The safety of early applications of synthetic biology may be adequately addressed by the existing regulatory framework for biotechnology, especially in contained laboratories and manufacturing facilities.

Brazil is in the midst of a transition from imitator to innovator in health-related products, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date of barriers and opportunities facing that country's health biotech industry.

A two-year UN study of internationally funded training programmes in biotechnology and biosafety warns that as many as 100 developing countries are unprepared to effectively manage and monitor the use of modern biotechnologies, leaving the world community open to serious biosafety threats.

Agricultural producers, industry, and the research community, as well as the general public, have shown much interest in both biotechnology and sustainability in recent years.

Biotechnology companies are increasingly turning to developing nations as sites for clinical trials, reports Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News (GEN). Increasing competition for clinical trial patients in the industrialized world is one of the major reasons for the offshore move, according to an article in the March 15 issue of GEN

Biotechnology discoveries – like the method for creating synthetic life forms – are at risk of being unduly hindered or taken hostage by private corporations unless patent systems are brought into the 21st century, an expert from The Australian National University argues.

With Germany’s Max Planck Society (MPS) establishing a biomedical research institute in the Sunshine State — a development that could help turn Florida into a Silicon Valley for biotechnology — an article scheduled for the March 3 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS’ weekly newsmagazine, provides readers with a behind the scenes look at this elite institution.

Government funds innovation but venture capital needed; Wary investors 'need to be shown the exits'; Returning 'sea turtles' bring expertise, international credibility

A new analysis has concluded that use of existing biotechnology in the production of so-called bulk chemicals could reduce consumption of non-renewable energy and carbon emissions by 100 percent. The study appeared in the Nov. 15 issue of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.

Greenpeace urged European Union Wednesday to reject the use of two biotech corn crops. The environmental group staged a protest at EU headquarters, arguing the crops pose a major risk to insects like butterflies and could damage local ecosystems.

More than half of all medicines and common chemicals are made from naturally occurring resources. And a recent national survey of more than 1,000 Australians found there is surging support for the modern manipulation of nature referred to as biotechnology.

Microbes such as bacteria tend to live in complex colonies called biofilms, where there can resist antibiotics and cause more problems for the immune system.