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10/10/2006 - Adding a phytnonutrient-rich capsule to the diet may provide a convenient way of benefiting from the benefits

New research, published in the October issue of the Journal of Nutrition (Vol. 136, pp. 2606-2610), suggests that adding a phytnonutrient-rich capsule to the diet may provide a convenient way of benef...More

Three projects drawing on the expertise of researchers in both the UK and France could translate into practical improvements in crop and agronomic science. All three have received awards, worth ove...More

Scientists have long told us to eat more nutrient rich food to aid our health and well being. But eating food rich in various nutrients, doesn’t necessarily mean that they will then be absorbed by the...More

Research in the US over a 10 year period has shown that drinking just three glasses of either fruit or vegetable juice a week may cut the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by 75 per cent, when co...More

Rice has long been one of the world’s staple foods, but demand even now exceeds supply and with the expanding world population this deficit is only likely to increase with the varieties and production...More

Research published in the journal Nature on the 29th June reveals how scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC), Norwich and Washington State University, USA have managed to trigger nodulation in legu...More

The European Commission has announced that it will be staging a major research event in Brussels to celebrate the launch of FP7 from the 7th – 18th March 2007. The main feature will be an exhibit enti...More

Phytowelt GreenTechnologies (Germany) and Pastoral Genomics (New Zealand) expanded their research alliance on forage plant species in January 2006 After successful cooperation in 2005, Phytowelt Gr...More

NIZO food research recognized as R&D provider by French Government Dutch based NIZO food research has recently been recognised as official R&D provider for the industry by the French ministry of re...More

Grass roots network could cut risk of flooding New varieties of grass, specially bred to have a deep root system, could one day be used to reduce the risk of flooding in some parts of the UK, accor...More

Protéus announced today that it has been granted U.S. Patent No. 6,951,719 for L-Shuffling™, a novel gene shuffling technology developed by Protéus to generate and optimize novel proteins for commerci...More

WORLD FOOD DAY 2005 THEME: INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE The Food and Agriculture Organization announced that this year’s World Food Day theme is 'Agriculture and intercultural dialogue'. The theme stress...More

ICI Vice President Leonard Berlik is appointed to the Board of Directors of NIZO food research B.V. NIZO food research has announced the appointment of Leonard Berlik to their Board of Directors....More

EUROPE’S STRATEGIC RESEARCH AGENDA OUT The strategic research agenda ‘Plants for the future’ on how Europe can improve the safe exploitation of the genetic diversity in plants using plant genomic...More

TOMATO GETS NUTRIENT BOOST In the latest issue of Nature Biotechnology, Ganga Rao Davuluri of Stazione Zoologica, Naples, Italy, and colleagues demonstrate that “Fruit-specific RNAi-mediated sup...More

NIZO in search for satiety triggers NIZO food research is partner in a unique European integrated project on Obesity. The project aims at understanding the dietary and genetic factors influencing...More

Salacia oblonga: Proven anti diabetic and anti obesity Ayurvedic herb Salacia oblonga (Celastaceae), "Ponkoranti", is a woody plant found in the forests of Sri Lanka and India. The roots and stems ...More

Green tea mechanism supports anti-cancer activity The polyphenols present in green tea help prevent the spread of prostate cancer by targeting molecular pathways that shut down the proliferation a...More

GM Foods are the healthier alternative The risk in consuming food derived from genetically modified (GM) plants approved in the European Union (EU) and in the United States (USA), is in no way high...More

Chinese and African Scientists Awarded the 2004 World Food Prize The World Food Prize has been formally presented to Professor Yuan and Dr. Jones at a ceremony on October 14, 2004 in the Iowa State...More

Trials drought-tolerant GM wheat October 2004 Scientists in Egypt have announced a drought-tolerant wheat by transferring a gene from barley into a local wheat variety at a recent biotechnology sy...More

Resistance Genes in Tomatoes Discovery The NWO reports that Dutch researcher Marco Kruijt has discovered two resistance genes that were probably present in an ancestral tomato species, prior to the...More

Three farms in Wales have planted 20 hectares of willow as part of a major new project on renewable energy from plant sources. The project, called Helyg i Gymru – Willow for Wales, aims to demonstrate...More

