GMO Technical Committee

Chair: Cheryl Dollard – Canada Co-Chair: René Mathis - France

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GMO TCOM: Members 1 Cheryl Dollard (Chair) Canada 2 René Mathis (Vice –chair) France 3 Christoph Haldemann (Past-chair) Switzerland 4 Elizabeth Bates Belgium 5 Sofia Ben Tahar France 6 Tajinder Grewal Canada 7 Lutz Grohmann Germany 8 Andrea Jonitz Germany 9 Jean-Louis Laffont France

10 Enrico Noli Italy 11 Elena Perri Italy 12 Kirk Remund United States 13 Guy Van den Eede - Resigned 2014 Italy

Marco Mazzara – New Member!!! European Commission 14 Ana Laura Vicario Argentina 15 Bruno Zaccomer France 16 Dabing Zhang China 17 Ray Shillito United States

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GMO Committee Working Groups # Working Groups Lead Members Work Description and Projects

1.1 GMO Proficiency Test:

Administration and Sample Preparation

ISTA TCORD Nadine Ettel

Christoph Haldemann, Jean-Louis Laffont and Cheryl Dollard (Expert Team); Andrea Jonitz (Sample Prep)

Purpose: Execution of the GMO PT ; Lead: Coordinate administration of the PT program from within the ISTA secretariat; Expert Team: Develop PT Plans, Evaluate Results and Ratings, address technical questions, assist with administration of program as described in the SOP for administration of the GMO PT Program. Sample prep: Purity check of material and preparation of PT Samples as described in the GMO PT Program Sample Prep SOP.

1.2 GMO Proficiency Test: Resource Procurement

Ray Shilito Elizabeth Bates (Bayer), Bruno Zaccomer (Monsanto), Sofia Ben Tahar (Limagrain),

Purpose: Resource procurement in support of the GMO PT Program: Secure reference materials (GM and non-GM) from Industry; Coordinate financial support for PT program from Industry/corporate partners; Action items: solicit WG members from other Industry areas: Syngenta, Pioneer, etc Secretariat contact: ISTA TCOM Coordinator (Nadine Ettel)

1.3 Workshops Cheryl Dollard (Temporary)

Enrico Noli,, Bruno Zaccomer, Dabing Zhang, Christoph Haldemann, Jean-Louis Laffont, Kirk Remund

Purpose: Delivery of training workshops in GMO Testing: Lead: Act as liason between TCOM and training requests; works with contact at ISTA Secretariat for communications with workshop hosts to determine capacity and content requirements; Group: Develop training materials for detection and identification of GM seed (AP and Trait purity); delivery of international training workshops.

1.4 ISTA GMO Website

Elizabeth Bates

Tajinder Grewal, Mihael Cristin Ichim, Dabing Zhang, Ray Shilito, Lutz Grohmann

Purpose: To work to develop proposed content for the GMO TCOM Webpage; To develop a proposal for the GMO TCOM to review and provide comments; To act as contact person for the group.

1.5 ATC contact A.-L. Vicario N/A Purpose: Committee contact for the Advanced Technologies Committee

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GMO Committee Working Groups # Working Groups Lead Members Work Description and Projects

1.6 Statistical tools for GMO Testing

Jean-Louis Laffont

Kirk Remund, Gabriel Carré, Bruno Zaccomer, Christoph Haldemann

Purpose: Statistical support of the Committee (Specialized): Projects/topic of interest: Detection of Stacked Genes, GMO PT Rating System Evaluation; Measurement Uncertainty, Other

1.7 Publications Bruno Zaccomer

Elizabeth Bates, Cheryl Dollard, Beni Kaufman, Jean-Louis Laffont, Enrico Noli, Kirk Remund, Christoph Haldemann

Purpose: Coordination of writing of technical publications; Current Projects/topics: Publication of the results of the ISTA GMO PT program (B. Zaccomer Lead); Articles for STI (Various Leads); Reports of the GMO PT Rounds (Various leads); Other

1.8 Rules-Handbook René Mathis with E. Noli (Handbook)

Elizabeth Bates, Cheryl Dollard, Kirk Remund, Bruno Zaccomer, Christoph Haldemann, Jean-Louis Laffont; Elena Perri, Gabriel Carré, Ana-Laura Vicario

Purpose: To develop New Rules Chapter and accompanying Technical Handbook for GMO Testing: Current Project: Completion of the GMO Testing handbook. Draft outline is developed; sections are being prepared by group members as sub-projects as outlined below, new members will be added as recruited. Subproject: Section i: Preface: E. Noli and R. Mathis Subproject: Sections ii, iii, iv: Health and Safety Info; Acknowledgements; Contributors: C. Dollard Subproject: Section 1: Introduction: C. Dollard, E. Noli, and R. Mathis Subproject: Section 2: Generalities on GMOs: E. Noli and Liz Bates Subproject: Section 3: Objectives of GMO Testing: To be determined Subproject: Section 5: Statistical approaches for results analysis (working title) Jean-Louis Laffont, K. Remund, Gabriel Carré Subproject: Section 6: Overview on Method Validation: C. Haldeman, E. Noli, Jean-Louis Laffont, B. Zaccomer Subproject: Section 7: ISTA Accreditation: C. Dollard, B. Zaccomer, A.-L. Vicaro, Jean-Louis Laffont, K. Remund, E. Noli; Advisors: R. El-Khadem and R. Zecchinelli Subproject: Section 8: Quality Assurance: C. Dollard, E. Perri, L. Bates; Advisor: Secretariat

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ISTA Representation:

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2014 AEIC Fall Meeting – New Orleans, Louisana, USA: Cheryl Dollard gave a presentation on the GMO Proficiency Testing Program and Accreditation system the Analytical Excellence through Industry Collaboration 2014 Fall Meeting This organization is comprised of corporate, public, and scientific organizations, individuals and government agencies focused on methods needed for the development, regulatory approval, and QA testing for biotech products in agriculture. 2015 JRC International Workshop on GMO networking ( Varese, Italy - July 2015): Enrico Noli will participate on behalf of the GMO Technical Committee and ISTA to this workshop.

