How Aphea.Bio managed to gather the funds to transcend from academia to industry
Aphea.Bio is an agriculture startup, originating from the VIB and flourishing underneath the wings of V-Bio Ventures. Steven Vandenabeele (CTO at Aphea.Bio and previously working at BASF-CropDesign) and Willem Broekaert (managing director of V-Bio Ventures) explain how they found the necessary budget to give this company a head start. We are convinced that, in parallel […]
DuPont Pioneer’s next generation of waxy corn shows the green side of CRISPR-Cas9
CRISPR-Cas9 is making its way into the agricultural sector. Agricultural heavyweight DuPont Pioneer is clearly taking the lead in bringing the technology into plant breeding: about a year ago, the company announced that it would develop a new and improved waxy corn variety with CRISPR-Cas9. Is CRISPR the technology that will make genetic engineering for […]
Why Nobel laureates are condemning Greenpeace’s anti-GMO campaign
Genetically modified crops are grown by 18 million farmers in 28 countries worldwide. In May, a federal study by the National Academy of Sciences declared that there is no substantiated evidence of human and environmental harm caused by genetically modified crops. But not everyone was convinced, including the environmental activist group Greenpeace. In response, more […]
GlycoDelete: the road to plant-grown pharmaceuticals
What if our pharmaceuticals could be grown in plants? It might sound like science fiction, but two VIB/UGent research groups are working hard to scrap the “fiction” part. In a recent paper published in Nature Biotechnology, Prof. Nico Callewaert and Prof. Ann Depicker describe how they addressed pharming’s most pressing problem: plant glycosylation. “Pharming,” or […]
Zostera Marina’s dive into the blue – Published in Nature
Seagrass genome provides insights into the way marine ecosystems might adapt to climate change Coastal ecosystems are highly productive and diverse, and seagrasses form the bedrock of these habitats. Seagrasses are marine angiosperms (flowering plants) that underwent a severe habitat shift: They colonized the seas from a terrestrial environment, a move that required extreme structural […]
Folate-rich rice to combat vitamin deficiency
I was published in Nature Certain biological functions require essential nutrients; these are molecules that the body cannot produce itself and must be taken up through the diet. Folate is one of these essential nutrients and folate deficiency is a problem in many developing countries. Researchers at UGent recently created a genetically modified rice variety, […]
People doubt science: a case-study on GMOs
Why do people doubt science? This billion-dollar question was recently tweeted by Robert F Fraley, Monsanto’s vice president and chief technology officer. Accompanying the tweet was a link to the cover story “The war on science” in National Geographic’s March 2015 issue. The article poses that we are living in an age when all manner […]
Soy, a new crop for Belgian farmers
Native to East Asia, soy (Glycine max) is one of the world’s oldest cultivated plants. Soybeans are an important source of complete protein, containing significant amounts of essential amino acids, which helps to balance the nutritional value of food and livestock feed. The major soy producers are the United States, Brazil, Argentina, China, and India. […]