Genetics

DHAKA, Sept 14, 2019 (BSS) – Awami League presidium member and agriculture minister Dr Abdur Razzaque today said Bangladesh is committed to ensure biosafety as an adaptor of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Read More »

The largest study of its kind found new evidence that genes contribute to same-sex sexual behavior, but it echoes research that says there are no specific genes that make people gay. The genome-wide research on DNA from nearly half a million U.S. and U.K. adults identified five genetic variants not previously linked with gay or lesbian sexuality. The variants were ... Read More »

New York, Jun 21 (AP/UNB) — Inside an Indiana aquafarming complex, thousands of salmon eggs genetically modified to grow faster than normal are hatching into tiny fish. After growing to roughly 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) in indoor tanks, they could be served in restaurants by late next year. The salmon produced by AquaBounty are the first genetically modified animals approved ... Read More »

By Caley Pigliucci UN, Jun 3 2019 (IPS) – The plant-life on the Pacific Islands is currently under threat as protections against diseases and pests are left in the hands of under-trained personnel with limited facilities. Talei Fidow-Moors, the Principal Quarantine Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Samoa, warned in a statement to IPS of an “increased ... Read More »

Antibiotic resistance in our pathogens is caused by human activity and is a major challenge for public health. Recent research has found that some of the world’s most widely used herbicides like Roundup (glyphosate) and Kamba (dicamba) can increase the rate of antibiotic resistance development in bacteria by a factor of up to 100,000 times faster than occurs without the ... Read More »

ভারতের নিষিদ্ধ বিটি বেগুনের বাংলাদেশে উৎপাদনবিষয়ক সব ধরনের তথ্য জানতে চায় ভারত। দেশটির কেন্দ্রীয় সরকারের পরিবেশ মন্ত্রণালয় থেকে বাংলাদেশে চিঠি পাঠিয়ে এ তথ্য জানতে চেয়েছে। Read More »

When vulnerable young children in India eat foods prepared with wheat enriched with zinc, they spend significantly fewer days sick with pneumonia and vomiting, shows a study published this week. Diets in India commonly lack sufficient zinc and consequently, nearly 40% of children under five years of age are physically stunted and markedly vulnerable to common infections, like diarrhoea and ... Read More »

By Sunita Narain New Delhi, Aug 17 2018 (IPS) – The minimum we expect from the government is to differentiate between right and wrong. But when it comes to regulating our food, it’s like asking for too much. Our latest investigation vouches for this. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)’s pollution monitoring laboratory tested 65 samples of processed food ... Read More »

by Sahana Ghosh Researchers have documented the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) in the microbial milieu of the Sundarbans mangroves in a new study. Read More »

Washington, D.C.—July 19 – Poor diets lacking in iron limit brain development and learning capacity, hampering the potential of individuals and societies, generation after generation. Countries like India are at the heart of this challenge, as nearly half of all Indian women and children under five are anaemic. Iron deficiency is a major—and preventable—cause. A study recently published in the ... Read More »

Dhaka, Jul 19 – The High Court on Thursday cancelled the bail of an accused in a paternity case and asked him to surrender within 3 days for failing to submit his DNA report to the court as per its direction. Read More »

A multi-disciplinary team of epidemiologists from Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital and the University of Toronto have found that increasing local temperatures and population densities are associated with increasing antibiotic resistance in common bacterial strains. The researchers found that an increase in temperature of 10 degrees Celsius was associated with an increase in antibiotic resistance of 4.2 percent, 2.2 ... Read More »

A recent report from the US Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) estimates that more than 27 percent of all medically important antibiotics sold in the US are for pig production, while a roughly equivalent amount (27.6%) is sold for use in human medicine. According to the NRDC report, the widespread antibiotic overuse in the pork industry and livestock production is ... Read More »

Antibiotic pollution and resistance genes released into the natural environment by human activity are causing local bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance in estuaries. Read More »

