Conversations on Science, Society and the Future of Gene Editing

Ernst van den Ende studied plant pathology at Wageningen University and took his Ph.D. at the Phytopathology Chair Group. He then worked as a scientist at several research stations in the fields of fruit cultivation and horticulture. Research by the WUR research stations has a strong regional focus. When the Greenports were established in the Netherlands, Ernst participated in several advisory councils where he contributed to the shaping of regional innovation. In 2009 he became managing director of the Plant Sciences Group of Wageningen University & Research. In 2011, the Netherlands’ top nine economic sectors excelling internationally in business and research were identified by the Dutch government for additional funding and partnerships through the creation of Top Sectors. Ernst was selected for the leadership board, or Top Team, of the Top Sector Horticulture and Propagation Materials as the knowledge institution representative.

Julie Shapiro has 15 years of experience as a facilitator, mediator, and educator. Julie directs the emerging technologies and natural resources programs at Keystone Policy Center, where she creates, facilitates, and sustains strategic partnerships and collaborations, enabling common understanding and forging shared solutions to complex problems. Julie creates and facilitates pathways for diverse government, business, academic, and NGO leaders to reach common higher ground on challenging natural resource and societal issues, helping to move stakeholders from contention to collaboration. Substantive focus areas include gene editing and other emerging technologies, sustainable agriculture production, pollinator health, and natural resource management including water resources, biodiversity, oil and gas development, and recreation. Julie has designed and facilitated stakeholder dialogues, public engagement processes, strategic planning processes, and summits on international, national, regional, state, and local scales. Julie holds a master’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder and bachelor’s degrees in geosciences and English from Williams College.

As director of the Natuur & Milieufederatie Noord-Holland (Nature & Environment Federation North Holland) since February 2017, Sijas likes to pull several strings at the same time. He believes government, companies, consumers, and science are desperately needed to make North Holland and the Netherlands greener, healthier, and more sustainable, and he strives to bring these parties together to achieve more sustainability. Examples of this include: five food forests built in North Holland with farmers; a roof garden at the Pennemes care institution producing healthy food in the city; the Living Lab for Nature Inclusive Agriculture set up with 25 farmers; the Honest about Flying campaign; the Biodiversity Delta Plan; and a diaper recycling factory in Amsterdam. His motto is “There is always a way to Rome, if you know where Rome is.” And for him, Rome is a healthy and sustainable North Holland.

Alfred Grand is an organic arable field farmer and entrepreneur from Austria. Together with his business partner, Leopold Fischer, Alfred is the biggest employer in Austria. Eight million earthworms are working 24/7, producing organic fertilizer, soil amendments, and peat-free soil substrates. His 90-hectare (225-acre) organic family farm has been converted into Grand Farm for Research and Demonstration. Alfred is involved in several activities at the European Innovation Partnership for agriculture (EIP-Agri) and a range of Horizon2020 projects. Alfred has won several innovation awards and is co-author of the book “Make Your Own Fertilizer.”

Kabasinguzi Betty Kaahwa is a businesswoman working near the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI). She is married with three children. She holds a diploma in fisheries management and technology, and she worked with the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) as sub-county NAADS coordinator before she joined the business world.

Formerly the head of R&D at Hazera, An Michiels is transitioning to a new role as the head of seeds development (Europe, Africa, and Middle East) for Syngenta. Prior to Hazera, An spent five years at Bayer Crop Science in research leadership positions working in field and vegetable crops. In 2005, she founded as CEO the biotechnology company, Keygene, in Rockville, Maryland. She received her Ph.D. in applied biological science from the University of Leuven and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville and the University of Maryland, College Park.

