In an attempt to measure, debate and capture  the range and degree of concerns for the environment, an international group of experts from academia, industry and regulators convened a symposium in 1990 in Kiawah Island, North Carolina, USA.

The first conference, entitled "Biological Monitoring of Genetically Engineered Plants and Microbes", reflected the state of technology at the time. The second symposium, entitled "The Biosafety Results of Field Tests of Genetically Modified Plants and Microorganisms", was held in Goslar, Germany in 1992. Subsequent biennial symposia were held in Monterey, USA (1994), Tsukuba, Japan (1996), Brunswick, Germany (1998), Saskatoon, Canada (2000), Beijing, China (2002), Montpellier, France (2004), Jeju, South Korea (2006) and most recently in Wellington, New Zealand (2008).

The next symposium (11th ISBGMO: “The Role of Biosafety Research in the Decision-making Process”) will take place 15-20 November 2010 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Proceedings from all past symposia have been published in hard copy and the proceedings from the latest six symposia are available online here.

It is only due to the consistent support, financial and otherwise, of the EC and the USDA that these symposia were able to succeed as well as they did. Additional support came from other government agencies and institutes in respective host countries.

Birth of ISBR

The Saskatoon meeting in 2000 presented a watershed, as the delegates recognised that 
even 10 years after the first meeting there was still an increasing demand for advanced research on biosafety with genetically engineered organisms – a category by then also  including animals –and that new generations of genetically engineered traits would likely continue to raise important questions of potential impact on  to the environment as well as on human health. Shortly after the sixth symposium, the International Society for Biosafety Research was legally incorporated, with an executive group drawn from the international advisory committees of the earlier symposia. 


Presidents of ISBR