Members of the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

The GMO Panel brings together highly qualified risk assessment experts from a number of European nationalities with expertise in a range of relevant fields.

Panel members are appointed by the EFSA Management Board for three years renewable. Appointments are made on the basis of proven scientific excellence following an open call for applications and a rigorous selection procedure. The Panel regularly sets up Working Groups involving external scientists with relevant expertise to deal with specific matters and to help produce scientific opinions. All experts working for EFSA sign a Declaration of Interests to safeguard EFSA’s commitment to independence.


View the Declarations of Interests and biographies of GMO Panel members for 2009 - 2012.

GMO Panel Members and their areas of expertise

Harry Albert Kuiper, Chair

  • Food science & Toxicology
  • Research food contaminants, food constituents and residues of veterinary drugs and agrochemicals
  • Structure-function relationships of proteins
  • Member of the EU Scientific Committee on Plants and of the EU Joint Working Group on Novel Foods and GMO’s
  • Member of OECD Task Force on Novel Foods and Feed
  • FAO/WHO Expert on Food Biotechnology
  • Member International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)
  • Co-ordinator of EU funded research programs (FLAIR Concerted Action “In Vitro Toxicological Studies and Real-Time Analysis of Residues in Food”, EU Thematic Network “Safety Evaluation of Genetically Modified Foods” (ENTRANSFOOD), Integrated Project ‘Promoting Food Safety through a New Integrated Risk Analysis Approach for Foods’ (SAFE FOODS) 

Joe N. Perry, Vice-Chair

  • BSc Mathematics
  • MSc Biometry (Statistics applied to the life sciences)
  • DSc by publication in area of quantitative methods applied to entomology, nematology and ecology
  • Field work and theoretical work in entomology and ecology
  • Risk assessment of effects on wildlife of GMHT plants during UK’s Farm Scale Evaluations
  • Mathematical modelling of effects on non-target lepidoptera of GMBt plants
  • Development of guidance and of protocols for experimental design and statistical analysis of studies for Food-Feed risk assessment and Environmental Risk Assessment of GM plants
  • Development of experimental designs and statistical analyses of rodent feeding studies
  • Development of guidance for Food-Feed and Environmental Risk Assessment for GM Animals
  • Several publications in the area of Bioethics of GM crops

Sirpa Kärenlampi, Vice-Chair

  • Biochemistry and Metabolism
  • Molecular Biology
  • Plant Biology and Physiology
  • Food Chemistry
  • Genetic Transformation
  • Proteomics
  • Expression Analysis, Transcriptomics
  • Genomics
  • Gene structure and regulation
  • Bioinformatics

Hans Christer Andersson

  • Genetics
  • Toxicology (including genetic toxicology)
  • Natural toxins
  • Risk assessment of GMO (and Novel Foods)
  • Comparative quality assessment of organic and conventional foods

Salvatore Arpaia

  • Insect ecology and population dynamics
  • Impact on Non-target organisms
  • Molecular ecology
  • Ecosystem services
  • Resistance evolution in target pest organisms
  • Pest science
  • Impact of agriculture on biodiversity
  • Experimental design
  • Ecotoxicology

Detlef Bartsch

  • Ecology
  • Plant Population Genetics
  • Plant Breeding
  • Plant Nutrition
  • Insect Resistance Management
  • GMO Biosafety Research
  • Environmental Risk Assessment
  • Environmental Monitoring
  • Science and Regulation

Josep Casacuberta

  • Phd in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
  • Research and teaching activities at INRA Versailles (France), IBMB-CSIC (Spain), Université Paris VII France), Universidade de Sao Paulo (Brasil) and CRAG (CSIC-IRTA-UAB) in Barcelona (Spain)
  • Extensive research activities in the field of plant genome structure and evolution
  • Member of the GMO Panel (2006-2009)
  • Member of the EFSA GMO Panel (2009-2012)

Howard Davies

  • Plant Biology
  • Plant Biochemistry
  • Plant Physiology
  • Genetic Transformation
  • Molecular Biology
  • Metabolomics
  • Plant Breeding
  • Biosafety
  • GM Risk Assessment- EU Scientific Committee on Plants
  • GM Risk Assessment- EFSA GMO Panel

Patrick du Jardin

  • Physiology and molecular biology of the development and metabolism of crop plants
  • Plant biochemistry: characterization of biogenic organic volatile compounds and of their roles in biotic interactions in the rhizosphere
  • Plant-to-bacteria relationships in the rhizosphere, with a focus on nutrients use efficiency
  • Potato genetic transformation
  • Use of molecular markers in plant genotyping