Fr. S. Joseph Tham was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Canada at the age of 15. At the University of Toronto, he first majored in mathematical sciences and then graduated from medical school. After several years as a family physician, he entered the seminary of the Legionaries of Christ and was ordained a priest in 2004. As part of this preparation, he obtained degrees in philosophy and theology at Rome’s Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University, where he also completed his post-graduate studies in bioethics. He successfully defended his doctoral dissertation with high honours on “The Secularization of Bioethics — A Critical History.” He is former dean of the School of Bioethics in Regina Apostolorum where he presently teaches bioethics. He is a fellow of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights. He is the author and editor of numerous articles and books, including The Missing Cornerstone (2004), The Secularization of Bioethics (2007), Bioetica al Futuro [Bioethics of the Future] (2010), Religious Perspectives on Human Vulnerability in Bioethics (2014), Religious Perspectives on Bioethics and Human Rights (2017), Sexuality, Gender and Education (2018), Religious Perspectives on Social Responsibility in Health (2018), and Interreligious Perspectives on Mind, Genes and the Self (2018).

Erika is chief executive of Re-Imagine Europa (RIE), the first incubator for new political ideas for Europe co-founded together with president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. The aim of RIE is to redefine how long-term policy and vision is developed through the use of new technologies to foster a dynamic public discourse, collective intelligence, and realistic solutions for the benefit of a stronger, fairer, and more competitive Europe. Erika has been working in the field of connecting science, society, and policy for over a decade. She is fellow at PlusValue, a UK-based European company focusing on social innovation; she is board member of Citizen Communication Platform, a Swedish project to promote stronger communication with citizens; and member of the committee supporting the work of Luc Van den Brande, Special Adviser to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, for the Report on the “Outreach towards Citizen” Strategy.

Prarthana Mohanraju holds a master’s degree in biotechnology, specializing in molecular and cellular biology from Wageningen University & Research. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in John van der Oost’s group at the Laboratory of Microbiology at Wageningen University. Her doctoral research focuses on the exploration and characterization of novel CRISPR-Cas proteins for their exploitation in biotechnology and medicine.

Louise O. Fresco has been president of the Wageningen University & Research executive board since 2014. She is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and academies in four other countries as well as a visiting distinguished scholar at the Academy of Sciences of South Africa. In April, she became independent non-executive director of the Syngenta board of directors with special attention for scientific innovations for the purpose of healthy, sustainable food production. Her career combines many years in academics as a professor in Wageningen and Amsterdam with extensive involvement in policy and development. Louise spent nine years with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and she earned her doctorate in tropical plant production systems from Wageningen University in 1986.

John van der Oost is considered a CRISPR pioneer for his fundamental work unraveling the mechanism of CRISPR-based immunity in bacteria, paving the way for CRISPR genome editing. In 2008, John and coworkers were the first to demonstrate that the CRISPR-Cas system uses an RNA-guided mechanism to target specific DNA. This example was then used by research groups for a wide range of applications and revolutionary treatments for diseases including sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, and HIV. Since 1995, John has led the Wageningen University Lab of Microbiology bacterial genetics group. In 2018, he and his group were awarded the Spinoza Prize and received 2.5 million euros, the largest science prize in the Netherlands, to fund new research on the CRISPR immune system and other systems in bacteria.

Joost van Kasteren studied molecular sciences at Wageningen University. After obtaining his degree he became a freelance journalist, writing about science and technology for newspapers and magazines. He wrote and co-authored several books and essays. For six years he was president of the VWN, the Dutch Association for Science Journalism. He is now editor-in-chief of Vork, a magazine on agriculture, food, and nature management.

Aurélie studied plant biology and breeding since starting at university in France in 2006. She quickly moved to the Netherlands where she earned a master’s in plant biotechnology at Wageningen University. Her studies were accompanied by several internships at seeds companies where she focused on plant transformation and genome editing. She then started her Ph.D. between the department of plant breeding in Wageningen University and the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge, UK. Her research was on gene editing for hypoimmunogenic gluten protein in wheat, which will be the topic of her CRISPRcon presentation. She is currently a research scientist focusing on plant gene editing at KWS, a German seed company.

