Once again, IAmBiotech.org is taking a look at how biotechnology is HEALING, FUELING and FEEDING the world today:

GENE DISCOVERY COULD LEAD TO ISOLATION OF RARE DISEASES – Based on two family-based studies, U.S. researchers found that fewer genetic mutations are inherited than previously thought, a development that could speed up the discovery of so-called “disease genes”. The approach is being used to find genes that may mitigate inherited disorders and offer hope for people with conditions such as Huntington’s disease.

Comparing the genetic blueprint of parents and their children can narrow the hunt for disease-causing genes to a handful of candidates rather than the thousands that are identified when a genome is analyzed in isolation, said Leroy Hood, a researcher who helped sequence the first family genome at Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology.

“There will be an explosion of family sequencing that will identify disease genes,” Hood, 71, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “My prediction is that in 10 years or so, most of us will have our genome sequences done as part of our medical records and it will be an important part of predictive medicine.”

BIOFUEL FROM TEA LEAVES – This innovative story comes to us from Biofuels Digest:

In Pakistan, researchers are reporting that are used tea leaves — of which there are several million tons consumed annually, are a potentially viable cellulosic feedstock for ethanol, biodiesel as well as drop-in fuels. A group at the Nano Science and Catalysis Division at Quaid-i-Azam University have pioneered the use of a nanocatalyst to accelerate reaction times to viably extract energy from the spent leaves.

CHINA RECOGNIZES POTENTIAL OF BIOTECH CROPS – According to China’s Ministry of Agriculture, the country will accelerate development of its own genetically modified crops in order to establish food security and international competitiveness. According to one official:

“Accelerating technical research on GMO crops and their application and healthy development will provide a vigorous scientific support for the sustainable development of China’s agriculture”

Let’s take a look at how biotechnology is HEALING, FUELING and FEEDING the world today!

HEAL: USING A VIRUS TO BATTLE CANCER – Scientists at the Tom Baker Cancer Center in Alberta have developed a way to use the non-lethal reovirus to kill off prostate cancer cells while sparing normal tissue. There is already some evidence of the virus’ effect against lymphoid, ovarian, breast, pancreatic and high grade glioma brain cancers but this new Canadian study is the first to test it on prostate cancer. According to study leader Dr Don Morris:

”Our results are a stepping stone into future prostate cancer clinical trials with another category of cancer therapeutics. For the treatment of localised prostate cancer, we found that the reovirus is safe and has evidence of specific tumour versus normal prostate cell efficacy.”

FUEL: INDONESIA PLANTS 20,000 ACRES OF BIOFUEL CROP: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I can never get enough Jatropha! According to Biofuels Digest:

In Indonesia, Biodiesel Austindo (BDAI) and Masohi Agro Semesta (MAS) signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to jointly develop approximately 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) of jatropha on the island of Java. According to the partners, the plantation will be developed over a four year period and it is anticipated work will commence on land preparation within the next two months to enable planting to commence in time for the next wet season.

FEED: DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WILL TAKE THE LEAD IN BIOTECH CROPS – Clive James, chairman of the International Service For the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) told The Wall Street Journal that within the next two years, developing countries led by China and Brazil will overtake richer nations in adopting genetically modified crops.

Mr. James still expects India to be a major user of genetically modified seeds. “China, Brazil, India, Argentina and South Africa are the big five that will drive rise in Bt crop areas as they try to improve yield when arable land growth is stagnant.” He said as much as 60 million hectares of land would come under genetically modified rice and maize in equal proportions in China over the next three years, as that country has granted a critical regulatory approval for both the crops.

Congratulations biotech community, you survived Monday. Now let’s see how biotechnology is HEALING, FUELING and FUELING the world TODAY! (Yes, fueling twice).

HEAL: TRACK DOWN CANCER, TAKE DOWN CANCER – According to The New York Times, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a way to monitor the progress of a patient’s cancer treatment using a new technique for rapidly sequencing, or decoding, large amounts of DNA. The article explains their discovery:

A cell becomes cancerous when the genes that stop runaway growth are sabotaged by mutations. Once the cell’s anticancer defenses are destroyed, genetic mayhem ensues, with further mutations and wholesale rearrangements of DNA in the chromosomes. If these altered bits of DNA could be picked up in a patient’s bloodstream, they would serve as a direct and sensitive marker of cancer. A surgeon could check if he had successfully removed all of a tumor, and chemotherapists could monitor the success of any treatment by testing for the reappearance of cancer cells.

