9th Genetic Engineering Conference in Oberschleißheim from 14 and 15 September 2022

After the ECJ classified the new mutagenesis techniques under the Deliberate Release Directive and considered them to be genetic engineering, the Genetic Engineering Conference in Oberschleißheim focused on "New Genomic Techniques – Legal Assessments, Applications, and Challenges." As always, the conference – even though organized by a regulatory authority – was aimed at both scientists and practitioners. The first day addressed current developments at the EU level ( see AGCT Genetic Engineering Report) . 08.2022 ), presented by Ms. Kora Perlzweig from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), primarily dealt with the question of the application of new genetic engineering (ng) techniques in the fields of medicine, food, but also plants and thus agriculture and nutrition. It quickly became clear that all of the aforementioned areas value ng techniques because of their time savings, precision, and wide-ranging application possibilities, even if everyone is still working on the associated practical problems. The focus of the second day was the question of how to prove the use of the new techniques. With this in mind, Dr. Sonja Edelmann from the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) first reported on the publication by Chhalliyil (Evaluation of the Real-Time PCR Method by Chhalliyil et al. (2020)), which claims that the use of CRISPR-Cas can be reliably proven. According to a review by the BVL, which has also been published (see here for more details ), this is definitely not the case. The following presentations presented various approaches to developing a system for tracking ng. The results, however, showed that although there are promising approaches, no breakthroughs can be announced yet. The scientists and the organizers are continuing to work on this issue. Even though a definitive detection method has not yet been presented, the symposium has provided a good overview of the current state of the science on this point. As always, the details and results will appear in a publication by the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL). This can now be eagerly awaited.