New Research Offers A Not So Loopy Solution UK agriculture is faced with the need to reduce diffuse pollution, particularly where nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are concerned, whilst at the same...More

Biotechnology essential for nutritional security Crop biotechnology is essential for food and nutritional security in India. However, policy initiatives are necessary to accelerate investments by ...More

This autumn NIZO food research has organised a course on November 23rd, titled Hygienic processing, cleaning and control in food factories'. For further information, please contact: Erika Schenk...More

The Indian biotechnology industry is planning an outsourcing success comparable to that in the information technology sector. This time, it is planned to happen in the biotech sector. Many regions su...More

European project highlights “pharming” potential for developing countries. July 2004 European scientists have launched a 12 million euro (£8m) project , called Pharma-Planta that aims to make p...More

New survey airs options on farm futures What does the future hold for farming and the countryside? What crops will be grown, how will the landscape change, and how will the needs of different inte...More

Tracing wild relatives The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are part of a 8 member founder group including the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) that have launched ...More

Improving quality and safety and reduction of costs in the European organic and low input supply chain The European Union is funding a new 18M Euro Integrated Project ‘QualityLowInputFood’ that ...More

New approach will overcome GM opposition According to a front page report in the London Guardian newspaper, an American created in March 2001 in Indiana, claims to use more acceptable biotechnology...More

Value of Rice Technology The FAO suggest that a large number of people living in predominantly rice-eating countries suffer from various forms of malnutrition. Understanding the causes of malnutrit...More

… SILAGE GASES HEALTH WARNING Scientists at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Aberystwyth warned of dangerous gases which can be formed by newly produced silage. Staff at the...More

10th May 2004 After seven years of negotiation the FAO approved the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in November 2001. Three more years and the required numbe...More

Cell-Free In Vitro Protein Expression Platform : Two European Patents Granted To Protéus Nîmes, France May 3, 2004 Protéus today announced the issuance of European patents EP 1,137,804 and EP ...More

Preserving bananas http://www.teriin.org/terragreen/issue59/news.htm Indian scientists have patented a novel technology that would allow one to serve an all-time favourite fruit in a different ...More

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Begins Using Biolog Phenotype MicroArray Technology in Genomic Research HAYWARD, Calif.--May 3, 2004--Biolog, Inc. announced today that its new Phenotype Mic...More

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories Begins Using Biolog Phenotype MicroArray Technology in Genomes to Life Project Biolog, Inc. announced today that its new Phenotype MicroArray(TM) technology has been...More

Edible vaccine from Maize 7 April 2004 Egyptian scientists have genetically engineered maize plants to produce a protein used to make the hepatitis B virus vaccine. They hope that their findings c...More

International Year of Rice First proposed by the International Rice Research Institute, and then endorsed and supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the govern...More

The home-grown advantage Greater use of home-grown feeds such as cereals and protein crops could help livestock farmers contain their costs, say extension specialists at the Institute of Grassland ...More

Commissioner urges EU to lift GMO ban 29 September 2003 The EU is under pressure to lift its five-year ban on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), as it risks facing a legal challenge by the U...More

Medicinal plant indigenous knowledge network strengthened 24 September 2003 Fourteen countries in the Asia-Pacific region have agreed to create a network to share expertise on communicating and m...More

Boost for South African traditional medicine through virtual centre Tamar Kahn 4 September 2003 Source: SciDev.Net The South African health department has launched a virtual reference centre fo...More

Biotech Entrepreneurs take off in Asia. Asia is experiencing a surge of bioentrepreneurship mainly because of regional political will and powerful global industry driver. Hence, there has been a pr...More

New hope for GM plant vaccines that target cancer Sophia Biemelt of Germany’s Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung and colleagues have genetically engineered plants to prod...More

GM corn with real health benefits Researchers from the US Department of Agriculture -Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), and the Iowa State University (ISU) have developed new corn varieties ...More

BIO HOSTS BIO VENTUREFORUM WEST 2003 The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will host the BIO VentureForum West 2003 on October 14 to 16, 2003 in San Francisco, California, USA. This forum i...More

2002 GLOBAL STATUS OF GM CROPS AVAILABLE ONLINE The Global Status of Commercialised Transgenic Crops: 2002 written by Dr. Clive James, chair of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri...More

