Good Day BIO: A golden opportunity for global nutrition

The Philippines became the first country to approve commercial production of Golden Rice—a genetically modified version of the dietary staple that could help address hunger and poverty.

“Ordinary rice, a staple for hundreds of millions of people particularly in Asia, produces beta-carotene in the plant, but it is not found in the grain,” Russell Reinke of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), told AFP.

But gene editing can make rice even more nutritious, by making it richer in beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A. 

“The only change that we've made is to produce beta-carotene in the grain,” said Reinke, whose organization has been working to develop the so-called Golden Rice, named for its golden-orange hue. 

This small change could solve a big problem: “An estimated 250,000–500,000 children who are vitamin A-deficient become blind every year, and half of them die within 12 months of losing their sight,” explains WHO. Nearly one in five children in the Philippines are deficient in this essential nutrient.

It’s an important example of agricultural innovation needed now to solve problems like hunger,as BIO has explained in comments to the USDA. 

Golden Rice “has already received food safety approvals from regulators in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States,”says IRRI—“but the Philippines is the first country to approve commercial cultivation.”

It’s faced opposition—but hopefully, the tide is turning: “Probably the angriest I’ve ever felt was when anti-GMO groups destroyed fields of Golden Rice growing in the Philippines,” former anti-GMO activist Mark Lynas recently told The New York Times. “To see a crop that had such obvious lifesaving potential ruined—it would be like anti-vaxxer groups invading a laboratory and destroying a million vials of COVID vaccine.” 

Read: The tide is turning on GMOs—and it’s about time

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Questions about routine vaccines? Visit the CDC’s National Immunization Awareness Month resource center or Stronger, an initiative to stop the spread of vaccine misinformation. 

Questions about COVID vaccines? Visit www.COVIDVaccineFacts.org.  

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Health inequities suffered by historically marginalized groups “are compounded by underrepresentation in genetic and genomic research,” says a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA), which proposes guidelines for addressing the problem.

“Of all genome-wide association study participants, ≈79% are of European descent, despite this group constituting only 16% of the global population,”says AHA's statement. 

“This limits the ability to identify genomic markers for disease risk,”says the University of Kentucky’s Gia Mudd-Martin, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.N., FAHA, chair of the statement’s writing group. “For example, genomic scores to determine risk for certain heart diseases are less accurate when used with ethnically and racially diverse populations or Indigenous peoples than when used with persons of European ancestry.”

However: “a key barrier to participation is a deep and understandable mistrust of scientific research caused by numerous historical transgressions against marginalized racial and ethnic groups and Indigenous populations,” continues Mudd-Martin. 

In the interest of justice and scientific accuracy, AHA proposes ethical guidelines, such as special efforts to include marginalized groups and Indigenous peoples “through collaboration with community leaders and agencies.”

Addressing health inequity begins in the lab—and improving clinical trial diversity is a BIO priority. 

Read: Recap of BIO’s Clinical Trial Diversity Summit

Another important step is ensuring we have a diverse biotech workforce representative of the patients we serve—here are ideas on how we can get there.

Listen: The new bonus episode of the I am BIO Podcast features a BIO Digital 2021 conversation on how we can improve LGBTQ leadership in biotech—and why the younger generation is leading the way in DEI. Listen now.

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The New York Times: Is the Delta variant making younger adults ‘sicker, quicker’?
“Many doctors on the front lines say unvaccinated patients in their 20s and 30s are becoming more severely ill, and more quickly. But comprehensive data is lacking.” 

President Biden’s Wednesday: Meeting with Dr. Eric Lander, the President’s Science Advisor and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, to discuss preparing for future pandemics. 

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: The Senate continues consideration today of the bipartisan infrastructure package. The Senate Appropriations Committee will mark up the $25.855 billion FY22 spending package covering USDA, FDA, and related agencies. The House is not in session.