Symbiosis Control

Monday and Tuesday, 5-6 November 2007

Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies, UC Irvine, CA

Sponsored by United States Geological Survey, this Workshop will focus on identifying research needs for the effects of genetically modified organisms on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

The results of the Workshop will be summarized in a proceedings booklet to be produced by the National Academy of Sciences (in Washington DC).

See the agenda (pdf)

For further information, or if you would like to attend, please contact Susan Park (spark@nas.edu, 202-334-2742). 

Symbiont-Based Protection (SyBaP) or “symbiotic control”

Symbiont-Based Protection (SyBaP) or “symbiotic control” is rapidly gaining acceptance and financial support worldwide, but its potential is yet to be realised in Europe. To promote the development of SyBaP in Europe, we have established a forum of EU researchers and set the following goals:

• to bring together scientists from various disciplines and backgrounds to initiate research projects promoting SyBaP
• to lobby the EU authorities to fund this subject, and
• to promote public discussion on the legal and regulatory issues associated with the implementation of SyBaP

Currently, we have established a network involving 15 EU research groups and two biocontrol companies (BioBee, Israel and BioInsecta, Greece) with the aim to use insect symbionts for the control of major agricultural pests such as the sweet potato whitefly Bemisia tabaci, the aphid Myzus persicae, the thrip species Frankliniella occidentalis and Thrips tabaci, the leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus and the olive fly Bactrocera oleae. We are circulating a draft of a letter (attached) that will be signed by as many peers as possible and will be sent to the EU officials and National Authorities to alert them to the importance of research on arthropod symbiosis and on symbiotic control. We are also preparing a pre-proposal of a EU COST action with the aim to provide an efficient platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration among EU SyBaP researchers.

The forum includes the following researchers (in alphabetical order):

• Alberto Alma (Dept. di Valorizzazione e Protezione delle Risorse Agroforestali, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy; alberto.alma@unito.it)
• Claudio Bandi (Dept. di Patologia Animale, Igiene e Sanità Pubblica Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy; claudio.bandi@unimi.it)
• Neil Boonhman (University of York, United Kingdom; nboonham@csl.gov.uk)
• Kostas Bourtzis (Dept. of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Ioannina, Greece; kbourtz@uoi.gr)
• Hans Breeuwer (Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; breeuwer@science.uva.nl)
• Daniele Daffonchio (Dept. di Scienze e Tecnologie Alimentari e Microbiologiche University of Milan, Italy; daniele.daffonchio@unimi.it)
• Angela Douglas (University of York, United Kingdom; aed2@york.ac.uk)
• Guido Favia (Dept. of MCA Biology, University of Camerino, Italy; guido.favia@unicam.it)
• Fred Fleury (Laboratory of Biometry and Evolutionary Biology, University Claude Bernard - LYON 1, France; fleury@biomserv.univ-lyon1.fr)
• Murad Ghanim (Dept. of Entomology, Volcani Center, ARO, Israel; ghanim@agri.gov.il)
• Angray Kang (School of Biosciences, University of Westminster, United Kingdom; A.S.Kang@westminster.ac.uk)
• Patrick Mavingui (Laboratory of Biometry and Evolutionary Biology, University Claude Bernard - LYON 1, France; mavingui@biomserv.univ-lyon1.fr)
• Luciano Sacchi (Dipartimento di Biologia Animale, Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy; luciano.sacchi@unipv.it)
• Fabrice Vavre (Laboratory of Biometry and Evolutionary Biology, University Claude Bernard - LYON 1, France; vavre@biomserv.univ-lyon1.fr)
• Einat Zchori-Fein (Dept. of Entomology, Newe-Ya’ar Research Center, ARO, Israel; einat@agri.gov.il)

Bacterial Assist for Chemotherapy

A major challenge in cancer chemotherapy is delivering cytotoxic drugs to tumors in sufficient quantities to kill the malignant cells while sparing normal cells. One promising strategy for tumor-targeted drug delivery involves encapsulation of drugs within liposomes. Cheong et al. (p. 1308) find that they can markedly enhance the efficacy of liposomal doxorubicin in mouse tumor models by prior injection of the mice with spores of Clostridium novyi-NT, an anaerobic bacterium that selectively infects tumors. C. novyi-NT encodes a secreted protein, “liposomase,” that ruptures liposomes and promotes release of their cytotoxic cargo into the tumor.

Science 24 November 2006: Vol. 314. no. 5803, pp. 1308 - 1311

fulltext pdf

Kostas Bourtzis, PhD

Associate Professor in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry,

Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management,

University of Ioannina, Greece

E-mail: kbourtz@uoi.gr