Recent data from WHO and UNICEF indicate that 86% of the world’s children received the required 3 doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccines (DTP3) in 2015, a coverage level that has been sustained above 85% since 2010. The number of children who did not receive routine vaccinations has dropped from 33.8 million in 2000 to an estimated 19.4 million in 2015 as a result.

Chronic flooding and droughts have prompted partners of CURE, led by Lao’s Agriculture Research Center, to showcase the use of submergence- and drought-tolerant rice varieties grown using best management practices to farmers to increase rice productivity.

Around 80 participants are expected to attend the first annual review and planning of the project, Accelerating the Adoption of Stress-tolerant Rice Varieties by Smallholder Farmers in Nepal and Cambodia (ASTV).

Plant, animal, and human cells all use electrical signals to communicate with each other. Human and animal nerve cells use them to activate muscles. But leaves also send electrical signals to other parts of the plant, especially when they are injured, or threatened by insects. The international team led by Professor Rainer Hedrich, Head of the Chair for Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Würzburg in Germany, has discovered the sensor which plants use to sense electric fields.

Researchers from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Spain and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia have identified drought-resistant genotypes and the morpho-physiological characteristics that make beans resistant to drought. The study revealed that a strategic combination of characteristics is the key to success in genetic improvement of drought resistance in bean.

Members of the ISAAA Biotechnology Information Network and partners from 12 countries convene in Malaysia on July 10-14, 2016 for the annual network meeting. Every year, ISAAA gathers its network to present best practices in science communication and discuss new strategies to intensify efforts to inform the public with evidence-based information on biotechnology.

Scientists at The Pirbright Institute in the United Kingdom have isolated a gene which determines maleness in the species of mosquito responsible for transmitting malaria. Led by Dr. Jaroslaw Krzywinski, Head of the Vector Molecular Biology group at The Pirbright Institute, the team identified and characterized the Yob gene, responsible for regulating the sex of the African malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, and determines maleness.

Lysine (Lys) is an essential amino acid in rice. There have been efforts on improving Lys content in rice, but no products have been developed to date. Thus, researchers from the Zhejiang University and the Chinese University of Hongkong led by Xin Liu and Cuicui Zhang expressed a LYSINE-RICH PROTEIN gene (LRP) from Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (L.) in Peiai64S (PA64S), an elite photoperiod-thermosensitive male sterility (PTSMS) rice line.

Production of nicotine in coyote tobacco (Nicotiana attenuata) is controlled by plant hormones called jasmonates. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, the University of Bern in Switzerland, and Washington State University have recently discovered the importance of jasmonate-dependent nicotine production in the survival of tobacco.

"I am an ally of scientists and I support biotechnology. We do not need to implore people to embrace science and technology; it's the way to go". This was one of the remarks made by Uganda's State Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Christopher Kibazanga, while launching the ISAAA report on the 20th anniversary of global commercialization of biotech crops on June 29, 2016 in Kampala.