Gerhard Flachowsky

  • Animal Nutrition
  • Feed/food composition
  • Feed and food safety
  • Nutritional and safety assessment of feed from GM-plants
  • Feeding studies in food producing animals with feeds from GM-plants
  • Safety and quality of food of animal origin
  • GM-animals

Lieve Herman

  • Molecular biology
  • Antibiotic resistance
  • Horizontal gene transfer
  • Expression analysis
  • Gene regulation
  • Microbial physiology
  • Biochemistry & metabolism of microorganisms

Huw Dylan Jones

  • Plant molecular biology
  • Plant tissue culture and transformation
  • DNA-transfer/integration techniques
  • Molecular characterisation of DNA insertions
  • General biology of wheat and other cereals
  • GM plant risk assessment and biological containment

Jozsef Kiss

  • Plant protection (pests, diseases and weeds of agricultural plants)
  • Integrated Pest Management (tools, development)
  • Arthropod pests (population dynamics, resistance evolution in target pest populations)
  • Beneficial arthropods (predators, parasitoids, habitats, impact on)
  • Agronomy, cropping systems, agricultural and cultivation practices
  • Agro-ecosystems (biodiversity, ecosystem services, impact on)
  • Geographical zonings and receiving environments
  • Environmental risk assessment, impact on Non-target organisms, GM arthropods)
  • Education and training (IPM, development)

Gijs A. Kleter

  • Environmental risk assessment, impact on Non-target organisms, GM arthropods)
  • Risk assessment of biotechnology
  • Food and Feed safety
  • Biosafety
  • Biotechnology
  • Toxicology
  • Emerging risk identification
  • Biochemistry
  • Food chemistry
  • Biomedical sciences
  • Molecular sciences

Antoine Messéan

  • Agronomy, cropping systems and agricultural practices
  • Statistics and Biometry
  • Vertical gene flow
  • Pest science (plant protection)
  • Mathematical modelling
  • Experimental design (Field trial design, laboratory test design)
  • Environmental risk assessment of GM-plants

Kaare Magne Nielsen

  • Horizontal gene flow
  • Antibiotic resistance
  • Genomes and genetics
  • Genome structure and evolution
  • Molecular biology
  • Molecular ecology
  • Ecology and population biology
  • Genetic transformation
  • Molecular characterization
  • Experimental design

Annette Poeting

  • General toxicology
  • Food toxicology
  • Animal feeding studies
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular biology

Jeremy Bruton Sweet

  • Insect ecology and population dynamics, Ecosystem services
  • Plant ecology, Plant Biology, Plant Pathology, Plant Physiology, Weed science, Plant population genetics, Resistance evolution in target pest/pathogenic/weed organisms (entomology, crop protection), plant protection,
  • Vertical gene flow, Persistence and invasiveness (weediness), coexistence.
  • Impact on Non-target organisms (Entomology, Ecology),
  • Experimental design and operation, (Field trial design, laboratory test design),
  • Impact of agriculture on biodiversity, Agronomy, cropping systems and agricultural practices;
  • Risk Communication
  • Developing guidance
  • Post market environmental Monitoring

Christoph Tebbe

  • Soil Microbiology and Ecology
  • Molecular Ecology
  • Environmental Microbiology
  • Invertebrate Microbiology
  • Gene transfer between bacteria in the environment
  • Horizontal gene transfer from plants to bacteria
  • Agricultural Microbiology
  • Biodegradation of environmental pollutants
  • Biogeochemical cycling
  • Biosafety
  • Soil Metagenomics

Atte Johannes von Wright

  • MSc (University of Helsinki), LicPhil (University of Helsinki), PhD (University of Sussex, UK)
  • Genetic toxicology
  • Genetics and molecular biology of lactic acid bacteria
  • Intestinal microbiology
  • Food and feed biotechnology
  • Food and feed hygiene

Jean-Michel Wal

  • Nutrition
  • Immunology
  • Allergy
  • Immunochemistry
  • Safety assessment of Novel Foods
  • Allergenicity assessment of Novel Foods
  • Structure-allergenicity relationship
  • Animal studies for assessment of allergenicity
  • Influence of host-gut microbiota interactions on the immune response to foods

View the Declarations of Interests of former GMO Panel members for 2006 - 2009.