USDA and FDA Experts Visit IHB

A five-member delegation consisting of Dr. Diane Wray-Cahen, Agricultural Science Advisor for Animal Biotechnology at USDA-Foreign Agricultural Service, Dr. Larisa Rudenko, Senior Advisor for Biotechnology at the FDA and Dr. Harlan J. Howard, biologist at the FDA, and Mr. Joshua Lagos, Agricultural Attaché of the Office of Agricultural Affairs at Embassy of the United States, paid a visit to Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB) on August 15.  

On behalf of the Institute, Prof. Xu Xudong, deputy director of IHB, expressed his sincere welcome to the visiting delegation. He said that the interaction between the visiting delegation and the Institute, will be helpful to push forward the study of transgenic fish and the management of transgenic animals based on the international standard. Prof. Zhu Zuoyan, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced the background for and latest research progress achieved in fish gene engineering.  

Dr. Larisa Rudenko gave a presentation entitled “Regulation of Animal Biotechnology at the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine”. He introduced the supervision and management of the commercialization of transgenic animals by the FDA and the evaluation of their supervision and management. IHB Prof. Hu Wei gave a presentation entitled “Schema of transgenic fish study in Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences”. He briefly introduced the study of fish gene engineering carried out in the Institute. Later, both parties discussed on the opportunities and challenges that might be encountered with in the commercialization of transgenic animals.  

Dr. Rudenko said that FDA approved the first human biological drug produced by a transgenic animal in 2009. The product is a human antithrombin protein extracted from the milk of genetically engineered goats. In 2012, FDA finished its evaluation on the commercialization of AquAdvantage salmon and indicated that it is "as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon."  

The first successful gene transfer in fish was reported by IHB. In 1984, a complete theoretical model and an experimental system of transgenic fish were built up by Prof. Zhu Zuoyan and his colleagues, which led to a new research area of fish genetic engineering. Recently, his research group generated a line of transgenic triploid carp. This line shows to be sterile and thus it is ready for commercialization.