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Many new technologies including GM viruses, GM mosquitoes, custom designed fish, drought tolerant plants are all entering the regulatory arena – in some cases, they have already been released. Many of these new and emerging technologies offer new hopes to myriads of human and animal diseases as well as to biodiversity conservation. Such biotechnologies will force us to ask the hard questions about how we understand, evaluate and treat biotechnology and the associated risks. When is a risk worth taking? Does human wealth outweigh biodiversity? How do we trade off hazards about which we are certain against risks that we are not? And should "transgenics" really be the only focus of our regulatory attention?
This conference aims to bring together a wide variety of stake holders to discuss these issues. This is a unique opportunity to address bio-innovators from across the world. Scientists, regulators, decision makers and civil society leaders from across the globe are confirmed to attend as part of GenØk’s specialist biosafety training course taking place the week before this conference.
Sessions include:
• Public health and new technologies
• Biocontrol and biodiversity
• Animal production
• Plant production
• Process and risk methodologies of risk assessment
• Ethics and society
This conference is brought to you by GenØk – Centre for Biosafety, Third World Network (Malaysia) and the Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety, University of Canterbury (New Zealand) with funding from NORAD.
The international conference on Modern Biotechnologies: Sustainable innovation and regulatory needs will be taking place on the beautiful island of Penang, Malaysia Oct 31st to Nov 3rd 2011. The conference is a GenOk conference organized in partnership with Third World Network and is funded by grants from the ministry of foreign affairs / NORAD (Norwegian Agency for Developmental Cooperation).
The conference aims to focus on three key interrelated questions:
1. Do current regulations sufficiently address the novel aspects of existing and emerging modern biotechnologies (new classes of GMOs, synthetic biology and nano-biotechnology)?
2. What specific measures would be required to meet any deficiencies identified to achieve sustainable innovation?
3. Are there specific regional issues, which need to be addressed in this context, and if so, how?
The conference will bring key figures in science and regulatory bodies together to discuss challenges, uncertainties and sustainability of new and upcoming techniques of modern biotechnologies, new products thereof and implications for current legislation / regulation. Arenas for open and dynamic discussions on these very important and imminent questions are essential for ensuring that science is directed to meet societal needs. An intended outcome of the conference is to formulate practical initiatives in response to the key questions.