Workshops & Training Sessions

Workshops before and after the symposium are designed to cover specific topics related to biosafety and GMOs in an informal and participatory manner. These will be moderated by experts, and allow in depth discussions of the issues. Additionally, training sessions on specific topics will be organized to allow participants with less experience to interact with colleagues more experienced in the subject under discussion. In this way, global perspectives and experiences will be shared among participants. Click here to view all offered workshops.

Sessions

Session 1: Biosafety research challenges and experiences in Latin America

The Latin American region is rich in experience with the development and research with GMOs. Many countries have diverse crops of interest and are known to be centers of origin for these crops. Researchers and regulators from around the world can benefit from learning about the challenges and experiences related to decision making and biosafety research in countries in the region. This session will include talks about the different approaches taken within centers of origin and “other” crops undergoing genetic modification that are regionally and globally important like potato or sugar cane.

Session 2: Problem Formulation - improving the quality of an environmental risk assessment

Risk assessors are continually challenged to ensure that the outcomes of an environmental risk assessment are relevant for decision making. Also, basic researchers may be interested learning more about constructing hypotheses that are relevant in a regulatory context. This session provides an introduction to problem formulation, how it can be used to improve the quality of environmental risk assessments and the challenges of applying this approach under existing regulatory regimes.

Session 3: Biosafety considerations for crops for non-food/feed uses, biofuels and energy crops

Many plants are being proposed for use as biofuels and other sources of energy in Latin America and around the world. Some of these plants will be genetically modified to enhance their properties for this use. In addition, many of these plants have never been grown at the scales that are needed for their use in the production of energy. This session will look broadly at the research underway with these crops and how this research may support regulatory decisions concerning release on large scales. The talks will not be limited to genetically modified plants since this topic has broader biosafety considerations.

Session 4: GM insect developments and biosafety

Animals, specifically insects, are an area of intense interest for applications of genetic modification. Applications include biological control and control of various diseases such as malaria. While there is much experience with biological control from a research perspective and exotic species perspective, the experience with regulatory considerations for arthropods to be genetically modified is evolving. This session affords an opportunity for researchers in this field to share their experiences and ideas on how this information should guide the regulation of GM insects.

Session 5: Biosafety aspects of GM-based agronomic traits protecting against yield reduction due to abiotic stress

Biotechnology-based solutions to the challenges arising in agriculture from abiotic stress (drought, cold, nitrogen, salt, etc) are rapidly developing. Consequently, there is also rapid growth in both research and regulatory review associated with these traits. This session will bring together a rich discussion of the research results to date and the regulatory issues associated with protecting crops from abiotic stress. This session will also recognize that conventional breeding is a rich source of information on this subject since breeders have been selecting plants based on their ability to tolerate abiotic stress.

Session 6: New applications of biotechnologies and their associated risk assessment issues

The 11th ISB GMO will recognize that one of the important roles of research is to develop new technologies. Advances in the area of RNAi, synthetic biology, artificial chromosomes, cisgenics will lead to new GMOs that may pose challenges for risk assessment and regulation. This session will also present some key papers that will describe developments in “omics” technologies with a goal to inform risk assessors about potential future applications.