Taco Kooij is a molecular/cellular parasitologist particularly interested in how malaria parasite biology has adapted to facilitate the switching between vertebrate and mosquito hosts. After studying chemistry at Utrecht University and the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow), he finished his Ph.D. at the Leiden University Medical Centre on a comparative genome analysis of malaria parasites. Over the next 10 years, he studied molecular and cellular biological aspects of malaria parasites at the University of Oxford and the National Blood Service, the Heidelberg University School of Medicine, and the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. In 2008, he won the Merial Award for Parasitology, and in 2014, he was awarded an NWO-ALW Vidi grant, which facilitated his return to the Netherlands. In recent years, he has been using insights from his previous studies for the development of novel antimalarials and live, whole-parasite vaccines. He aims to unravel the functioning of the malaria parasite endosymbiotic organelles, the mitochondrion and apicoplast, particularly during host-switching, using experimental and computational approaches. Recently, he was selected as a European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) young investigator.

Pat Clarke is the vice president of the European Disability Forum, former chief executive of Down Syndrome Ireland, and past president of Down Syndrome International. His 37-year-old son, David, has Down syndrome. Pat is immediate past chair of the Disability Federation of Ireland and has served on the boards of the Children Rights Alliance Ireland and on the governing body of the International Disability Alliance. He was a member of the Council of Europe Committee, which investigated the involvement of persons with disabilities in political and public life. His involvement with the Disability Federation of Ireland, European Disability Forum, and the International Disability Alliance gives him a pan-disability perspective on all the issues. He has been a longtime advocate for the full inclusion of people with Down syndrome, in particular, and all people with disabilities, in general, at every level in society.

Hans-Juergen is a physician scientist with extensive experience in research and drug development in academia and the pharmaceutical industry. He is responsible for therapeutic areas such as ophthalmology, hepatology, nephrology, and hematology at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), providing regulatory leadership for rare diseases programs, regenerative medicines, and advanced therapy medicinal products. Previously he held strategic roles in regulatory affairs across all stages of global development of medicinal products from early to confirmatory clinical development, registration, and post-marketing in the U.S., EU, and other major regions.

Jorn Hartman was born in 1988 in the Netherlands. He studied in the field of molecular technology and finished his bachelor’s degree in 2011. Then he worked at Wageningen University for four years before working at the Amsterdam Medical Center as a technician on microbiota-related projects. Outside of work, he volunteers for the Dutch coeliac society as regional financial manager. He also volunteered for many years with the society’s youth group managing finances and helping organize events and activities. In 2018, he helped organize a Coeliac Youth of Europe gluten-free summer camp in the Netherlands for coeliac patients between 18 and 30 years old from all over Europe.

Jeantine Lunshof is a philosopher-ethicist at MIT Media Lab. Her work focuses on conceptual and normative questions in genomics and biological engineering. Jeantine employs the unique approach of work-floor-based ethics research, which enables truly collaborative work with bench scientists from the earliest stages of research and discovery. Her current work is on the neuroethics of bioengineered brain models and on the development of “collaborative ethics” with ethicists and synthetic biologists. She is a longtime collaborator of George Church. Jeantine holds a bachelor’s in philosophy with a minor in Tibetan language and culture from the University of Hamburg (Germany), a master’s in philosophy with minor in health law from the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), and a Ph.D. from VU University Amsterdam. Her prior work has been in pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine. For the Personal Genome Project directed by George Church at Harvard Medical School, she developed the innovative model of open consent. As an assistant professor at the University Medical Center Groningen (Netherlands), she has been investigating the normative questions raised by the use of genetic imputation within a population isolate.

Ritu Nalubola, Ph.D., is the director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Europe Office. Prior to taking on this role in July 2018, she served as a senior policy advisor in FDA’s Office of Policy in the Office of the Commissioner. She has advised senior leadership at FDA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other U.S. government agencies on complex and cross-cutting policy issues, including biotechnology, nanotechnology, food safety, nutrition, and trade-related matters. Most recently, Ritu has served as the primary lead for FDA’s efforts, working in conjunction with the broader U.S. government, to modernize the federal regulatory system for biotechnology products, and has been the agency’s voice on this subject in numerous domestic and international forums. She has led and coordinated FDA’s nanotechnology regulatory policy activities and played a leadership role in establishing specific regulations to implement the FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act, representing and leading FDA delegations in multilateral standards-setting and scientific dialogues. Prior to joining the Office of Policy in 2009, Ritu spent eight years at FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition on a range of nutrition and food safety policy matters. She joined FDA in 2001.