There is A LOT more than goes into this process so make sure you check out the full article.

FUEL: MICROBE BIOFUEL – This story comes to us from the folks at CrunchGear. Japanese oil giant Nippon Oil and Hitachi Plant Technologies are developing a technology that would help to mass-produce eco-friendly jet fuel from Euglena, single-celled organisms that live in ponds and lakes. The companies stand by their efficient process of extracting oil from the organism, saying their production yield will exceed that of staple biofuel crops like sugarcane.

The current goal is to push down production costs per liter in a test plant to $0.80 per liter in order to be able to compete with regular jet fuel as far as prices are concerned. Another option, according to Euglena, is to use the biofuel for buses. The company says mass-producing Euglena-derived biofuel should be possible by 2015.

FUEL: JATROPHA STRIKES AGAIN, BIOFUEL IN HAWAII – In yesterday’s video roundup, we showed you what agricultural biotechnology means to Hawaiian farmers and their economy. So today, why don’t we look at how industrial biotechnology is affecting the people of Hawaii. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin published the story of Christian and James Twigg-Smith, father and son farmers, who were able to harvest their first jatropha crop last summer since planting the seeds two years ago. They had enough to make a few gallons of biodiesel and even run some tests on the oil they produced.

Christian Twigg-Smith, who also owns a coffee farm and construction company, said growing jatropha is similar to coffee because both are row crops, and the nuts have to be husked and dried before they are pressed for their oil. It takes about 100 pounds of nuts to make one gallon of biodiesel, Christian Twigg-Smith said. The first crop was harvested by hand, but the farmers are gearing up for their second-year harvest this summer and are looking to buy a mechanical harvester. They are seeking $1.3 million in financing to help purchase the equipment, a cold press to get the oil out of the nut and a covered building for the processing and storage of the nuts.

The Academy isn’t the only one giving out awards. Let’s check out the best and brightest biotech videos of the week!

SCIENTIST IN A LEADING ROLE – DR. GEBISA EJETA – Dr. Gebisa Ejeta has not only developed a specialized sorghum crop that is drought and pesticide-resistant, he also helped Ethiopian farmers set up a seed distribution center of this higher-yielding crop for their community. For his work, he was the recipient of the 2009 World Food Prize. You can watch BIOTECanada interview Dr. Ejeta about how the private sector can help in agricultural development.

BEST (BIG) PICTURE – BILL GATES – Bill Gates can see the big picture. That’s why the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation donated $10 million to help develop life-saving vaccines earlier this year. Check out this clip from his interview with CNN as he talks about the power of vaccines.

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST – HAWAIIAN FARMERS – Here’s a preview of the latest video from the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association (HCIA) highlighting the benefits that agricultural biotechnology is having on Hawaii. Learn from local scientists, farmers and economists and discover how truly powerful the role of biotechnology is in feeding the world.

SENATOR IN A LEADING (THE WAY) ROLE – SENATOR TOM BUTLER – Senator Tom Butler (D-Alabama) sure knows how to lead the way. He has hopes for a “400 mile long campus of cancer research” beginning in Alabama. Listen to him speak of the advantages that biotechnology can bring to his home state.

BEST SOUND (OFF) – SOCALBIO – Hear these biotech media experts sound off at the 18th annual SoCalBio Networking Forum from February 25th, 2010. It featured a panel of print and broadcast journalists who shared tips on how biotech and device entrepreneurs could use the media to promote their companies and technologies. Panelists included Deborah Crowe (LA Business Journal), Gerri Shaftel (Fox 11 News), James Flanigan (NY Times), Frank Mottek (KNX 1070) and Mark Bernheimer (MediaWorks Resource Group). Click here for part two.

Good morning and Happy First-Friday-in-March! Spring can’t get here fast enough, but the good news is you can get your biotechnology fix all year round!

POTENTIAL CANCER VACCINE DEVELOPED – According to a new study by Dutch researchers, an experimental vaccine that utilizes dendritic cells (a form of immune system cells) is not only safe to use but also induces an immune T-cell response against mesotheliomia tumors. Dr. Joachim Aerts of the Erasmus Medical Center explains the drawbacks of mesothelioma and the potential of this treatment:

“The major problem in mesothelioma is that the immunosuppressive environment caused by the tumor will negatively influence our therapy so we are now working on a method to lower this immunosuppressive environment,” Aerts said. “We hope that by further development of our method it will be possible to increase survival in patients with mesothelioma and eventually vaccinate persons who have been in contact with asbestos to prevent them from getting asbestos related diseases.”

