**November 18, 2005**

**FIFRA SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY PANEL (SAP)**

**OPEN MEETING**

**DECEMBER 6-8, 2005**

**FIFRA SAP WEB SITE
[http://www.epa.gov/scipoly/sap/](http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/SAP/)**

**OPP Docket Telephone: (703) 305-5805**

**Docket Number: OPP-2005-0249**

**PLANT-INCORPORATED PROTECTANTS BASED**

**ON VIRUS COAT PROTEIN GENES: SCIENCE**

**ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH**

**THE PROPOSED RULE**

Judith Bender, Ph.D.

Dr. Judith Bender is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health. Her research interests focus on DNA methylation and gene
silencing in Arabidopsis and the regulation of tryptophan metabolism in
Arabidopsis. Dr. Bender has a B.S. in Biochemistry from
Harvard-Radcliffe College, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard
University and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology from
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

Judith Brown, Ph.D.

Dr. Brown is a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the
University of Arizona. Dr. Brown\'s research interests are
(1)begomovirus/satellite DNA diversity and diversification mechanisms,
pathogenesis (2) biotype formation- Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) complex, role
of endosymbionts in B. tabaci speciation (3) whitefly genome
(ESTs)/proteomics to elucidate transmission pathway (4) begomovirus
resistance/transgenic plants-gene silencing. Dr. Brown has a Ph.D. in
Plant Pathology from the University of Arizona, a MS in Plant Pathology
from Washington State University and BS in Horticultural Science from
Texas A&M University.

George Cobb, Ph.D.

Dr. Cobb is an Associate Professor of Environmental Toxicology, The
Institute of Environmental and Human Health, Texas Tech University &
Texas Tech Health Sciences Center. His research entails improving
approaches for quantifying exposure and trophic transport of toxicants.
He provides coordinated research and education opportunities for

students in toxicology, environmental chemistry, environmental
chemistry, sensor development, trace analysis, and risk assessment. Dr.
Cobb has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of South Florida and a
B.S. in Chemistry from the College of Charleston.

Shou-Wei Ding, Ph.D.

Dr. Ding is a Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and the
Institute for Integrative Genome Biology in the College of Natural and
Agricultural Sciences, University of California, Riverside. He received
his PhD from the Australian National University's Research School of
Biological Sciences in 1990, and subsequently completed postdoctoral
training in plant molecular virology at the Waite Institute, University
of Adelaide, South Australia. He has previously served on the faculty of
the Institute of Molecular Agrobiology at the National University of
Singapore. Dr. Ding has active research programs funded by the NIH,
USDA, and California Citrus Research Board to investigate mechanisms of
virus-host interactions, primarily focusing on the biology and
application of gene silencing as an antiviral immunity in both plant and
animal systems. His teaching responsibilities at the University of
California, Riverside include undergraduate and graduate courses in
virology. Dr. Ding is an editor of *FEBS* *Letters* (Federation of
European Biochemistry Societies). He also serves on the editorial boards
of *Virology* and *Phytopathology*.

Bryce W. Falk, Ph.D.

Dr. Bryce Falk is Professor, Dept. of Plant Pathology, University of
California, Davis, CA. Dr. Falk received his BS degree in Biology from
Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California, followed by MS and PhD degrees
in Plant Pathology from the University of California, Berkeley. After
postdoctoral work at UC Riverside he was an Assistant Professor at the
University of Florida, Everglades Research and Education Center in Belle
Glade. In 1985 he moved to UC Davis advancing to Full Professor in 1991.
He has served on a number of Federal Grant review panels and was the
first panel manager for the NRICGP Biology of Plant Microbe Associations
program in 2000. He has served on editorial boards for a number of
scientific journals, currently for *Virology* and *Molecular Plant
Pathology*. His lab research has been focused on various aspects of the
biology and molecular biology of plant viruses. His current efforts are
mainly with viruses in the family *Closteroviridae*, genera *Crinivirus*
and *Closterovirus*. He is examining the replication and host plant
interactions/determinants for *Lettuce infectious yellows virus* (LIYV).
His lab is using immunological, microscopic and molecular biological
tools to assess protein accumulation in cells/whole plants and taking a
mutagenic approach to modify specific LIYV-encoded proteins and then
analyze effects on function. They are also attempting to understand
LIYV-encoded determinants that effect LIYV transmission by the
whitefly*, Bemisia tabaci*. His lab is also taking novel approaches to
confer resistance to *Citrus tristeza virus* in citrus by engineering
plants to respond with a systemic resistance signal, and they are trying
to better understand the molecular and biological factors affecting CTV
host:plant interactions and virus evolution. He has recently also
evaluated how transgenic, virus-resistant plants may affect virus
populations and evolution by performing field, laboratory and greenhouse
studies to assess the genetic composition of plant virus populations and
how selection conferred by transgenic resistance may direct shifts in
virus genotype populations. In 2003 and 2004 he was named Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the
American Phytopathological Society (APS), respectively.