Katie is a social scientist based at the University of Exeter where she studies the shifting interrelationships between science, culture, technology, and health. Katie’s most recent work has investigated the challenges and opportunities associated with the design and development of genetically modified mosquitoes to tackle malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Katie has a Ph.D. in human geography and a long-standing interest in the role of empirical philosophy in helping to open up new possibilities for change and more convivial political futures. Katie works closely with a variety of external partners including policy makers, technology developers, and governing bodies.

Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis was appointed European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety in November 2014. He was born in 1951 in Siberia after his family was deported there in 1941. He returned to Lithuania in 1959 with his mother and two brothers, and his father was allowed to return a year later. Vytenis graduated in medicine in 1975 and was a practicing surgeon, specializing in cardiovascular surgery, for more than 20 years. He also holds a degree in history from Vilnius University acquired in 1984. Starting in 1969 he was active in the anti-Soviet movement, and he was one of the founders of the Lithuanian social-democrat party. In 1990 he was elected to the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania, which preceded Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament), and he was one of the co-authors of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania adopted in 1992 as well as a signatory of the independence act of Lithuania. Vytenis was a Member of Parliament for six mandates. During that time, he has been deputy chair of the European Affairs Committee, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and vice-president of the social-democrat party. He has also led the Lithuanian delegation to the Convention on the Future of Europe. From 2012 to 2014, Vytenis was the Minister for Health.

Martina is a biotech and food safety student intrigued by the interplay of science and politics. She is fascinated by biotech innovations and the exploitation of their added value for society as a whole in a sustainable and ethically acceptable manner. Currently, she has co-initiated a citizen’s initiative on the modernization of the EU’s GMO legislation.

Marc van Mil is associate professor biomedical education at University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands. In 2017 he was awarded Higher Education Teacher of the Year in the Netherlands. In his current work he focuses on the ethical and societal implications of biomedical innovations, both in his teaching and in his educational research. As a “DNA teacher” he gave many public lectures and participated in talk shows, science festivals, children’s TV shows, and YouTube clips. He is one of the ambassadors for the national dialogue on CRISPR technologies in the human germline that is currently organised in the Netherlands.

Steffi Friedrichs has been a leading expert, policy advisor, and business representative for emerging technological innovation for nearly 20 years. She is currently the founder and director of AcumenIST, an internationally active consultancy that drives the advancement of science- and technology-based innovations through proactive initiatives in the public and private sector. Before joining AcumenIST, Steffi worked for the OECD, where she developed its definition, indicators, and impact assessment of biotechnology and nanotechnology and led two international workshops on genome editing. Steffi has a strong track record in the establishment, development, and representation of technology-based companies; she was the founder and general director of the Nanotechnology Industry Association (NIA) group, co-founder and member of the board of directors of the Chicago Micro- & Nanotechnology Community (CMNC), director of the master’s program in micro- and nanotechnology at the University of Cambridge, and lecturer in inorganic chemistry and solid state chemistry at the University of Oxford. Steffi has a GBR Ph.D. (DPhil) from the University of Oxford (U.K.) specializing in nanotechnology and a DiplChem Title from the Technische Universität Braunschweig (Germany), as well as a GBR diploma in higher education (DipHE).

Dr. Nitya Sambamurti Ghotge is a veterinarian with a specialization in veterinary surgery. She has been working on issues related to development and the environment since 1986. She is one of the founders of Anthra and presently the director. Her work includes research, training, and policy advocacy on different aspects of livestock development especially on systems of health care and planning for gender-sensitive and sustainable ways of farming and livestock rearing. A special focus for her now is pastoral nomadic communities and the animals they rear. She has several significant publications on the themes of livestock development, biodiversity, and systems of veterinary medicine. She is the author of the book “Livestock and Livelihoods: The Indian Context” published by Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, and Foundation Books New Delhi.

