Closer Than You Think

Bees that can withstand pesticides…silkworms that produce pharmaceuticals instead of silk…mosquitoes that deliver vaccines instead of disease with every bite… Science fiction fantasy? No, reality – or, at the very least, something now within the realm of possibility.

That is why federal agencies should begin laying the foundations for a regulatory system to govern release of these new organisms now instead of later, advises the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, a think tank in Washington.