ALGAE INDUSTRY KEEPS ROLLING – This recent post from The Energy Collective outlines some recent developments in the Algae biofuel industry, focusing on two recent Department of Energy funding initiatives totaling over $10 million for Honeywell’s UOP business and DuPont:

In UOP’s case, the funding will be used for the design of a demonstration system that will capture carbon dioxide from exhaust stacks at Honeywell’s manufacturing facility in Hopewell, Virginia, and deliver the captured CO2 to a cultivation system for algae. Algal oil will be extracted from the algae for biofuel feedstock, and the algae residual can be converted to pyrolysis oil, which can be burned to generate renewable electricity.

And as for DuPont:

For DuPont, the $8.8m funding given by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will help the company’s macroalgae-to-isobutanol project, which will establish technology and intellectual property in the use of macroalgae for biobutanol production. Butamax™ Advanced Biofuels LLC, a joint venture between DuPont and BP, will be responsible for commercialization of the resulting technology package.

This comes after the recent announcement from BIO urging congress to address the barriers to the commercialization of Algae biofuels.

ALL STEM CELLS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL – A recent study of lab mice revealed that there are two distinct kinds of self-renewing blood cells, which may lead to a better understanding of how to treat blood diseases. According to co-author Grant Challen of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston:

“For the longest time, people always thought there was one single type of blood stem cell in the bone marrow that continually replenished the blood system throughout the life of a person. Recent studies have hinted that blood stem cells have distinct behaviors, but no one had been able to pinpoint the different kinds of cells. We’re the first group to actually identify them using different markers.”

The article continued:

Challen and colleagues used a special dye to stain stem cells removed from mouse bone marrow. Some stem cells expelled the dye at different rates, which, along with other well-known stem cell markers, allowed the researchers to sort these cells into two classes. This dye difference told researchers that the stem cells looked different, but not whether the cells acted differently, too.

Good morning biotech community! It’s all genetics, all the time in today’s roundup. Let’s check it out.

GENETIC SEQUENCING OF MICROBES HELPS TO CURE DIGESTIVE DISEASES – Scientists at France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research unveiled a complete genetic panorama of microbes in the human digestive track, an advance that could help cure ulcers and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It took more than 100 researchers working over two years to find over 3.3 million distinct genes spread across 1,000 species of single-celled organisms, virtually all bacteria. Co-author of the study, Jeroen Raes, a scientist at Vrije University in Brussels, said:

“The vast majority of bacteria found were not known before. But now we can start sorting out what they do in terms of function, and how they might relate to disease.”

GENETIC PATTERNS HELP IDENTIFY YEAST INFECTIONS – Researchers at Duke University developed a test that looks for specific patterns of genes that, when switched on, may lead to a better way of diagnosing dangerous yeast infections in the blood:

They said mice infected with the Candida albicans fungus have a telltale signature of genes that are active, or expressed, that is not found in the blood of healthy mice. Candida is the fourth most common bloodstream infection in the United States, yet it is often hard to distinguish from a bacterial infection. This study provides the basis for development of a blood-gene expression tests in humans to detect a life-threatening infection earlier than can be done using currently available methods”

GENES CAN HELP YOU FIT INTO YOUR JEANS – Researchers at Stanford University, backed by Interleukin Genetics, developed a new genetic test that may help dieters decide whether they would lose more weight on a low-fat diet that cuts carbohydrates or a more balanced approach. According to Christopher Gardner at Stanford:

“The potential of using genetic information to achieve this magnitude of weight loss without pharmaceutical intervention would be important in helping to solve the pervasive problem of excessive weight in our society.”

What’s new and exciting in the world of biotechnology today?!

EUROPEAN UNION APPROVES BIOTECH POTATO – Huge news coming out of Europe as the EU approved the first new genetically modified crop for domestic growing in over a decade. The decision will allow farmers to grow Amflora potatoes developed by the German-based BASF. But don’t even think about eating these bad boys; they’re being produced solely for industrial or animal feed purposes. The EU’s new health commissioner, John Dalli, is confident in the crops safety:

“Responsible innovation will be my guiding principle when dealing with innovative technologies. After an extensive and thorough review … it became clear to me that there were no new scientific issues that merited further assessment,” Dalli said. “All scientific issues, particularly those concerning safety, had been fully addressed. Any delay would have simply been unjustified.”

