Scientists Design GMOs That Can't Escape Into the Wild

http://bit.ly/1zfNXza Dahboo7 On Zeekly: http://bit.ly/1AVK44S Researchers have designed a new technology that could make it impossible for genetically modified organisms to escape into natural environments. A team at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., has designed genetically modified E. coli bacteria that need a nutrient that doesn't exist in nature. "We can grow them in our special sauce and they'll grow, but when you try to grow them in regular media or nutrients, they die," said researcher Farren Isaacs, a Yale University researcher who co-authored the research published this week in Nature. Genetically modified microbes are already used to manufacture many pharmaceuticals through a process called bio-fermentation. Trillions of microbes sit in huge vats, pumping out compounds ranging from insulin to human growth hormone. Other products produced this way, including ultra-strong fibres, plastics, food products and electronic circuitry, are in the marketplace. http://bit.ly/1EcBukS