Joris Lohman is founder and director of Food Hub, a social enterprise that aims to accelerate the transition to a good, clean, and circular food system. Food Hub provides services that help food professionals, companies, governments, and NGOs to better understand the dynamics of the changing food system and provides clients with tools to create a bigger impact on the transition of the food system. Over the years, Food Hub has cultivated a large international network of entrepreneurs and young professionals across the agrifood value chain. Food Hub organizes training programs, summer schools, academies, and business-accelerating programs – such as the Food Chain Accelerator for start-ups and scale-ups in the food business – and helps develop innovative business models for entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector. Joris writes articles for de Volskrant, Trouw, and RTLZ about food and sustainability. He was elected in the Trouw Duurzame 100, a list of the most influential people in the field of sustainability in the Netherlands, three times.

Anita van Mil is director of research and engagement at Hopkins Van Mil: Creating Connections Ltd (HVM). HVM facilitates engagement so that voices are heard, learning is shared, and understanding achieved. The team specialises in social research programmes which give people a voice on complex issues where the answers for society are as yet unclear. HVM puts people at the centre of big issues by asking questions, listening, and providing a forum for dialogue. In the last five years, Anita has project-managed over 20 HVM social research and public engagement programmes, including The Royal Society’s programme on genetic technologies (2017-18) and neural interfaces (2018-19) and a yearlong programme of dialogues on the future of food, nutrition, health and the environment for Wellcome Trust. Anita facilitates workshops and leads on HVM’s data coding, analysis, and report writing.

Rob is a social scientist based at the University of Edinburgh where he studies the governance of emerging biotechnologies like genome editing, genome synthesis, and previously biofuels. He works closely with scientists and policy makers to explore people’s relationships between knowledge and democracies, and he’s particularly interested in understanding how technologies can be ‘directed’ to the benefit of societies. His work at Edinburgh builds on two years’ worth of researching, intervening, and scheming (sometimes with scientists) at the King’s College London Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. He completed his Ph.D. in science and technology studies at the University of Nottingham and originally trained as a biologist there.

Marianne loves hiking, reading, and playing folk-violin. As an independent biologist and science writer, she specializes in biotechnology and environmental issues. Over the last 25 years, she has written hundreds of background articles for professional journals, newspapers, and sites. She has edited scientific reports and led training courses on science communication. In this way, she helps make trends visible and meaningful.

Henri Woelders is a senior research scientist at the Animal Breeding and Genomics (ABG) group of Wageningen University & Research. Henri obtained a master’s degree in cell biology at Leiden University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Amsterdam. Since then he moved to DLO (currently Wageningen University & Research) as senior researcher on gamete biology, male and female fertility, reproductive technology, and germplasm conservation. His work covers all major farm animal species.

Katja obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, on the topic of safety assessment and traceability of GM plants. After her studies she moved to the Netherlands and is now working as a plant scientist and project leader at Wageningen University & Research. Her research interest lies in the discovery and exploration of the vast richness of compounds from plants that are responsible for their pharmaceutical, health-promoting, and flavour properties. She is one of the initiators of the multidisciplinary EU-CHIC project to establish root chicory as a multipurpose crop with consumer benefits via genome editing.

Johan van Arendonk was born on a dairy farm in Bavel, a small village in the south of the Netherlands, and received his master’s degree in animal science in 1982 at Wageningen University followed by his doctorate. From 1985 onward, he worked at the Wageningen University Department of Animal Breeding, becoming personal chair in 1998 and full professor in 2002. His animal breeding and genetics research covers a wide spectrum of topics and species. The emphasis in his career has changed from doing research to coaching people involved in research and training, teaching new generations, and building and managing a team of professionals. Under his leadership, the animal breeding and genomics centre at Wageningen University and Research (WUR) has become one of the top groups at the university and in its domain internationally. Johan co-authored over 300 papers in scientific journals and supervised 93 Ph.D. candidates. In 2016, he started as chief innovation and technology officer at Hendrix Genetics, a leading breeding company headquartered in Boxmeer with primary activities in layer poultry, traditional poultry, turkey, pig, and aquaculture breeding. He contributes to strengthening the research and product development activities in line with the company’s vision “Better breeding today. Brighter life tomorrow.” The company is dedicated to generating solutions for the animal protein sector that solve the challenges of today and those of tomorrow. Backed by a portfolio of leading brands, Hendrix Genetics provides expertise and resources to producers in more than 100 countries, with operations and joint ventures in 25 countries and nearly 3,300 employees worldwide.

