From October 21 to 12, the 16th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16) will be held in Cali, Colombia, in conjunction with the 11th Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol and the 5th Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol. Discussions aimed at realizing "a world in harmony with nature" will be held. The major themes addressed at this meeting are (1) checking the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a new international target to replace the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, (2) sharing benefits derived from the digital sequencing of genetic resources in the face of ongoing conflict between developed and developing countries, and (3) handling of synthetic biology.

At COP12 in 2014, based on a proposal by the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) was established specifically to consider synthetic biology. Up until now, however, AHTEG has focused on the treatment of gene-drive mosquitoes, with little progress being made in defining synthetic biology and its scope.

At the SBSTTA meeting held in May this year, the lack of a universal definition of "what synthetic biology is" was signaled as a problem. Developed countries that promote biotechnology and seek not to regulate it have been working to postpone and scrap discussions on synthetic biology, which would involve regulating genome editing technology. The background to this is that regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMO) have halted the development of GM crops, livestock, fish, and other crops, eventually bringing them to a standstill.

At this year's meeting, too, there are likely to be moves to prevent regulation of genome editing technology and synthetic biology in the hope that the GMO debacle will not be repeated. The view of the Japanese government is something similar to this. Depending on how the debate develops, there is a danger that the Convention on Biological Diversity itself will lose its raison d'être.

Development of genetically modified cedar pollen allergy-alleviating rice, previously aborted, has been resumed. On August 15, an application was submitted for approval for field trials under the Cartagena Law, the domestic law of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The public was invited to comment on the evaluation of the application up to the deadline for submissions on October 5. Development of the GM cedar pollen allergy-alleviating rice began in 2000 and emerged as a standard bearer of next-generation GM crops with consumer benefits. Development was led by the National Institute of Biological Resources (Currently NARO: National Agriculture and Food Research Organization), a research institute under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Zen-Noh and Nippon Paper Group. However, in April 2007, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) put the matter on hold, saying that it was a medicine, not a food product. As a result, as no pharmaceutical companies cooperated, development was significantly delayed. In April last year, the Kishida administration made measures against Japanese cedar pollinosis one of the pillars of its policy, and development was restarted.

Two types of GM rice, one containing peptides and the other containing polypeptides, were developed, but the application for approval this time was for the Japanese cedar pollen peptide-containing rice. Since 2013, Jikei Medical University has been conducting clinical trials to confirm the efficacy of the rice as a drug. However, the results showed that it could not be said that the symptoms had improved, so the development was stalled again. Even so, NARO has not given up on commercialization of the product. In 2016, it adopted the open innovation method to promote development more widely, and furthermore the Kishida administration revived the development last year. The current application for field trials is likely to be conducted on a large scale, with the aim of once again conducting clinical trials using the harvested rice.

Kewpie, which developed an allergy-reduced egg using genome editing in collaboration with Hiroshima University, is currently having clinical trials involving the egg conducted at Sagamihara National Hospital. Kewpie has produced confectionery using the egg, presenting the results at the meeting of the Japanese Society of Culinary Science held on September 6 and 7. (Kewpie-Ohata News 2024/9/6)

Hyperion Food Tech in Nara City has cultivated three-dimensional cells using ES cells derived from domestic cattle. The development of cell culture using iPS cells and ES cells is expected to advance in the future. (Nikkei Biotech Online 2024/8/21)