NABC Conference, October 8 and 9, “DNA Editing Biotechnology”

DNA editing, a new approach to biotechnology that has emerged and been perfected over the last decade, will be the topic of a conference to be held at Cornell University on October 8 & 9. DNA editing creates precise and targeted changes similar to alterations that can and do happen naturally, but much, much more slowly. This powerful technology has applications in both agricultural and medical sciences. Various technical approaches as well as agricultural applications and policy implications will be among the topics addressed at the conference, which is sponsored by the North American Agricultural Biotechnology Council (NABC)

The NABC was formed by then Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) President Ralph W.F. Hardy and Robert Nicholas, a Washington lawyer. Institutional founding partners include BTI, Cornell University, Iowa State University, and the University of California-Davis. NABC has been hosting annual public meetings about the safe, ethical, and efficacious development of agricultural biotechnology products since 1989.

The 26^th NABC conference on the theme of  “New DNA Editing Approaches: Methods, Applications, and Policy for Agriculture” will convene in the Biotechnology Building on the Cornell campus on October 8 & 9. It will offer a primer on gene modification, and provide specific examples of improved crops and livestock that may soon enter the marketplace. It will also address key policy issues concerning the oversight of plant and animal variants created by using these technologies.

Keynote presentations by Dan Voytas, Perry Hackett and Bing Yang will cover biotechnology advances for both animals and plants. Other presentations in the conference will cover new technologies and their applications in animals and plants,  in depth. There will also be input from governmental agencies with respect to their views on potential oversight, and the meeting will conclude with a panel who will begin to define appropriate oversight for these much improved techniques.

Please consult the NABC conference web site for more information and biographies of the keynote speakers and featured guests.