Good Day BIO: Save our sushi

Climate change is coming for our sushi, reports Bloomberg—but biotech already has solutions to ensure we can keep on enjoying it.

The extreme drought in California is hitting the U.S. rice supply chain hard,reports Bloomberg. California’s Sacramento Valley is the source of much of America’s rice, yet farmers are only planting half as much as usual due to the conditions. 

Irrigation from the Sacramento River is helping—to the detriment of the fish. “Low water levels and scorching weather have raised river temperatures so much that almost all the juveniles of an endangered salmon species could be cooked to death this fall.”

Meanwhile, salmon are being trucked to cooler waters to help them (and the fisheries) survive—but the problem is getting worse.

Hey! Biotech has solutions for the rice—gene editing, which is allowing researchers to develop rice that’s more resilient in the face of climate change and yields more crop, and also making it more nutritious to help solve hunger.

Biotech has a solution for the salmon, too—thanks to BIO member AquaBounty, which is producing genetically engineered Atlantic salmon that are more efficient and sustainable to grow.

AquaBounty is not only creating a more sustainable food supply chain, but also boosting the economy. With the salmon approved for consumption in the United States, AquaBounty completed its first harvest in Indiana and has plans to expand.

Listen: What the banana tells us about our food supply chain

Questions about routine vaccines? Visit the CDC’s National Immunization Awareness Month resource center or Stronger, an initiative to stop the spread of vaccine misinformation. 

Questions about COVID vaccines? Visit www.COVIDVaccineFacts.org.  

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Science: The overlooked superpower of mRNA vaccines
“They prevent symptomatic disease, curb hospitalization, and reduce death. But for public health purposes, a vaccine's mastery at something less obvious is equally important: the ability to prevent even asymptomatic infection.”

Twenty-one years after a partial first draft of the human genome map was announced—and the media celebrated the project’s “completion”—a group of scientists quietly finished the full map in May, opening new possibilities for medical advances.

“The lack of pomp belies what an achievement this is,” says The Atlantic. “To complete the human genome, these scientists had to figure out how to map its most mysterious and neglected repeating regions.” 

The previously unmapped 8% of the genome was no small piece of the puzzle. “They discovered more than 2 million new spots in the genome where people differ,” The New York Times reported. “Using the new genome also helped them to avoid identifying disease-linked mutations where none actually exist.” 

Work on the genome has already enabled remarkable feats,explains NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute, which lists more than 200 exciting projects going back to 2011. Examples from 2020 include:

• Whole-genome sequencing of 13,037 patients, mostly in the UK, to diagnose rare diseases.
• Predicting type 1 diabetes in children.
• Sequencing DNA for 42% of the pregnancies in the Netherlands.
• Population-based genomic screening for actionable genetic conditions.

Understanding the human genome will continue to further genome editing with tools like CRISPR, which can “repair the errors” and mutations in DNA that can cause disease like cancer, says the Cancer Center. 

So, what now? “Already, there are patients that have been cured of sickle cell disease using CRISPR,” said Nobel Laureate and CRISPR pioneer Dr. Jennifer Doudna during BIO Digital. “This is where the future lies—in using the technology to treat or frankly even to cure some of the most challenging diseases we face."

More Health Care News:

CNBC: U.S. expected to recommend COVID vaccine booster shots 8 months after second dose, sources say
“Among the first to receive them could be health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans, who were among the first Americans to be vaccinated.”

President Biden’s Tuesday: He will receive the President’s Daily Brief at Camp David. President Biden made it clear in a speech at the White House yesterday that the “buck stops with” him regarding the situation unfolding in Afghanistan and that he does “not regret” his decision to withdraw the U.S. military from the country. Meanwhile, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, who was in the role at the start of the pandemic, makes the case for “a more independent agency.”

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: Recess, though many members of Congress from both parties are reacting to the news out of Afghanistan, according to Axios.