ONCE DERIDED, OLD IDEAS BACK IN CANCER FIGHT – More researchers are studying tumors in their cellular environments with the hope that their research will lead to cures.

“It’s exciting,” Dr. Love added. “What it means, if all this environmental stuff is right, is that we should be able to reverse cancer without having to kill cells. This could open up a whole new way of thinking about cancer that would be much less assaultive.”

Some companies are taking note. Genentech, for example, is investigating the way some skin, ovarian, colon and brain cancers signal surrounding cells to promote cancer growth. The company has an experimental drug that it hopes might block this signaling.

THE BRAIN AND BIOTECHNOLOGY – The University of Minnesota has committed to the future of biotechnology by opening a new Medical Biosciences building. Listen to an interview with Apostolos Georgopoulos, director of the Brain Sciences Center, and Harry Orr, director of the Institute of Human Genetics here.

INTERNATIONAL PAPER TURNS TO BIOTECHNOLOGY TO GROW A BETTER BOX – One of the world’s largest paper producers, International Paper (IP), is turning to biotechnology in hopes of growing more trees on fewer acres – similar to what farmers have achieved with food crops.

Critics call the trees in question “Franken-trees.” Whether the image conjured by such a term amuses or dismays probably depends upon whether one thinks of Boris Karloff or of kudzu. For IP officials, the term distracts from technological advances they feel will ultimately save native forests by producing genetically altered trees that grow faster and require fewer chemicals to process into paper.

IP owns a one-third interest in Summerville, S.C.-based ArborGen, which has requested U.S. Department of Agriculture permission to sell the first genetically engineered forest trees outside of China. The fast-growing Australian eucalyptus, genetically engineered to survive winters in the southern U.S., grows sustainably in Brazil. Genetic engineering makes the altered version more freeze-tolerant.

CANADA TO STUDY BIOFUEL’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT – As a government regulation mandating fuel blending is about to take effect, the Canadian government has ordered a study on the environmental impact of making ethanol and biodiesel.

The study, ordered on Wednesday, comes after evidence of harmful environmental effects from ethanol plants and amid growing criticism of biofuel technology, according to a government document from the environment ministry, Environment Canada.

“Experiences in the U.S. and Brazil now suggest that existing biofuels production facilities are responsible for the generation of a range of new air- and water-related problems as well as recent concerns over human health,” the document states.