel discussion

ALL welcome!

Genome editing for plant improvement – prospects and challenges

Date: Wednesday 11th September



Time: 15:00-16.30



Location: Auditorium 1041, Biocentre 2, Viikinkaari 5



Panelists: Michiel de Both (Distinguised Scienctist, Technology Development, KeyGene, Netherlands); Outi Manninen (Head of Biotechnology, Boreal Plant Breeding Ltd.); Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey (Research Manager, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.); Alan Schulman (President of the European Plant Science Organisation-EPSO/Professor, Natural Resources Institute Finland-LuKe & University of Helsinki); Annikki Welling (Head of Chemistry Unit, Finnish Food Authority)



Moderator: Dr. Elli Koskela (University of Helsinki)

A year has passed since the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) decided that genome editing will be treated as GM. This was a disappointment to scientists and breeders who were expecting a lighter regulatory treatment for applications where the edits are similar to naturally occurring mutations.

In recent months there has been pressure on the EU to reverse this ruling and we now have a fantastic opportunity to discuss the matter with a panel discussion.

Streamed live here: http://video.helsinki.fi/unitube/live-stream.html?room=l17

More information:

Opinion paper in Plant Biotechnology: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbi.13200

EU Citizen's Initiative: https://www.growscientificprogress.org/

Analysis of worldwide CRISPR patents: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-019-0138-7