Patience is a graduate of political science and an accomplished entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience spanning various industries including fashion and agriculture. She has been crop farming on a commercial scale since 2012 and harvests over 1000 hectares annually on farms irrigated with center pivot systems growing maize seed and grain. She is on the board of several companies including Replenish Farms Ltd; 1 hectare 1 family Nig Ltd, a company working toward cropping 200,000 hectares in the next five years to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers by granting them access to mechanization, innovation, and technology; and Yieldwise Seeds, a company dedicated to growing good quality seed for farmers.

Niels Louwaars is director of Plantum, the association of companies in the Netherlands dealing in plant reproductive materials. Trained as a plant breeder at Wageningen University, he spent about 10 years in Asia and Africa working in development projects before returning to Wageningen, where he worked for 20 years in positions dealing with international cooperation and research. Based on that international experience he developed the concept of Integrated Seed Sector Development, providing policy space for a variety of formal and informal seed systems. His Ph.D. dealt with the interplay of policies and regulatory issues related to seeds and plant genetic resources, including intellectual property rights (WTO), national sovereign rights on biological diversity (CBD and IT-PGRFA), Farmers’ Rights (IT-PGRFA), and national seed laws. During that period, he assisted several countries and institutions like the World Bank and FAO in designing policies in this area. At Wageningen University and Research, he also managed an organization-wide international programme and represented the organization in the CGIAR. He was also sworn in as member of the Plant Breeder’s Rights chamber of the district court in The Hague. Currently he represents the Netherlands seed sector nationally and internationally.

Leon Mol was educated as an agronomist at Wageningen University. He started his career establishing a large potato farm in Egypt followed by an international, technical, and commercial job in the potato sector. Later, Leon was employed as agronomist at Albert Heijn (the Netherlands) working on long-term availability and sustainability of fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers, and other plants. Now, Leon is director of product safety and social compliance at Ahold Delhaize. The global scope of activities includes food safety, social compliance, animal welfare, and sustainability of animal- and plant-related products.

Tom is based at ETC Group, (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration) and is honorary associate professor at the University of Exeter’s Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health. His original training was as a biologist. For the last 20 years, he has been involved in organising deliberative processes in collaboration with civil society organisations, including around 25 processes of participatory technology assessment, such as Citizen Foresight (1998), Prajateerpu (2001), Our Food (2014). Other democratising initiatives in which he has been involved have focused on racism and other aspects of social justice. He has attempted to make use of his privilege as a white middle-class man with a science doctorate and 30 years’ experience of working within neoliberal universities to co-create spaces for voice with those whose knowledge has been marginalised. He acknowledges his debt to those individuals and organisations from oppressed communities, particularly in the UK and India, with whom he has worked towards this shared objective. He is the author and co-editor of articles and books on issues ranging across the sciences and humanities, including Everyday Experts (2017), People’s Knowledge: Escaping the White-Walled Labyrinth (2016), Empowered Participation (2008), Liaisons of Life (2001) and Science for the Earth (1995). He is a fellow of the Linnean Society and a member of the Strategic Peer Review College of the Global Challenges Research Fund, a UK government fund to support cutting-edge research that addresses the challenges faced by countries of the Global South. He lives in London and loves sailing.

Hidde Boersma is a freelance science writer and documentary filmmaker with a background in molecular biology. He writes for various Dutch daily newspapers and magazine, mainly on agriculture, biotechnolology, and ethics. He is a co-author of the book “Ecomodernism” (2017) and “Feeding the City” (2018). In 2017 he debuted with the documentary “Well Fed” where he researched the influence of Western resistance to GMOs on the lives of smallholder famers in Bangladesh. He is now working on his second film, which will be on using gene drive mosquitoes to combat malaria.