Hey there, my name is Bryan Bishop. Here's to trying to keep up with yourself. RSS.
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Transapient Musings of an S6 Archailect
Metacognitive trivialities over smooth topologies and Julian knots of subgeometric spaces; a.k.a mastermind Singularitarian, node of the Larger Submind and Clone of the Ineffable Original.
Bryan Bishop
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Tue, 20 May 2008
Are you happy to eat genetically modified foods? What about your friends and colleagues? Do the GM pros outweigh the cons?
I asked a few contacts for some answers by way of building up to a more formal response to those kinds of questions that will be published soon in the International Journal of Biotechnology (IJBT, 2008, 10, 240-259).
Plant geneticist Dennis Lee, Director of Research at mAbGen, in Houston, Texas, suggests that GM crops have several significant advantages. “Total cost per acre can actually be significantly less for GM crops,” he says. This is particularly true for crop species, such as maize, that have been modified to produce natural toxins that fend off insect pests or protect the crop from the herbicides need to keep weed growth at a minimum. However, he points out that, “In practice, this is often not the case - farmers tend to err on the side of caution and continue to use significant amounts of pesticides and herbicides.”
That said, crops can also be modified to grow in substandard conditions, such as strains of tubers grown in Kenya that are capable of surviving both drought conditions and high-salt soils. “Obviously, this is beneficial to yield - you can actually get some food out of places where you previously could not,” adds Lee. In addition, it could be possible to modify some crops to have greater nutritional content, such as the so-called “golden rice” project by Ingo Potrykus then at the Institute of Plant Sciences of the ETH Zurich.
One of the biggest perceived problems regarding GM crops is the possible contamination of other species. What if
herbicide-resistant
genes could
jump into weed speciesWhat if herbicide-resistant genes could jump into weed species, for instance? Lee points out that this putative problem can be overcome by using terminator technology to jumping genes. “However, in doing so, it creates a different problem,” Lee adds, namely that farmers must buy seed from the agbiotech company each year rather than save seed for planting.” One might say that this is an exploitative industry focused purely on maximizing profits, but at the same time it solves a serious technical problem that has been seen as one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the acceptance of GM crops.
Jeff Chatterton, a Risk and Crisis Communications Consultant at Checkmate Public Affairs, in Ottawa, points out that the pros are well documented: increased yield per acre, ease of use and perhaps, some day, increased ‘consumer level’ benefits such as higher nutritional values. But, echoes others’ comments on the hidden con of farmers the world over potentially being locked into the agbiotech company’s seed and having no recourse to produce their own from one year to the next.
“As traditional family farms are increasingly moving towards “Roundup Ready” corn or soybeans, you’re increasingly seeing a change in the business model of farming,” he says. “Rather than ‘family farms’ using traditional farming practices, agricultural operations are increasingly becoming factory farms.” It might be said that the emergence of factory farms is occurring outside the realm of GM crops, but with pressure being applied to produce more and more crops for non-food purposes, including, biofuels, unique polymers, and other products, the notion of a factory farm that doesn’t even feed us could become an increasing reality.
Lee also mentions an intriguing irony regarding the public perception of risk-benefits concerning GM crops and that is that the toxins produced by modified Bt maize is exactly the same toxin produced by the natural soil microbe Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) itself and this is same Bt toxin that so-called “organic” farmers are usually allowed to use instead of “synthetic” pesticides.
Information Technology and Services Professional Bill Nigh of Bluenog, based in New York, provides perspective as a lay person. “We’ve been engaged in genetic manipulation for a long time now,” he says, “but it was limited by the technology at hand. With recombinant DNA it’s a remarkably more vast
field of
play and a
whole new ball gameWith recombinant DNA it’s a remarkably more vast field of play and a whole new ball game.” He stresses that his main concern regarding GM crops is that, “We seem to be just smart enough to make drastic breakthroughs and inventions, and are driven by the dynamics of the marketplace and ego to produce a lot of new things quickly. However our systems of governance, oversight and coordination are not mature enough to work through the implications of those new things in a timely fashion, especially the unforeseen synergies the breakthroughs can unleash.”
All that said, an international team has now investigated the various issues and has assessed the public’s Willingness to Accept (WTA) GM foods based on experimental auctions carried out in France, UK, and USA. Lead author of the IJBT paper Wallace Yee now at the University of Liverpool, worked, while at Reading University, with colleagues in various disciplines, from agricultural and food to business and economics in Italy, New Zealand, UK and US to explore perceptions of risk and benefits, moral concerns and attitudes to the environment and technology.
“Trust in information provided by industry proved to be the most important determinant of risk/benefit perceptions,” the researchers conclude, “willingness to accept followed general attitudes to the environment and technology.” They also found that educational level and age could also enhance perceived benefits and lower perceived risks of GM foods. “Our research suggests that trust-building by industry would be the most effective approach to enhancing the acceptance of GM foodstrust-building by industry would be the most effective approach to enhancing the acceptance of GM foods,” the team says.
“If the industry could educate people that GM technology does not pose any threat to the environment, but provides benefits to society as a whole and consumers as individuals, the attitudes of the public towards GM in food production would be favourable, and in turn increase their willingness to accept,” they conclude.
Computing professional Paul Boddie of Oslo, Norway, coming at the issue of GM crops from an indirect angle provides an allusion to computer programming that seems quite pertinent and was originally attributed to Brian Kernighan, which Boddie suggests readily transfers to other disciplines including genetic engineering: “Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you are as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?”
A post from David Bradley Science Writer
posted at: 22:53 | path: /sci/bio/biotech | permanent link to this entry
Sun, 20 Apr 2008
Selling Stem Cells
src
BioTime, a California biotech company headed by Michael West, a prominent scientist and entrepreneur involved in stem cell research, plans to supply scientists working with stem cells the tool they most need to develop and test novel therapies--a reliable and reproducible source of the cells. They plan to sell human embryonic progenitors, cells that have inched partway along the continuum from embryonic stem cell to differentiated adult cell and can reliably generate cells that reproduce only the same type of cells. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20533/)
posted at: 16:31 | path: /sci/bio/biotech | permanent link to this entry
Fri, 11 Apr 2008
Artifical meats todo
- Assemble zip archive of artificial food research.
posted at: 23:33 | path: /sci/bio/biotech | permanent link to this entry
Automobile bacteria project: metal metabolizers
If cars ever go unpopular, there will be this large influx of unused cars that would otherwise go to the dump. Prepare large factories and baths of bacteria that can digest the metals, the paints, the leather and the fabrics, etc., to convert that into something useful. