Gene Drives in Agriculture: Risk Assessment and Research Prioritization

Plant pests such as the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri) and spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) fruit flies are responsible for billions of dollars of crop losses worldwide. As such, the NASEM’s 2016 report Gene Drives on the Horizon recommends continued research into the potential benefits and risks of developing gene drive technologies to address the problem. 

The Gene Drives in Agriculture workshop will feature 6-7 speakers on various aspects of risk assessment in the context of gene drives for agricultural pests. The purpose of the workshop is to foster deliberative discussions among participants that will ultimately result in the production of a white paper on research priorities for these technologies.

The “Gene Drives in Agriculture: Risk Assessment and Research Prioritization” workshop will take place via Zoom over three days:

• Thursday, June 2, 12 – 4:30 PM — Speaker presentations with Q&A
• Friday, June 3, 12 – 3 PM — Facilitated deliberative discussions to identify research priority agenda and writing groups
• Friday, June 17, 12 – 3 PM — Review of draft white paper

All times are listed in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

This workshop is hosted by the Genetic Engineering and Society (GES) Center at NC State and funded by the US Department of Agriculture (Grant No 2020-33522-32269), under the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Grant program.

For more information, please visit: https://ges.research.ncsu.edu/research/usda-nifa-gene-drive-risk-workshop/