Tag: agriculture
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FDA Gives Initial Clearance for Engineered Mosquitoes
11 March 2016. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a preliminary report that self-limiting engineered mosquitoes will have no significant environmental impacts on the Florida Keys, where they plan to be tested. The report agrees with an environmental assessment by Oxitec Ltd., developer of the engineered mosquitoes, that the agency is releasing for public…
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Process Devised for Plastics from Carbon Dioxide, Plants
10 March 2016. Producing common plastics like polyester today often needs large inputs of fossil fuel derivatives. A chemistry lab at Stanford University in California developed a low-carbon alternative to polyester that combines recycled carbon dioxide with inedible plant matter, such as agricultural waste, as reported in today’s issue of the journal Nature. Matthew Kanan…
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Gene Editing Creates Pigs Resilient to African Virus
23 February 2016. University and industry researchers edited the genomes of domesticated pigs to create a variety better able to withstand a deadly tick-borne virus. The team from University of Edinburgh and the biotechnology companies Sangamo BioSciences and Genus plc published its findings in yesterday’s (22 February) issue of the journal Scientific Reports. The team…
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Bayer Funding Studies of Honey Bee Health, Management
18 February 2016. Bayer Crop Science is seeking research ideas for improving the health of honey bee colonies in the U.S. Proposals for studies in the $1 million program addressing urgent needs highlighted by Bayer’s Healthy Hives 2020 initiative are due by 1 March 2016. Bees, which play a key role in agriculture, are facing…
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Antibody Treatment Designed for MERS Virus
18 February 2016. The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS virus, is spreading throughout the Middle East and Asia, largely through person-to-person contacts, and with a fatality rate of 36 percent. A research team at University of Maryland, with colleagues from industry and government labs, developed antibodies from genetically-engineered cattle that protect lab mice…
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Gene Editing Enlisted to Fight Citrus Greening
11 February 2016. Plant scientists at University of California in Riverside plan to use genome editing to develop varieties of citrus fruit resistant to a bacterial disease devastating crops in the U.S. and other parts of the world. The five-year research project led by UC-Riverside plant pathologist Wenbo Ma is funded by a $4 million…
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Purdue Licenses Food Pathogen Fingerprint Technology
26 January 2016. A lab equipment company is licensing a laser-based technology developed at Purdue University that quickly identifies foodborne pathogens. Financial aspects of the agreement between Purdue, in West Lafayette, Indiana and Andreas Hettich GmbH in Tuttlingen, Germany were not disclosed. Hettich is acquiring the rights to Bacteria Rapid Detection using Optical Scattering Technology,…
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Zoetis Inks Deal for Antibiotic Alternative in Animals
19 January 2016. The veterinary medicines company Zoetis is gaining exclusive rights to evaluate and possibly license an alternative to antibiotics in farm animals. While some financial details of the agreement with Anatara Lifesciences in Brisbane, Australia were disclosed, dollar amounts were not revealed. Antibiotics are used to treat disease in livestock and reduce food-borne…
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Monsanto, Biotech Developing Soil Nutrient Microbe
6 January 2016. A partnership between Monsanto and the biotechnology company Novozymes developed a new soil microbe product, which the companies say in field tests substantially increases corn yields. The collaboration known as BioAg Alliance plans to introduce the corn inoculant product in the U.S. next year. Novozymes, an agricultural biotechnology company in Copenhangen, Denmark,…
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Challenge Seeks Nutrient Recycling from Livestock Waste
4 December 2015. A public-private consortium seeks techniques for recycling crop nutrients from livestock waste in an open-innovation challenge paying $20,000 in prizes. The competition, sponsored by Environmental Protection Agency and a number of partners in government, academia, not-for-profit organizations, and industry has a deadline of 15 January 2016 for initial submissions. The challenge itself…