BioMarket and BioProduct.info plan for next 3 years 23 July 2003 The team at Rothamsted Research that bring you the annual BioMarket event (http://www.bioproduct.info/biomarket/biomarket.php ) an...More

Professor Klaus Ammann, Head of the Botanical Garden in Berne, Switzerland, has recently released results from his research entitled "Biodiversity and Agricultural Biotechnology: A Review of the ...More

Milestone for Indian and US biotech co-operation www.SciDev.Net report that India and the United States are to set up a formal framework for research collaboration in agricultural biotechnology. ...More

The Plant Biotechnology Train Threatens to Leave the UK at the Station The world is entering a golden age of plant science, with the UK at the forefront, but without clearer government strategies...More

A “cool” tool for industrial protein gelation Giving the right texture to food products with heat sensitive structures and flavours is now possible with the understanding of ‘cold gelation’. Resear...More

Biolog Awarded NIH Grant to Develop Phenotype MicroArray Technology for Human Cell Predictive Toxicology Application. HAYWARD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2003--Biolog, Inc. announced toda...More

Rabies antibodies from plants 5 June 2003 Researchers from the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, USA are looking into the possibility of developing inexpensive and safe plant-derived an...More

An information day on the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) will take place on 9 June in Viterbo, Italy. The aim of the event is to give a complete and detailed overview of how to prepare a project prop...More

Chinese scientists must tighten IPR Cui Ning [BEIJING] Chinese research institutes and companies conducting state-sponsored scientific research are being required to tighten up their management ...More

POS PILOT PLANT OFFERS SUPERCRITICAL FLUID EXTRACTION FOR CONTRACT R&D SASKATOON, CANADA. POS Pilot Plant Corporation (www.pos.ca) will offer supercritical fluid extraction on a contract basis...More

Getting rid of toxins in Cassava Cassava is a very important food source in tropical countries, but the unprocessed plant material contains potentially toxic levels of a cyanogen called linamarin. ...More

UK Responds to report on international IPR Intellectual property rights (IPRs) can play a vital role in how technology progresses in developing countries. A rigorous, well-policed IPR system is an ...More

Biotechnology in West and Central Africa The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), one of the 16 research centres supported by the CGIAR, has just published "Agrobiotechnolog...More

Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) E-Newsletter The first issue of the GFAR Electronic Newsletter for 2003 has just been posted. GFAR is a stakeholder-led initiative that serves as a neut...More

FAO/Codex Task Force on Biotechnology The report of the 4th and final scheduled session of the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods derived from Biotechnology (held on 11-14 March 200...More

PLANT BIOTECH AND BREEDING: ALLIES IN CROP PRODUCTION The role of plant breeding in the generation of better varieties can not be easily substituted by genetic engineering particularly when a flux ...More

WHY MOST EUROPEANS ARE OPPOSED TO GMOS Sylvie Bonny of the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA-ESR) in Grignon, France, answered this question by examining the factors, actors and pr...More

Indian Biotechnology Development starts with Schools http://www.abertay-dundee.ac.uk/news/FullStory.cfm?NewsID=316 India, with a population of over a billion, had 176 biotechnology companies ...More

KARI LAUNCHES USAID BIOTECH PROGRAM The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) officially launched a five-year USAID Biotechnology Support Programme at a ceremony presided over by the Kenyan...More

EUROPEAN CONGRESS ON BIOTECHNOLOGY The European Congress on Biotechnology will take place on August 24 to 29, 2003 at the Convention Center Basel in Switzerland. The Congress will discuss the most ...More

TV Padma Source: SciDev.Net 14 April 2003 [NEW DELHI] Indian nightshade, a herb used in the traditional ayurvedic system of Indian medicine, can effectively control mosquitoes and could help curb...More

The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown had good news for companies wanting to put more money into research and development when he announced his budget in the House of Commons on 9th ...More

The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown had good news for companies wanting to put more money into research and development when he announced his budget in the House of Commons on 9th ...More

Kenya and Uganda urgently need appropriate modern biotechnology packages to help improve the declining production of major food and cash crop according to their ministers of agriculture. "Tho...More

