Open-ended Online Forum on Risk Assessment
Background
In decision CP-10/10, the Conference of the Parties serving as a meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP) agreed to develop additional voluntary guidance materials to support case-by-case risk assessment of living modified organisms (LMOs) containing engineered gene drives in accordance with Annex III of the Cartagena Protocol. The COP-MOP decided that this material should have a special focus on engineered gene drive mosquitoes taking into account the current experience with the organism, the type of gene drive and specific issues of risk assessment, identified in annex I of decision CP-9/13, including existing reports, general considerations of LMOs containing engineered gene drives and existing national and regional risk assessment experiences. The decision also established an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) and requested the convening of the Online Forum on Risk Assessment and Risk Management to contribute to this process. The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice will consider the draft prepared by the AHTEG.
In response to this, the Secretariat is convening the first round of the Online Forum on Risk Assessment and Risk Management to collect views on elements to be included in the outline for the additional voluntary guidance materials. This forum will be re-convened periodically to provide additional inputs into the process.
The first session of the online forum opened at 12:00 (noon) EDT on Monday 10 April 2023
The first session of the online forum closed at 17:00 (5:00 pm) EDT on Tuesday 25 April 2023.
The online forum was moderated by Dr. Luciana Pimenta Ambrozevicius from Brazil.
Discussion topic
Suggestions for the development of additional voluntary guidelines for the risk assessment of living modified organisms containing engineered gene drives.
In relation to the decision CP-10/10, the following questions are meant to guide the discussion. Participants are encouraged to consider them on their intervention to facilitate a systematic analysis of the information.
- What specific elements are important to include in the outline for these additional voluntary guidance materials?
- What types of engineered gene drives that the additional voluntary guidance materials should focus on?
- Share information on experience with the host organism (mosquito) that could be useful to considered in the development of the additional voluntary guidance materials.
- What existing guidelines, guidance documents or experiences developing guidance materials could be important to consider for the development of these additional voluntary guidance materials?
When posting this information, participants are requested to provide their source of information, indicating if it is coming from a publication, their own work, or other type of source. When sharing publications, it is kindly requested that the URL and DOI links be provided.
Table of Contents
- Moderator Announcements
- Question 1: What specific elements are important to include in the outline for these additional voluntary guidance materials?
- Question 2: What types of engineered gene drives that the additional voluntary guidance materials should focus on?
- Question 3: Share information on experience with the host organism (mosquito) that could be useful to considered in the development of the additional voluntary guidance materials.
- Question 4: What existing guidelines, guidance documents or experiences developing guidance materials could be important to consider for the development of these additional voluntary guidance materials?
Moderator Announcements
My name is Luciana Ambrozevicius, I am an agronomist with a Ph.D. in Genetics and Plant Breeding currently working in the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock with a extensive experience on risk assessment and risk management including as a former member in the Biosafety National Technical Commission, a member of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Synthetic Biology and a member of the AHTEG on RA and RM.
It is a pleasure to moderate one of the opening discussions to collect views on elements to be included in the outline for the development of additional voluntary guidelines for the risk assessment of living modified organisms containing engineered gene drives.
When planning your intervention, please note that if you would like to respond to a post, we would like to encourage you to reply directly to that post. This will also facilitate the understanding of others. In addition, when posting information, kindly provide the URL, the DOI or use the attachment function.
As a kind reminder, discussions will close on 17:00 (5pm) EDT on Friday, 21 April 2023.
Your points of view and feedback will be appreciated. I hope that we can build a fruitful discussion that helps us to develop a useful foundation on this topic for the commissioning of the outline and discussions of the AHTEG.
I thank you for your participation in this forum, and I look forward to an interesting discussion.
Sincere regards,
Luciana Pimenta Ambrozevicius
Participants registered to the Forum must sign-in using a CBD account to post messages. Please answer the following questions in their corresponding thread below:
Question 1: What specific elements are important to include in the outline for these additional voluntary guidance materials?
Question 2: What types of engineered gene drives that the additional voluntary guidance materials should focus on?
Question 3: Share information on experience with the host organism (mosquito) that could be useful to considered in the development of the additional voluntary guidance materials.
Question 4: What existing guidelines, guidance documents or experiences developing guidance materials could be important to consider for the development of these additional voluntary guidance materials?
Please note the attached report of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Risk Assessment from 2020:
Question 1: What specific elements are important to include in the outline for these additional voluntary guidance materials?
1. Briefly introduce themselves when posting their first message, including their name, country and institutional affiliation.
2. Keep their messages short, concise and focused.
3. Ensure that the messages are relevant to the topic/question being discussed.
4. Make sure that the text or files attached do not contain viruses, corrupted files or any other similar file deficiencies.
5. Be respectful of others’ points of views.
Question 2: What types of engineered gene drives that the additional voluntary guidance materials should focus on?
1. Briefly introduce themselves when posting their first message, including their name, country and institutional affiliation.
2. Keep their messages short, concise and focused.
3. Ensure that the messages are relevant to the topic/question being discussed.
4. Make sure that the text or files attached do not contain viruses, corrupted files or any other similar file deficiencies.
5. Be respectful of others’ points of views.
Question 3: Share information on experience with the host organism (mosquito) that could be useful to considered in the development of the additional voluntary guidance materials.
1. Briefly introduce themselves when posting their first message, including their name, country and institutional affiliation.
2. Keep their messages short, concise and focused.
3. Ensure that the messages are relevant to the topic/question being discussed.
4. Make sure that the text or files attached do not contain viruses, corrupted files or any other similar file deficiencies.
5. Be respectful of others’ points of views.
Question 4: What existing guidelines, guidance documents or experiences developing guidance materials could be important to consider for the development of these additional voluntary guidance materials?
1. Briefly introduce themselves when posting their first message, including their name, country and institutional affiliation.
2. Keep their messages short, concise and focused.
3. Ensure that the messages are relevant to the topic/question being discussed.
4. Make sure that the text or files attached do not contain viruses, corrupted files or any other similar file deficiencies.
5. Be respectful of others’ points of views.
