Luckily, this would be in line with the NAS's key recommendation that "there is insufficient evidence to support the environmental release of gene drives".
I don't see it as an environmental release and if it was, you'd expect to see some cluster, and we're not seeing that".
Its not that it is a bad report – it is even excellent in places: it takes seriously the threat to biodiversity and warns strongly against environmental release.
The Asilomar meeting achieved agreement in part by bracketing off three serious concerns: environmental release of engineered organisms; biosecurity; and ethical and social aspects of human genetic engineering.
After five years of allowing the environmental release of the crop, scientists found that a variety of gene-altered corn could be toxic to monarch and black swallowtail butterflies.
They note that the project has pledged to deliver seeds to many of its 4,000 contributors, making it perhaps the "first-ever intentional environmental release of an avowedly 'synthetic biology' organism anywhere in the world".
Environmental release has much more significant risks.
Surface coatings may be activated after environmental release and change CNT toxicity.
For this reason, any environmental release would occur only under appropriately stringent conditions.
So, an accidental environmental release of synthetic cells might well lead to their quick extinction.
Rather than an environmental release, these are an unauthorised entry of a GMO into food or feed.