Steven Gendel, Ph.D.

Dr. Gendel received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Case Western
Reserve University and his Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of
California, Irvine. He held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University
and the University of Toronto before joining the Department of Genetics
at Iowa State University. Since 1990 he has been with the FDA at the
National Center for Food Safety and Technology in Chicago as Chief of
the Biotechnology Studies Branch and now as Biotechnology Program Lead.
His research interests focus on the application of bioinformatics to
food safety, particularly as related to food biotechnology and food
allergens.

Jonathan Gressel, Ph.D.

Dr. Jonathan Gressel is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Plant
Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. His areas of expertise
are plant and fungal physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology,
evolutionary dynamics in agro-ecosystems. His research interests focus
on transgenic herbicide resistant crops, introgression and molecular
prevention of crop transgenes to weeds, herbicide resistance, herbicide
action, parasitic weeds and biotechnological axenic systems. Dr. Gressel
has a BS in Plant Science from Ohio State University, a MS in Botany
from the University of Wisconsin and Ph.D. in Botany/horticulture from
the University of Wisconsin.

Simon P. Hogan, Ph.D.

Dr. Simon Hogan is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of
Allergy and Immunology, Cincinnati Children\'s Hospital Medical Center ,
Cincinnati , OH . He received his Ph.D. from the John Curtin School of
Medical Research, Australian National University , Canberra, Australia
in 1998 and subsequently completed a National Health Medical Research
Council NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at
Cincinnati Children\'s Hospital Medical Center , Cincinnati , OH . He
was appointed in 2004 to Head of the Gastrointestinal Research
laboratory, John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU, Canberra ,
Australia as part of the NHMRC funded Program grant to examine Molecular
mechanisms in the regulation of allergy and inflammation. Dr Hogan has
an active research program investigating inflammation induced
gastrointestinal dysfunction. Current projects are (1) to elucidate the
cellular and molecular processes involved in gastrointestinal allergic
responses using novel models of allergic responses in mice with
translational studies in humans, (2) to identify the role of
gastrointestinal inflammation in peristaltic reflex and gastrointestinal
epithelial cell dysfunction and (3) to characterize food allergen
reactive T cells in eosinophilic esophagitis.

Roger Hull, DSc.

Dr. Roger Hull is an Emeritus Fellow at the John Innes Centre in
Norwich, United Kingdom. He has a BS in Botany at Cambridge University,
a PhD in Plant Pathology at the University of London in 1964 and a DSc
in Plant Virology by the University of London in 1980. Other awards
include Honorary Professorships at the University of East Anglia,
Norwich, UK and at Peking University, China, an Honorary Doctorate at
the University of Perpignan, France and Fellowship of the American
Phytopathological Society. His research interests are in the area of
badnaviruses and tenuiviruses, RNA viruses and designing resistance in
plants to virus infection or controlling the spread of viruses from
plant to plant. He is also involved in biosafety issues relating to the
uptake of transgenic crops in developing countries.

Alexander Karasev, Ph.D.

Dr. Alexander Karasev is an Assistant Professor, Department of
Microbiology and Immunology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. His research focused on the design and construction of
novel viral-based vectors for expression of foreign gene sequences in
plants and development of plant-based oral vaccines for viral and
bacterial infectious diseases. Dr. Karasev has a Ph.D. in Molecular
Biology from Moscow State University, Russia.

Steven A. Lommel, Ph.D.

Dr. Steve Lommel is the Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Research at North
Carolina State University and is a Professor with joint appointments in
the Departments of Plant Pathology and Genetics in the College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from the University
of California, Berkeley in 1983. He has previously served on the faculty
at Kansas State University and was Assistant Director of the North
Carolina Agriculture Research Service. Dr. Lommel has an active research
program funded by the NSF to explore the genetic and molecular
mechanisms of plant virus pathogenicity. His laboratory is interested in
the structure of robust small plant viruses with the goal of using them
as viral based nanotechnology cargo vehicles. Dr. Lommel is the
co-Director of the Nicotiana Genome Initiative based at North Carolina
State University. His teaching responsibilities at North Carolina State
University include graduate courses in Plant Pathology and Plant
Virology as well as invited lectures in Biotechnology and Genetics. Dr.
Lommel is the editor for the Journal Virus Research and sits on the
editorial boards of several other plant biology and virology journals.
He was also one of the original organizers and current University
representative for PIPRA, the Public Intellectual Property Resource for
Agriculture.

