The Government of Vietnam has recognized Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and Hung Nguyen, co-leader of ILRI’s Animal Human Health program, for their contributions to agricultural research and development in the country. They received the Medal for Contribution to the Cause of Agriculture and Rural Development from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development at a ceremony on 3 August 2022 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The benchmark for world food commodity prices declined significantly in July, with major cereal and vegetable oil prices recording double-digit percentage declines, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported today. The closely-watched FAO Food Price Index averaged 140.9 points in July, down 8.6 percent from June, marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline since hitting all-time highs earlier in the year.

Using an approach called chemical biology, Australian scientists are using drugs to learn how a plant's biological system functions. Particularly, their objective is to understand how metabolism affects the plant's circadian rhythm which is important to its optimization of sunlight used for photosynthesis and managing energy reserves at night. Circadian clocks work by turning on and off at least one-third of animal genes and proteins every day.

A collaboration between the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) and the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) in Spain and the Institute of Biology of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris has identified the role of three genes in melon ripening, giving insights into the ripening mechanism of the fruit. Marta Pujol, researcher at IRTA and CRAG, said that melon ripening is a complex process that involves several genes that need to be identified to understand how it works. The researchers worked on cantaloupe, a climacteric variety of melon.

Finding out the 3D structure of almost all protein will be as easy as googling. DeepMind, the Google-owned artificial intelligence (AI) company based in London, created AlphaFold, the revolutionary AI network that can predict the structures of over 200 million proteins of about 1 million species. “Essentially, you can think of it covering the entire protein universe,” said DeepMind Chief Executive, Demis Hassabis. “We're at the beginning of a new era of digital biology,” he added.

ISAAA Inc., the Outreach Network for Gene Drive Research, and the ISAAA Biotechnology Information Centers Network conducted the webinar Integrating social, economic and health aspects into the decision-making process on July 28, 2022, via Zoom. It is the third and final part of the 2022 Gene Drive Webinar Series. The webinar aimed to give an overview of the different dimensions of gene drive impact and risk assessments, including environmental and socio-economic aspects.

On June 30, 2022, Ghana's National Biosafety Authority approved the genetically engineered (GE) Bt cowpea event 709A for import and/or use without conditions, marking the first GE crop to be approved for use in Ghana. The approval is for 10 years and is renewable. Bt cowpea 709A targets the Maruca pod borer which reduces cowpea yields by 20-80 percent. Field testing for this event began in Ghana in 2016, and now the developer,

Scientists from Nanjing Agricultural University used CRISPR-Cas9 to enhance pre-harvest sprouting resistance in rice. Pre-harvest sprouting in cereal crops is a universal phenomenon that impacts grain yield and quality. Breeders have been applying various techniques, including genome editing, to fortify seed dormancy and prevent pre-harvest sprouting.

An extra copy of the OsDREB1C gene in rice boosted its nitrogen intake, resulting in more efficient photosynthesis and 40% more in grain yield. The Chinese scientists who conducted the research are now looking at the possibility of doing the same for other plants like wheat. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences started investigating 118 rice and maize regulatory genes that encode transcription factors previously identified to be important to photosynthesis.

High school students in the U.S. are now learning about CRISPR, a decade after it started as a vital tool in genetic research. Some specialized schools include hands-on experiments using CRISPR as part of their lessons on biotechnology. "Visualizing and comprehending what's happening on the molecular level is usually always the challenge,” said Katy Gazda, a high school biotechnology teacher who has experienced discussing CRISPR in her classes in 2021.