Release of the book “Biotech Challenges” by Springer Nature (London) in January 2024

1.2. 2024

An English updated edition of the French book “Enjeux Biotechnologiques. Des OGM à l’édition du génome” (2022) by Professor emeritus C.Regnault-Roger, member of the French Academy of Agriculture.
SpringerLink – Biotech Challenges

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Foreword for the English Edition by Professor Marc Van Montagu ( molecular biologist. former director of the Laboratory of Genetics at the faculty of Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium) and credited with the discovery of the Ti plasmid , 1974 : “I am honored and very happy to present this historical account “From GMOs to genome editing” by Professor Catherine Regnault-Roger, which describes so finely the 50-year regulatory saga around the engineering of plant genomes.
This book comes at a very special time. It is now 50 years since the cloning of genes became possible and 50 years since we discovered a way to include plants
among the “modifiable” organisms. We have demonstrated that in nature, there are bacteria that have developed this technology during evolution. We were therefore
convinced that it would be a revolutionary technology, easily applicable to makenew plants.
However, society resisted this, and today, when there is such a need for more sustainable, high yielding and innovative agriculture, the technology remains
strictly limited……In this foreword, I try to explain why we should use this “misunderstanding” as an opportunity to create better trust in science. Yes, plant scientists, be they agrono-mists, ecologists, or molecular physiologists, are calling for “Enlightenment for plants too.” M Van Montagu.

Michel DUCLOS, Directeur de Recherches INRAE, UMR Biologie des Oiseaux et Aviculture, 37380 Nouzilly
Téléphone bureau O2 47 42 78 26