MARINE INVERTIBRATE OFFERS NEW HOPE FOR ALZHEIMER’S PATIENTS – The sea squirt is a marine organism with a hard outer shell and soft body that spends its whole life attached to underwater structures. But so what? Well, these little guys share about 80 percent of their genes with humans, including the genes to develop the types of plaques that accumulate in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. So…

This led San Diego State University scientists to try to study Alzheimer’s disease in sea squirts. They took a mutant protein found in human families with hereditary Alzheimer’s disease and put it in immature, sea squirt tadpoles. This resulted in aggressive development of plaques in the tadpoles’ brains in just one day, along with accompanying behavioral defects. However, these effects were reversed when the tadpoles were given an experimental drug designed to prevent plaque formation.

According to the researchers, their findings suggest that sea squirts may offer an excellent model for testing new Alzheimer’s drugs.

STOMACH HORMONE USED TO TREAT LIVER FIBROSIS – Scientists at Barcelona Hospital say they’ve found that lab rats treated with ghrelin, a stomach hormone, displayed a reduction in liver fibrosis. This comes just a day after we showed you how estrogen hormone receptors were used in the treatment of prostate cancer.

…Ghrelin reduced the amount of fibrogenic cells by 25 percent in the treated rodents, as well as preventing acute liver damage and reducing oxidative stress and inflammation. Dr. Ramon Bataller, lead author of the study, said there are no current anti-fibrotic therapies for patients with liver disease, such as hepatitis, cirrhosis and liver cancer.

BIOFUEL BONUS – And don’t forget to check out Biofuels Digest’s special report on aviation biofuels. This is a hot topic and quite an innovative use of biotechnology!

In today’s roundup: Big news for prostate cancer, biofuels and biotech crops. Let’s take a look…

HEAL: USING ESTROGEN TO BATTLE PROSTATE CANCER – Biomedical researchers at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australian have identified a new way to treat prostate cancer using a drug compound to selectively activate the prostate’s beta estrogen receptor cells. Co-author of the study, Gail Risbridger, explained the innovation behind the use of hormones:

…this [process] has the effect of targeting for cell death a small but important population of cells in the prostate cancer tumor that are often resistant to conventional therapy and can lead to recurrent incurable disease…the studies provided proof of the controversial concept that estrogens — hormones mainly thought to be important for women — could be good for men and used therapeutically to treat prostate cancer.

FEED: EU APPROVES MONSANTO’S GM CORN – Reuters is reporting that The European Commission said has approved three genetically modified maize varieties made by American agricultural biotech firm Monsanto for food and feed uses and import and processing in the European Union

“The three GM maize types MON863xMON810, MON863xNK603, and MON863xMON810xNK603, received a positive opinion from EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) and underwent the full authorisation procedure set out in the EU legislation,” the Commission said in a statement.

FUEL: EFFICIENCY AND COOPERATION SPELLS THE FUTURE OF BIOFUEL - Yesterday, Biofuels Digest outlined the processes behind two innovative biofuel solutions that, when combined, may lead to the direct conversion of poplar trees into high-density biofuels such as jet fuel. The first, developed at the University of Wisconsin, involves the direct conversion of cellulose to jet fuel via an old fuel pathway (GVLs) that have now been made substantially more efficient.

To envision it, first think about biodiesel, and how that is produced from virgin or waste oils by a process called transesterification. It’s a process found in nature — and if you’ve ever had a ripe Gouda cheese, one of the flavoring components is a product called a lactone, ultimately formed from milk but specifically a transesterification of a hydroxy fatty acid. Lactones, like milk products, are many in number and wide in uses. They are divided by the number of carbon molecules — and generally speaking, the more carbon, the more dense a fuel made from them. A five-carbon lactone is valerolactone (now you know where Valero got its name), and one type of valerolactone is gamma-valerolactone (GVL) referring to the location of carbon in its molecular chain.

The second project, headed by researchers at the University of Maryland and Bowie State University and funded by a $3.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Plant Genome Research Project, utilizes the recently completed poplar tree genome and focuses on ways to improve the poplar tree’s nitrogen processing capability, enhancing its growth rate and feasibility for use in fuel production:

“What we’re looking for is the most efficient way for these plants to process nitrogen,” explained Ganesh Sriram, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the UNiversity of Maryland. “It’s like dealing with traffic. Imagine you’ve got cars on a road, each can only hold one passenger, and that can’t be changed. If you want more people to get to a destination in a certain amount of time, you can increase the speed limits, add more traffic lanes, reroute the cars onto parallel roads, avoid delays, or change the timing of the traffic lights. That’s what we’re doing on a genetic and molecular level for poplar.”