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WG: GMO Proficiency Test: Administration & Sample Prep WG Lead: N. Ettel - Switzerland

Spiking level 0% 0.4% 0.8% 0.4% Event None GHB614 LLCOTTON25 GHB614, LLCOTTON25 Lot numbers 1, 2 3, 4 5, 6 7, 8 Number of samples 2 2 2 2 Number of non-GM seeds 2000 1992 1984 1992 Number of GM seeds 0 8 16 4+4=8

PT20 - Cotton

Sample sets were sent to 22 laboratories. 21 participants submitted their results, 9 provided qualitative results only. Final results are being compiled now and will be send out to the participants end of June.

PT21: Maize - Planned f or later in 2015 – seed has been sourced and is being tested. Administrative - Improvements being made to the DB to increase automation at several steps to improve efficiency and data quality.

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WG: GMO Proficiency Test: Resource Procurement WG Lead: R. Shillito – United States

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As of May 5th: PT21 • Monsanto has committed to provide GM materials for PT21 (maize) • Monsanto and Pioneer in discussions to provide non-GM materials • Paperwork in progress

Following rounds: PT22: Canola: GM (1-2 Events) and Conventional • In discussion with Monsanto and Bayer regarding Canola. PT23: Soybean: GM (1-2 Events) and Conventional • Monsanto and Bayer are planning material production for PT23 soy. PT24: Alfalfa: GM (1-2 Events) and Conventional • Monsanto has been approached regarding Alfalfa – we will also have to work with

Forage Genetics International.

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WG: ISTA GMO Website WG Lead: E. Bates – Belgium

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• Website completely revised after the meeting in 2014 in Edinburgh • Update of information to include the new rules section • Update of weblinks

• Small revision to check on information early 2015

• Weblinks corrected

• Next work – content review in anticipation of changes to ISTA website

• Planned meeting at this conference to review again the website – all welcome!

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WG: Statistical tools for GMO Testing WG Lead: J.-L. Laffont - France

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WG: Publications WG Lead: B. Zaccomer - France

• We work very closely with the Statistics Committee - for tools development, workshops and training, and the PT program

• Many tools have been developed which are critical for GMO testing in seed – including Seed Calc, SeedCalcStack, PT Ratings system (qualitative/quantitative), etc.

• This WG is focused on coordination/assistance for writing of scientific articles related to GMOs for publication.

• Main focus: Handbook, Publication of results of the GMO PT and articles related to the PT program.

• Upcoming Articles: Pipeline Products

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WG: Rules-Handbook WG Leads: R. Mathis – France and E. Noli - Italy

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• It will include different types of information : what are GMOs, detailed guidance

requirements for accreditation (performance criteria), and how to perform/provide satisfactory results.

• It will provide information to assist labs, auditors, staff members…

• During last ISTA meeting at Edinburgh: VALIDATION Section - the core of what is required and how the testing and labs are validated/evaluated

• No in person meeting was possible since last ISTA meeting.

• This part still needs some work – meetings have been scheduled for this week for the WG to further develop the HB – GOAL – 1st draft by Congress in 2016.

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WG: Workshops WG Lead: C. Dollard – Canada

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ISTA GMO seed testing workshops have been delivered since 2001!

International Audience: Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, Iran, Slovenia, South Africa, Thailand, Croatia, Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, India, Jamaica,

Turkey, USA

- Interest in holding a workshop in Burkina Faso, West Africa - Handbook will be used as reference/basis for Workshops - If you would like to have a GMO testing workshop Or have questions about our workshops – please contact Cheryl Dollard

PT Program – Sample Preparation

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A Small group of GMO testing specialists who do a lot of additional work for every round of the program. They address the activities which cannot involve other committee or WG members in order to ensure secrecy of the program, and to protect confidentiality of participants and results.

2014 – EUROFINS providing sample preparation services: arrangements have been finalized and PT20 has launched with EUROFINS support.

PT Program – Expert Team

Jean-Louis Laffont Christoph Haldemann Nadine Ettel Cheryl Dollard

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New Member – link for EU Joint Research Center and ISTA in GMO M. Mazzara, European Commission

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The Joint Research Centre (JRC) - European Commission’s in-house science service

- Supports EU policies with independent, evidence-based

scientific/technical support

- ~ 3.000 staff (2014)

- 6 locations

JRC Activities with connection to ISTA’s GMO TCOM:

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Food and Feed Safety and Quality – including GMOs Development and delivery of training workshops Validation studies/research Scientific expertise in GMO testing for regulatory purposes Many more……

Thank you to: ECOM – Especially Rita and Berta

ISTA Secretariat – Especially Nadine, Beni, Rasha, Olga

Sample Preparation Laboratory: Eurofins Committee WG Leads and committee members

Cecilia Jones and the organizers of this year’s meeting

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Invitation to Open Side Meeting:

The GMO TCOM will host an open side meeting at:

Picasso 5 – 4th Floor Tuesday, June 16, 17:00-18:00

All who are interested to attend are welcome!

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Thank you for your attention

www.seedtest.org

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