Biophysical Society Bulletin | July/August 2021

Public Affairs

serve as President Joe Biden ’s science adviser and will hold a seat in Biden’s Cabinet. Lander, 64, has long held prominent roles in US research and science policy. He was president and founding director of the Broad Institute, which is jointly run by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Tech- nology for eight years under former President Barack Obama , where he worked closely with Obama science adviser John Holdren and interacted with Biden, who was vice president at the time. Lander also co-led the public Human Genome Project to the completion of a first draft in 2001. Biden’s nomination of Lander, announced in January, drew mixed reactions from the research community due to the criticism he has faced for downplaying the role of two female scientists in developing the CRISPR gene-editing tool, and for publicly toasting geneticist James Watson , the co-discoverer of DNA, despite Watson’s history of racist and misogynistic re- marks. During his confirmation hearing, Lander apologized for downplaying the work of CRISPR pioneers Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier in “Unsung Heroes of CRISPR,” a 2016 essay that appeared in the journal Cell . “I made a mistake,” Lander said. “I felt terrible.” As head of OSTP—and the first OSTP Director to be elevat- ed to the Cabinet—Lander is expected to play a key role in advancing the Biden administration’s research agenda, which includes boosting the federal role in climate change research and helping the United States counter technological and sci- entific competition from China. Around theWorld Early-Career Researchers Forced Out by Mexico’s Science Agency Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt)—the country’s federal science funding agen- cy—launched the Cátedras Conacyt (Conacyt Professor- ships) program seven years ago to alleviate the “brain drain” resulting from young Mexican researchers choosing to work in other countries. However, hundreds of researchers have been dismissed since its creation. Conacyt has stopped paying researchers, terminated them without reasonable explana- tion, or coerced them into signing resignations, according to multiple sources who spoke with the magazine Science . Sources say being pregnant or having a newborn appears to be a trigger for the dismissals in some cases and accuse Conacyt of a total lack of gender perspective. A combina- tion of budget cuts, politics, and a widening rift between the government and scientists is at work, Mexican researchers

say, and they suspect the agency intends to end the program. As of June 2020, the agency faced 145 active lawsuits for wrongful termination amounting to US$8.2 million in dam- ages. In February, some 200 Cátedras researchers formed a union, hoping to negotiate a contract that would protect their jobs and improve working conditions. United KingdomSet to Loosen Rules for Gene-Edited Crops and Animals When Brexit was finalized in January, that meant that Prime Minister Boris Johnson could begin to fulfill his pledge to “liberate the U.K.’s extraordinary bioscience sector from an- ti-genetic modification rules.” In June, new regulations were applied to plants and animals whose genes have been edited with precision techniques such as CRISPR, putting the UK policies in line with those of several countries, including the United States. Under the policy change, gene-edited plants and animals will not need detailed applications and reviews before field trials and commercial approval. In the European Union, by contrast, any commercialized genetically modified organism (GMO), regardless of how it was created, faces a lengthy risk assessment by the European Food Safety Authority and must be approved by a majority of member nations before it can be planted. In 2018, the European Court of Justice reaffirmed that gene-edited organisms require the same regulatory scrutiny as other GMOs. The United Kingdom’s decision on gene editing, which comes from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), does not apply outside England. Other parts of the United Kingdom—Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland— regulate GMOs themselves and are skeptical of their value. Opponents to GMO liberalization say Defra is moving too fast. They worry, for example, that animals and crops modified to resist disease could promote environmentally damaging in- tensive farming practices.However, even the European Union is rethinking its approach to gene editing. An April report by the European Commission finds it could make agriculture more sustainable and found “strong indications” that EU law isn’t suitable for regulating it.

Connect with BPS

July/August 2021

7

T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E B I O P H Y S I C A L S O C I E T Y