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury today acknowledged the positive impact of biotech crops and their potential to help Bangladesh meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030. Read More »

Dhaka, Dec 27 – Scientists in Bangladesh have developed country’s first biotech rice variety giving farmers an answer to the difficulties they face in harvesting the staple with machines. Stems of BRRIdhan-86, the variety that got official release approval Wednesday, are strong and stout and easy to reap by mechanical harvesters. This will come handy to farm owners, who suffer ... Read More »

During this year’s World Antibiotics Awareness Week, the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) released a press statement calling on the Malaysian government to give urgent attention to the global threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) which is responsible for some 700,000 deaths around the world annually. Read More »

Guest Blog by Nivedita Khandekar This story from Nag River in Nagpur is second in the series of online stories of urban rivers from across India. Please share your feedback and provide us with suggestions (read more in the appendix). If you have any urban river stories or images that you might want to share, please send them to ht.sandrp@gmail.com ... Read More »

Dhaka, Dec 7 (AP/UNB) -Gene therapy has freed 10 men from nearly all symptoms of hemophilia for a year so far, in a study that fuels hopes that a one-time treatment can give long-lasting help and perhaps even cure the blood disease. Read More »

A new legal study by University College London urges the European Commission “to take action and to block the proposed merger between Bayer and Monsanto, whether viewed through a narrow competition lens or a wider scope of social and environmental costs”. The study sets out five main reasons why EU competition law requires that the merger be blocked. Read More »

By Thalif Deen UN, Nov 25 (IPS) – The United Nations is fighting a losing battle against the widespread – and continued – sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by UN peacekeepers and civilian staff resulting in relatively few convictions amidst daunting problems in tracking abusers and nailing down paternity claims. Read More »

Paris, Oct 26 (BSS/AFP) – Two teams of scientists on Wednesday unveiled a new generation of programmable molecular machines that can seamlessly repair tiny but deadly errors in the genetic coding of living organisms. Read More »

Trenton, Oct 3 (AP/UNB) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is opening a new front in its efforts to reduce high drug prices by encouraging development of generic versions of hard-to-make medicines. Read More »

Gurdial Singh Nijar Last week the Dewan Rakyat passed a bill to curb “biopiracy”. This is the stealing of the biological resources of a country without its consent. Read More »

Manila – Global acceptance of genetically modified (GM) crops sprang back in 2016 after suffering a decline in 2015, according to estimates by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA). Read More »

By Kanis Dursin Jakarta, Indonesia, Jul 10 (IPS) – Poultry farmer Bambang Sutrisno Setiawan had long heard about biosecurity but never gave serious thought to it, even when the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 forced him to cull thousands of his layer chickens in 2003 and 2009. Read More »

Dhaka – Agricultural scientists attending a seminar here today said introduction of Genetically Modified (GM) crops would help meet 50 per cent increase in food demand by 2050. “Traditional technology is not enough for solving future problems in agricultural production ….Biotechnology is being used in agriculture sector for increasing nutritional value of crops and also to meet increasing food demand ... Read More »

On Saturday, May 20, activists took to the streets, all over the world, for the sixth annual March Against Monsanto protests. News reports like those from Switzerland, Bangladesh, Toronto and, here in the U.S., Denver and Miami painted a picture of solidarity against what’s come to be known as the most evil corporation in the world. As in years past, ... Read More »

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Tan Zhai Gen Kuala Lumpur, May 16 (IPS) – Advocates of genetically engineered (GE) crops have long claimed that genetic engineering is necessary to raise crop yields and reduce human exposure to agrochemicals. Genetic engineering promised two major improvements: improving yields affordably to feed the world, and making crops resistant to pests to reduce the ... Read More »

Scientists have created “artificial embryos” using stem cells from mice, in what they believe is a world first. The University of Cambridge team used two types of stem cells and a 3D scaffold to create a structure closely resembling a natural mouse embryo. Previous attempts have had limited success because early embryo development requires the different cells to coordinate with ... Read More »