From: Innovation Europe, 19 April 2003 Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society Erkki Liikanen has admitted that the Commission is 'anxious' about the state of the European biotechno...More

Source: TerraGreen http://www.teriin.org/terragreen/issue33/feature.htm#f1 Aakanksha Kumar Rural people in India often rely on using medicinal plants when they are injured or taken ill, but ironi...More

A China Leadership Forum on Production and Trade of Agri-biotech Products will be held on April 24, 2003 at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel, Beijing, China. Organized by the Beijing Means Consulting Com...More

India's biotechnology industry is projected to show substantial growth in the future, even outsmarting the currently robust IT industry, reports the Asia Times. Quoting from a paper released by the As...More

Most Europeans are in favor of medical applications of biotechnology, but they are still skeptical about its uses in agricultural and food applications. These are some of the highlights of the result ...More

Transgenic plants without marker problems A research team from the Netherlands have reported a transformation method for obtaining marker-free plants of a cross-pollinating and vegetatively propaga...More

Pfizer-Pharmacia merger closer In a move that clears the way for Pfizer to complete its purchase of rival Pharmacia, the two firms reached an agreement with the United States FTC to divest certai...More

For many years now, members of the biodiversity community have made efforts to ensure that the social relevance of protecting the environment is prioritized. This goal embodies the idea that local com...More

New alternative use for Jojoba - as a fuel! The oil from the tropical jojoba tree is often found in the bathroom in cosmetics and shampoos, but its use as a potential cleaner, greener fuel as a su...More

Kofi Annan's challenge to world's scientists Science has contributed immensely to human progress and to the development of modern society. The application of scientific knowledge continues to furni...More

MORE SPECIALISTS ON FDA PLANT INSPECTION TEAMS In August 2002, the FDA announced the Pharmaceutical cGMPs for the 21st Century: A Risk-Based Approach initiative. A multidisciplinary working gro...More

ProTon Europe, a pan-European network of technology transfer offices linked to universities and public research organisations, has been launched at a kick off meeting for new members in Brussels. ProT...More

Companies need to adopt new, collaborative, multi-stakeholder strategies for product development, risk management, public education, and advocacy. This was a recommendation of Bio Economic Research As...More

"We are already seeing the benefits of crop biotechnology, and researchers are making incredible inroads into new uses for biotech crops and animals. As scientists push back the frontiers of biot...More

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and his ministerial colleagues for industry and research announced tax-cutting measures for research-based companies. If approved by the French parliament, F...More

11 February 2003 from DuPont’s “More than Science” (www.morethanscience.com) “Plants are poised for a comeback as sources of human health products” says Ilya Raskin and her colleagues from Rutgers ...More

The International Food Policy Research Institute's Markets and Structural Studies Division have published Discussion Paper 53, entitled "Successes in African agriculture: Results of an expert sur...More

At the invitation of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) prepared on 10 January 2003 a...More

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs has recently published a book called "Supporting Africa's efforts to achieve sustainable development: Dialogues at the Economic and Social Council...More

An abbreviated summary of discussions from the FAO e-mail conference entitled "Gene flow from GM to non-GM populations in the crop, forestry, animal and fishery sectors" has just been publis...More

A conference to be held this April at Washington University in St Louis will gather leading biological scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, national and international government officials, a...More

The news about the spread of a new form of Panama disease, Fusarium wilt which is threatening the popular Cavendish variety of banana, raised alarm about the fruit's possible extinction. The doomsday ...More

The full publication and further information can be obtained from ISAAA's Center in South East Asia: e-mail publications@isaaa.org. Cost of the publication, ISAAA Briefs No. 27, is $US 35.00 including...More

Benefit-sharing deal for South African tribe Tamar Kahn From: http://www.scidev.net/# 13 January 2003-01-13 After months of intense negotiation, a deal has been reached between a group of South...More

Progress in research has encouraged a massive surge in plant biotechnology which is currently changing the vision of crop production and protection.This was the comment from Dominique Job of Bayer Cro...More

(from www.morethanscience.com) The European Parliament adopted what it described as a "very biotechnology friendly" resolution during a plenary debate on the European Commission's communi...More

