Gilles-Éric Séralini

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Gilles-Éric Séralini

Gilles-Éric Séralini (born August 23, 1960 in Annaba , Algeria ) is a French molecular biologist . He works as a professor at the University of Caen and is also co-director of the university Pôle Risques. His main areas of research include studies of the effects of environmental factors such as genetically modified organisms and pesticides on health, sex hormones , reproduction and cancer . On the other hand, he focuses on the topics of preventing and curing breast cancer and endocrine disruptors . Séralini became known to a wider public through his studies on transgenic maize , the results of which were controversially discussed in the professional world. Séralini is the holder of the Ordre national du Mérite . In 2015 he was awarded the Whistleblower Prize by the Association of German Scientists (VDW) and the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) .

Scientific training and activity

Gilles-Éric Séralini studied in Nice . In 1987 he received his doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Montpellier II . For the next four years he carried out basic research in two renowned research institutions, first in Ontario and later in Quebec. In 1990 he passed the French exam for university professors. Since 1991 Séralini has been Full Professor of Molecular Biology at the Institut de Biologie Fondamentale et Appliquée at the University of Caen and heads a research group associated with the Center national de la recherche scientifique . He is President of the Scientific Council of the Comité de recherche et d'information indépendantes sur le génie génétique (CRII-GEN), which he co-founded .

Focus of work

Séralini was one of the first scientists who campaigned in 1996/1997 for a European moratorium against the commercial introduction of genetically modified organisms until these were better researched. From 1998 to 2007 he was a member of two French government commissions ( Commission du Génie Biomoléculaire and Comité de Biovigilance ) that investigated the effects of the introduction of genetically modified organisms. Together with the former French Environment Minister Corinne Lepage and the botanist Jean-Marie Pelt , Séralini founded the Comité de Recherche et d'Information Indépendantes sur le Génie Génétique (CRII-GEN), which is intended to enable independent investigations into the effects of genetically modified organisms. In 2003 he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Council of the European Union . It was about the legal dispute before the World Trade Organization between the United States, Argentina and Canada and the European Union over the de facto moratorium that prevented the commercial importation of genetically modified organisms into the European Union. Séralini was entrusted with developing the defense strategy.

He is one of the main organizers of the Monsanto Tribunal .

Controversy

Defamation proceedings

In January 2011, Séralini won a "defamation" case against Marc Fellous , President of the Association Française des Biotechnologies Végétales - advocates of genetically modified organisms. The background to this was that its neutrality was questioned in connection with a study on the effects of three genetically modified maize varieties on the health of mammals. The 17th Chamber of the “Tribunal Correctionnel de Paris” ruled that the allegation that Greenpeace's financial participation had influenced the study results was defamatory; However, the jury referred further allegations back to the scientific discourse.

Séralini affair

Main article: Séralini affair

The toxicity of transgenic maize described by Séralini in connection with the herbicide Roundup is the subject of controversial discussion among experts. Séralini's study Long Term Toxicity of a Roundup Herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant Genetically Modified Maize, published in November 2012 on the effects of genetically modified maize on rats, was approved by the overwhelming majority of experts as well as by all government agencies who made an assessment as methodologically insufficiently criticized.

The journal, Food and Chemical Toxicology , in which the study was published, assured that it had gone through the common and anonymous peer review process, but withdrew the study about a year later “due to serious deficiencies in terms of design and methodology " back again. This approach sparked renewed controversy in the scientific community. Cesare Gessler , genetic engineer at the ETH Zurich, described the withdrawal of the article as “extraordinary”, since the basis of many other studies was not more solid, but criticism of this extent was not given. In June 2014, this study was re-published, slightly modified, in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe (ESEU) in order to give the scientific community permanent access to the data of the withdrawn study. The study was published without a new peer review, because according to ESEU editor-in-chief Henner Hollert this had already been carried out by the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology and this had determined that there was no fraud or misrepresentation. In 2015 Séralini was awarded the whistleblower prize for this study because he was the first to describe the toxicity and tumor-inducing effects of the glyphosate- based herbicide " Roundup " in animal experiments in the context of a two-year feeding trial with rats .

