An official website of the United States government.
This project aims to advance molecular profiling technologies with the aim of testing their feasibility for practical application in the safety evaluation of GM foods.
<p>The robustness of 'substantial equivalence' in safety evaluations could be advanced by these technologies but they have not been fully explored or validated for this purpose.
The project includes the three major profiling strategies: metabolite profiling; proteomics; DNA microarrays.
<p>It intends to explore their relative merits in detail using common study materials.
<p>The project is focussed on Brassicas, chosen to provide the combined advantages of crop plants likely to be prominent in the application of second generation GM technology and the advanced genomic characterisation of Arabidopsis.
<p>The GM traits chosen for study represent a range of existing and future applications that are typical of agronomic, quality and functional targets.
<p>An important component of this study is the inclusion of an analytical framework to relate differences in a GMO to the background of natural genetic variation. This is essential for the practical application of these technologies in safety evaluations.
<p>Find more about this project and other FSA food safety-related projects at the <a href="http://www.food.gov.uk/science/research/" target="_blank">Food Standards Agency Research webpage</a>.