These and other questions will be addressed during a combined symposium and workshop, "Biotechnology and Biodiversity: Understanding the Potential Conservation Risks and Benefits of Genetic Engineering," to be held July 31 and Aug. 1 at Columbia University in New York. It is part of the 18th annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), being held at Columbia July 30-Aug. 2.

The symposium and workshop were organized by University of Minnesota conservation biology graduate students Kelly Paulson and Erika Rivers, along with Emily Pullins of the university's Institute for Social, Economic and Ecological Sustainability (ISEES). The symposium's 12 speakers include U of M researchers David Andow (entomology), Anne Kapuscinski (fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology and ISEES director) and Karen Oberhauser (fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology).

The panel will cover such topics as the use of invasion biology theory to inform risk assessments, engineering mosquitoes to combat malaria, and utilizing an international biosafety protocol to mitigate GEO risks to biodiversity. Oberhauser, an expert on monarch butterflies, will present an overview of research and decision-making concerning the effects of Bt corn on monarch larvae.

"The good news is that in the end, the strain of Bt corn that took over the market for Bt corn is not as harmful to monarchs as were the original strains," Oberhauser said. "The bad news is that the initial decisions were made by the Environmental Protection Agency without the necessary scientific information."

The symposium will be hel
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Contact: Deane Morrison
morri029@umn.edu
612-624-2346
University of Minnesota
16-Jul-2004