The award ceremony was criticized in Die Zeit ; "Critics of genetic engineering and their lobby" had stylized Séralini as "the victim of a character assassination campaign" and the jury seemed to have "pissed them off". The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung criticized Séralini's “poor research work [...] and all the more dazzling appearances” and stated: “Scientific qualifications are not a prerequisite for receiving the Whistleblower Prize from the Association of Scientists.” Der Spiegel came in the context of the Monsanto Papers 2017 on the assessment that Séralini was the victim of a discrediting campaign by Monsanto . Although his study had methodological weaknesses, he had done what would essentially have been Monsanto's job, namely to conduct a feeding study that included both Roundup and GM maize contaminated with glyphosate. The Süddeutsche Zeitung sees shortcomings in Séralini's study, but considers the extent of the indignation over it to be completely exaggerated. She relies on documents from the California court case that suggest that Monsanto initiated a concerted letter to the editor in cooperation with Wallace Hayes , then editor-in-chief of the food and chemical toxicology magazine . In an email from Monsanto employee David Saltmiras dated September 26, 2012, it said that Hayes urgently needs more concrete reader reactions in order to be able to take action.

The results could not be repeated in several long-term studies. No negative consequences of feeding genetically modified maize with or without Roundup could be determined.

Resignation of Ralf Reski

In protest against the publication of a study by Séralini, Ralf Reski resigned as editor of the journal BioMed Research International in February 2014 . The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment announced in a statement that the study did not provide any new findings for the toxicological assessment of glyphosate and that it was of no relevance to the ongoing re-evaluation of glyphosate in the EU.

Honors

Fonts (selection)

Books

Magazine articles

Gilles-Éric Séralini has published more than 150 scientific papers.

  • Gilles-Éric Séralini, Dominique Cellier, Joël Spiroux de Vendomois: New Analysis of a Rat Feeding Study with a Genetically Modified Maize Reveals Signs of Hepatorenal Toxicity . In: Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology . Volume 52, number 4, pp. 596-602, doi: 10.1007 / s00244-006-0149-5 .
  • Joël Spiroux de Vendômois, François Roullier, Dominique Cellier, Gilles-Éric Séralini: A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health . In: International Journal of Biological Sciences . Volume 5, 2009, pp. 706-726, (online) .
  • Gilles-Éric Séralini, Joël Spiroux de Vendômois, Dominique Cellier, Charles Sultan, Marcello Buiatti, Lou Gallagher, Michael Antoniou, Krishna R. Dronamraju: How Subchronic and Chronic Health Effects can be Neglected for GMOs, Pesticides or Chemicals . In: International Journal of Biological Sciences . Volume 5, 2009, pp. 438-443 (online) .
  • Céline Gasnier, Claire Laurant, Cécile Decroix-Laporte, Robin Mesnage, Emilie Clair, Carine Travert, Gilles-Éric Séralini: Defined plant extracts can protect human cells against combined xenobiotic effects . In: Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology . Volume 6, 2011 doi: 10.1186 / 1745-6673-6-3 .
  • Gilles-Éric Séralini, Emilie Clair, Robin Mesnage, Steeve Gress, Nicolas Defarge, Manuela Malatesta, Didier Hennequin, Joël Spiroux de Vendômois: Republished study: Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize . In: Environmental Sciences Europe 2014 26:14 (online) doi: 10.1186 / s12302-014-0014-5