Jan. 13-15: Technology Transfer for the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industries La Jolla, Calif. (888) 670-8200 Institute for International Research register@iirusa.com www.iirusa.com/techtran...More

Duke University will this week challenge a court ruling made last year that effectively puts a stop to scientists borrowing patented technology for non-commercial basic research. In October 2002, ...More

"Governments must establish new initiatives, capabilities and institutions that can have a profound effect on legitimacy at a much more fundamental level. Only when this is done will biotechnolog...More

India sets new rules against biopiracy TV Padma 13 December 2002 (http://www.scidev.net/) [NEW DELHI] The Indian Parliament has approved a biodiversity law that seeks to make it more difficult ...More

Biopiracy fears cloud Indian database See www.scidev.net for more details. KS Jayaraman [NEW DELHI] India's plans to document and protect traditional knowledge in a digital library are coming ...More

During a research mission that concluded with the return of Space Shuttle Atlantis on Friday (06/12/2002), soybean seeds planted and nurtured by DuPont scientists germinated, developed into plants, fl...More

At the last General Assembly of the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Executive Board of the Council was asked to develop, in consultation with other partners, a “science plan for sustaina...More

Harlow (UK) and Cambridge (UK) 2 December 2002 - Argenta Discovery Ltd today announced that it has extended its existing lead optimisation project with H. Lundbeck A/S, in which Argenta is optimising ...More

The final report of the expert consultation meeting on "Public agricultural research: the impact of intellectual property rights on biotechnology in developing countries", held on 24-27 June...More

The European Commission has announced the adoption of the first progress report on the 2001 Action Plan for region bordering applicant countries, which highlights the positive impact of support for sm...More

Freising, Germany: PIERIS Proteolab AG, the protein engineering company based on Anticalins®, ligand-binding proteins with properties resembling antibodies, announced today the completion of a &am...More

In an on-line article, the International Herald Tribune (http://www.iht.com/articles/) made clear the frustration and mystification that USA government and administration and companies are experiencin...More

Urgent action is needed to address the shortage of key vaccines and improve the stability of supply for the future, according to experts speaking as a scientific colloquium. During the past year, ...More

The Zambian government last month sent a group of scientists to Europe and the United States to collect information from both government and private agencies in order to write a report on the issue. ...More

Members of the Third World Academy of Sciences, meeting in New Delhi, India, were told that it was time for developing countries to “put their own house in order” if they wanted to reap the benefits t...More

New rules governing the safety approval of field trials and the growing of genetically modified (GM) crops in the European Union (EU) have just come into force. Directive 2001/18/EC, approved in April...More

The World's Indigenous Peoples conference, held last week in Kelowna in British Columbia, Canada. The conference brought researchers, lawyers and tribal leaders together to discuss the status of intel...More

A key international agreement governing many of the world’s most important crop diversity collections was recently extended by 165 countries, ensuring that this diversity, which is critical for crop i...More

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), are seeking a Program Director to lead the Biofortification Challenge Program ($8...More

Researchers from Melbourne University report that a 10% solution of the juice is a potent destroyer of sperm acting within 30 seconds. The New Scientist journal reports, that the team also suggest th...More

An expert panel of 28 eminent international scientists and experts in genome-related technology and global health issues have expressed their collective opinion on the top 10 genomic and other biote...More

At the opening of BioMalaysia 2002 the Prime Minister of Malaysia Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohammad stressed his country's commitment to biotechnology. He went on to say that Malaysia aspires to bec...More

The National Science Foundation (NSF) today awarded a total of $75.6 million to support 23 collaborative research projects in plant genomics. This year's competition emphasized collaborative research ...More

Plant biotechnology is an important tool to help empower women in both the developed and the developing world, Monsanto's Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Sarah Hull, told the US Business Women...More

The Malaysian states wish to play a full part in the development of biotechnology in their country. For instance Sarawak State wants to play a significant role in the biotechnology industry as it has...More

The FDA issued a long-awaited draft guidance governing the development and manufacture of human drugs and biologics derived from genetically engineered plants. Comments are sought from interested par...More

Joel Cohen, from ISNAR, and Per Pinstrup-Andersen, from IFPRI, have just published an Opinion Article in SciDev.Net entitled "Biotechnology and the public good" which, among other things, ...More