December 22, 1999

Visions of Modern Biotech into the Next Millennium

COLLEGE PARK, Md.--By the middle of the 21st century biotechnology will provide organically grown, high-nutrient foods; rapid medical response to any new HIV- or Ebola-type viruses; molecular cures for some forms of blindness; and bountiful seafood raised in cities.

These advances are just a few of the predictions made by research scientists at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute Biotechnology (UMBI).

Biotechnology, or the technology of using living organisms to make products, the researchers point out, made significant improvements in the previous 1,000 years. It allowed people to refine cheeses, wine, beer, breads, penicillin and many other benefits to our lifestyle and health.

The discovery of the structure of DNA in the 1950s led to biotechnology's strong association with genetic engineering--the science of finding and transferring single genes in the DNA libraries of living things. "Modern" biotechnology is now routinely used for improving medicine, agriculture, food processing, industrial chemicals, and environmental clean up.

Here are some scientists' visions on the eve of the next century and millennium:

Hunting Human Killers - - Robert Gallo, director, Institute of Human Virology, UMBI, 410.706.8614. "The Ebola virus is not an epidemic, but a sporadic virus. Its incubation time is too short (infection to disease time) to be a serious threat to the population. Of course, it could show up in Baltimore, arriving with somebody on a plane, but that person will not be healthy long enough to infect more than a few people. Ebola or a similar virus can be contained.

"In general, will the new biotechnology make hunting viruses easier? Yes, it will speed up identifying the biology of such a new virus threat. You can never replace research procedures for learning its biology, finding proteins to combat it and running clinical trials to make therapies safe that are based on those proteins. But, our work will be much more rapid in finding the molecular changes in cells infected with such viruses. The human genome project, knowing all the genes, will enable those kind of mechanistic studies to be more rapid--that is, knowing the sequence of a gene that we can selectively turn on and off and learning what its proteins do.

"For AIDS, creating such biological therapies that are cheap and effective is the future for reaching HIV-infected people worldwide and Americans in impoverished areas. I think this is very doable. Right now, 90 percent of HIV people can't get the drug therapy. I also think that, at this point in time, there seem to be some good candidate vaccines. You cannot cure the disease with drugs; there is always still some virus there (in the body). So, in places in the world with the highest AIDS infections, I think there could be a vaccine to reach these people, taken orally or injected three times a year. Also, there are ways yet to be discovered for blocking the virus."

Keeping Marine Waters Healthy - - Gerardo Vasta, biochemistry professor, Center of Marine Biotechnology, UMBI, 410.234.8800. "In the Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries, we will continue to develop new molecular tools for early detection of Pfiesteria and other harmful microbes. Such detection tools will be eventually adapted for remote monitoring and placed in field stations in each river system or estuary of interest.

"In recent years, there has been a clear rise in reports of diseases of marine life, perhaps many aided by intense agricultural, commercial and recreational human activities in coastal areas. But now, DNA and molecular probes will give us a more thorough and rapid analysis of toxic algae, bacteria or viruses that currently affect both finfish and shellfish.

"Also, the emerging technologies will enable us understand new diseases that may emerge in the marine/estuarine environment that could affect ecologically or commercially important species. With these molecular methods, seafood will be closely monitored for the prevention of diseases such as hepatitis and those caused by other viruses and bacterial pathogens from being transmitted to the shellfish consumer."

Fish Farming by the Dock of the Bay - - Yonathan Zohar, director and aquaculture research leader, Center of Marine Biotechnology, 410.234.8800. "As ocean fisheries collapse, eventually there will be no commercial fishing; the same will happen to crabs, oysters and lobsters. But biotechnology will let us change the way we grow seafood. In our research, biotech is helping us with spawning, disease control, and the nutrition of farmed fish. People no longer gather livestock, pigs, chickens, and cattle for food. I think that is the way seafood will go--the same way food gathering evolved into farming on the land.

"In the next 25 to 30 years there will be lots of progress in genetically modified seafood. It is a major source of human protein. It is easier to apply molecular biology to fish than to any other animal. You get two million eggs from one female. Transgenic fish will catch on because the technology is already here.

"In Baltimore, we are demonstrating that you can raise millions of fish in contained facilities in the inner city without any waste pollution, once you learn the conditions required by each fish species. If you cannot change the harvest in the ocean, it is a simple choice to increase aquaculture."

Developing Better Food - - Donald Nuss, director, Center of Agricultural Biotechnology, UMBI, 301.405.1581. "Ironically, the goals of today's harshest critics of genetically modified foods will actually be achieved through biotechnology. Critics like Greenpeace propose reliance on organic farming methods to achieve sustainable crop yields with less soil erosion, use of pesticides or clearing of forests. Biotechnology essentially provides the tools to make organic farming more efficient and economic. For example, crops genetically modified to resist insect damage or fungal infection eliminate the need for pesticides. This is consistent with the tenets of organic farming practices. Such genetically modified crops will be widely accepted in the 21st century."

Making Food Safe, More Nutritious - - Morris Levin, research professor, biosafety and risk assessment, UMBI, 410.234.8800. "Corn, wheat, peanuts and other crops will be safer for the consumer by genetically modifying them to resist molds and insects. For example, aflatoxin that can kill people sometimes gets into grain or peanuts from molds. But if insects don't chew and injure leaves and stems, the plants won't get moldy and the harvests are less likely to be tainted with aflatoxins.

"Genetically engineered foods will also become the most nutritious foods. In terms of producing a new crop, biotech is no different than conventional breeding, except that it is faster and cheaper to improve a nutrient with biotechnology. You can simply take a gene for lysine from another kind of plant, for example, and transfer it to corn, a crop traditionally low in the essential amino acid. You can even improve the gene in the laboratory first. Conventional breeding would take about a dozen crosses and mix up thousands of genes every time. "

Curing Blindness - - James Ames, assistant professor, Center for Advance Research in Biotechnology, UMBI, 301.738.6272. "Biotechnology has helped us learn that signaling proteins in the retina are important for proper functioning of vision. When we understand all the ways these proteins work, medical research will have the ability to cure certain forms of blindness. The new technology may first help with diseases caused by retinal degeneration. These biological conditions are usually genetic, caused by a defective gene that codes for a specific protein important for signaling. Calcium signals in retinal cells are critically important for proper maintenance and function. If the calcium level in retinal cells becomes too high or too low, due to a genetic defect, then these cells will die. By learning the three dimensional molecular structures of proteins that sense calcium levels, we may better understand how calcium is regulated and how to prevent retinal disease."

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