literature

Web links

Commons : Gilles-Éric Séralini  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marcel Kuntz: Why the postmodern attitude towards science should be denounced . In: EMBO Reports . 14, No. 2, 2013, pp. 114–6. doi : 10.1038 / embor.2012.214 . PMID 23306654 . PMC 3566841 (free full text).
  2. ↑ G. Arjó, M. Portero, C. Piñol, J. Viñas, X. Matias-Guiu, T. Capell, A. Bartholomaeus, W. Parrott, P. Christou: Plurality of opinion, scientific discourse and pseudoscience: an in depth analysis of the Séralini et al. study claiming that Roundup ™ Ready corn or the herbicide Roundup ™ cause cancer in rats. In: Transgenic research. Volume 22, Number 2, April 2013, ISSN  1573-9368 , pp. 255-267, doi: 10.1007 / s11248-013-9692-9 . PMID 23430588
  3. ↑ Independent Science News (2012) Seralini and Science: an Open Letter , Oct 2 2012
  4. ↑ Gerhard Baisch , Dieter Deiseroth , Hartmut Grassl , Angelika Hilbeck , Christine Vollmer : (Long) reasoning by the jury for awarding the 2015 Whistleblower Prize to Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini. (PDF; 207 kB) In: Association of German Scientists . October 6, 2015, accessed April 12, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Séralini wins trial . In: Gen-ethical information service . April 2011, pp. 40–42, (online) ( Memento from November 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Marc Mennessier: Un chercheur condamné pour defamation. Le Pr Fellous avait contesté l 'indépendance' d'un confrère anti-OGM . In: Le Figaro . January 19, 2011, ( online , accessed October 30, 2011).
  7. ↑ Ricroch, Agnès E. (2013). "Assessment of GE food safety using '-omics' techniques and long-term animal feeding studies". New Biotechnology 30 (4): 349-354, doi: 10.1016 / j.nbt.2012.12.001 .
  8. ↑ Butler, Declan: Hyped GM maize study faces growing scrutiny. In: Nature 490.7419 (2012): 158-158.
  9. ↑ Scientists Smell A Rat In Fraudulent Genetic Engineering Study , 2012.
  10. ↑ Statement on Food and chemical toxicology from November 2012 (PDF; 15 kB).
  11. ^ Spiegel from November 28, 2013: Journal withdraws genetic maize study .
  12. ^ Unrest in the scientific community - hiccups over the withdrawal of the genetic maize study in Neue Zürcher Zeitung of December 4, 2013.
  13. ↑ Republished study: long-term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize , in Environmental Sciences Europe 2014, 26:14, doi: 10.1186 / s12302-014-0014-5 .
  14. ↑ a b Barbara Casassus: Paper claiming GM link with tumors republished. Nature , June 24, 2014, accessed January 1, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Ivan Oransky: Republished Seralini GMO-rat study was not peer-reviewed, says editor. Retraction Watch, June 24, 2014, accessed January 1, 2017 .
  16. ↑ a b Whistleblower Prize Winner. Retrieved March 9, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Ulrich Bahnsen: Excellent pipe: A fallen researcher is suddenly celebrated as a whistleblower. October 9, 2015, accessed December 11, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Joachim Müller-Jung: The wrong heroes: the main thing is that the attitude is right. The Whistleblower Prize goes to an anti-gene activist. Only the reasoning is even more grotesque. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 24, 2015, accessed on December 11, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Philip Bethge: Drecksforschung in der Spiegel No. 43 2017, pp. 108–110.
  20. ↑ Christina Berndt, Silvia Liebrich: Purchased research: How Monsanto influenced scientists in the [Süddeutsche Zeitung] on November 7, 2017, accessed on November 7, 2017.
  21. ↑ Steinberg, Pablo et al .: Lack of adverse effects in subchronic and chronic toxicity / carcinogenicity studies on the glyphosate-resistant genetically modified maize NK603 in Wistar Han RCC rats. In: Archives of Toxicology (Springer). February 12, 2019, accessed February 14, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Interview with Ralf Reski on February 14, 2014 , accessed on February 15, 2014
  23. ↑ BfR opinion on "Major pesticides are more toxic to human cells than Their declared active principles" by Robin Mesnage, Nicolas Defarge, Joël de Spiroux Vendômois and Gilles-Eric Séralini. (PDF) Federal Institute for Risk Assessment , March 6, 2014, accessed on January 4, 2017 .
  24. ^ Association of German Scientists: Detailed reasons for the award of the award to Séralini
personal data
SURNAME Séralini, Gilles-Éric
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Algerian-French molecular biologist
DATE OF BIRTH 23rd August 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Annaba , Algeria