This session featured Nicolás Ayub, a researcher with Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and National Agricultural Technology Institute (INTA), who presented the talk “Improved bio-inputs through genetic engineering for agriculture: past, present, and future”.

Ayub leads the FONTAGRO regional project "Greater agricultural production with lower nitrous oxide emission", which aims to raise crop productivity while reducing emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas with far greater warming potential than carbon dioxide.

During the session, Ayub traced the evolution of bioinputs, from the first microbial inoculants to today’s tools for engineering and editing microorganisms and microbiomes. He also discussed the regulatory challenges and the opportunities this field opens up for the region.

Ayub also shared his experience at the international workshop “Navigating the Frontier: Regulatory Pathways for Agricultural and Environmental GEMs,” hosted by the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he presented the project’s progress to scientists, regulators, policymakers, and biotech companies at an event that included Jennifer Doudna, 2020 Nobel laureate in Chemistry and founder of the IGI. Learn more about this event here.

The session closed with a Q&A between participants and teams from other projects in the network, which opened up opportunities for collaboration.