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!