Today, young scientists in De Standaard are calling for changes to European legislation on GMOs. The cultivation of new GMOs in the European Union (EU) is de facto impossible. The complex legislation, but especially the European political unwillingness, is blocking this. The VUB is one of the pioneers in research into genetically modified plants and has already done a lot of good work on this worldwide.
Geert Angenon, Henri De Greve, Jean-Pierre Hernalsteens en Ramon de Koning.
Many of us probably don’t realize that VUB researchers were among the pioneers in the development of genetically modified plants (often called GMOs for genetically modified organisms). Indeed, in the seventies and early eighties, VUB researchers including Jean-Pierre Hernalsteens, Henri De Greve and Jan Leemans worked in close collaboration with colleagues from UGent and the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Köln, under the guidance of Marc Van Montagu and Jeff Schell, who were appointed at both VUB and UGent at that time. Their research formed the basis of the technology to transfer and express any gene in plants and as such create genetically modified crops. These techniques have been widely used to produce beneficial plants including insect-resistant crops which are beneficial for the farmer and the environment because fewer pesticides need to be used.
In recent years, new plant breeding technologies (NBTs), such as CRISPR/Cas, have been developed through which small changes can be introduced very precisely in the genetic material of plants. This allows plant biotechnologists to make new plant varieties with beneficial traits in a specific, safe and efficient way; think of gluten-free wheat, disease-resistant bananas or higher-yielding rice varieties.
Here at the VUB, we continued working hard to improve these technologies and to apply the classical GMO technology as well as the NBTs to develop improved plant varieties such as potato and soy with increased levels of amino acids, beans with a higher nutritional value, plants that are protected against insects (caterpillars and aphids) by the expression of proteins from garlic, foxglove plants which produce more cardenolides used to treat patients with heart failure, and plants that produce biopharmaceuticals (antibodies and antigens) in their seeds to protect domestic animals against bacterial and viral infections. Furthermore, we have transferred this expertise to students from around the world through the Interuniversity Master Programme in Molecular Biology (IPMB). This programme has now more than 650 alumni, many of whom returned to their home countries where they contribute to a sustainable future. A nice example is alumnus Henry Wagaba from the National Agricultural Research Organization in Uganda who produced virus-resistant cassava plants, a highly needed resource for Ugandan farmers.
Unfortunately, due to the strict regulation in Europe, these technologies don’t get a fair chance. That’s why young researchers of all Flemish universities, including VUB PhD student Ramon de Koning, ask to rewrite the regulations on GMOs and NBTs in an opinion article published today in the Belgian newspaper “De Standaard”. They get support from more than 450 academics.
Read more: https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20200226_04866574