Diana Pilson, Ph.D.

Dr. Diana Pilson is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the
University of Nebraska, where she has been on the faculty since 1994.
She received her Ph.D. from Duke University (Department of Zoology and
the University Program in Genetics) in 1990, and then was a member of
the research faculty at the University of Montana. Dr. Pilson has an
active research program examining the ecological consequences of the
escape of transgenes into wild populations (funded by the USDA),
including projects

evaluating the effects of insect herbivores on the population dynamics
of wild sunflower and the effects of virus infection on wild squash
populations. Other work (funded by USDA and NSF) has examined the
evolution of plant response to herbivore attack and the evolution of
plant mating systems. Her teaching responsibilities include
undergraduate and graduate courses in evolution and ecology. She has
served on proposal review panels for the National Science Foundation and
the US Department of

Agriculture Competitive Grants Program, and is currently a member of the
Editorial Board for Ecology/Ecological Monographs.

Alison Power, Ph.D.

Dr. Alison G. Power is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology and Dean of the Graduate School at Cornell
University in Ithaca, New York, USA. She received a B.S. in Biology from
the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the
University of Washington in 1985. Her research focuses on the ecology of
viruses in plant communities, including both natural and agricultural
communities. Current research also addresses the impact of agriculture
on the spread of plant diseases in natural ecosystems and the ecological
risks of genetically engineered crops expressing transgenic virus
resistance. Other research interests include biodiversity conservation
in managed ecosystems, interactions between agricultural and natural
ecosystems, agroecology, and tropical ecology. Currently, Power serves
as Vice-President for Public Affairs for the Ecological Society of
America, on the Executive Committee of the Association of Graduate
Schools, and on the Oversight Committee of the Collaborative Crop
Research Program of the McKnight Foundation. She has served on the
Scientific Advisory Board of the National Center for Ecological Analysis
and Synthesis (NCEAS); several committees of the National Research
Council; and the Executive Committee of the Organization for Tropical
Studies.

Lars Poulsen, Ph.D.

Dr. Lars Poulsen is head of research at the Allergy Clinic at the
National University Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark. In addition, he
serves as an adjunct Professor of Immunology at the Danish Technical
University and as external associate professor in Basic Allergology at
the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Copenhagen. Dr. Poulsen
serves as a manager of a national allergy research programme at the
Danish Allergy Research Center. Dr. Poulsen has a Ph.D. from the
Univeristy of Copenhagen Medical Faculty, Danish Doctorate of Medical
Sciences at the University of Copenhagen and postdoctoral training at
the Department of Immunology at Johns Hopkins University.

Geoffrey I. Scott, Ph.D.

Dr. Geoff Scott is the Director of the Center for Coastal Environmental
Health and Biomolecular Research at Charleston, SC, National Centers of
Coastal Ocean Science, National Ocean Service, NOAA. Dr. Scott holds
adjunct faculty appointments at the Medical University of South
Carolina, University of South Carolina, University of Charleston, and
Texas Technical University. He received his Ph.D. in marine science from
the University of South Carolina in 1979. Research experience includes
working as an aquatic toxicologist for the EPA and the Research Planning
Institute, as well as, an Associate Professor in the School of Public
Health at the University of South Carolina where his research was
focused on understanding the impacts of agricultural pesticide NPS
runoff and mosquito control agents on estuarine ecosystems, and the
health of estuarine organisms as well as methods for measuring bacterial
pollution emanating from different septic tanks systems in the coastal
zone of SC. Additional research has focused on the impacts of oil and
hazardous material spills on coastal ecosystems throughout the U.S.
including studies in Alaska, Puget Sound, Texas, Puerto Rico and the
Florida Keys. His research at NOAA has focused on agricultural and urban
nonpoint source runoff issues throughout the southeastern US. His
teaching responsibilities at the University of South Carolina include
courses in environmental health sciences and aquatic toxicology.

Dr. Scott has served on numerous advisory panels to government and
industry including: (1) the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference;
(2) EPA's Advisory Board, Panel on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals; (3)
EPA's Food Quality Protection Act Board, Scientific Panel Member; (4)
EPA's Environmental Technology Verification Program, Water Stakeholder
Committee Member; (5) Governor's Primary Health Care Task Force; (6) the
SC Coastal Pesticide Advisory Committee; (7) SC Sea Grant Advisory
Board; (8) Editorial Board Aquatic Toxicology; and (9) United Nations
Gulf of Guinea Large Marine Ecosystem Study Technical Advisor.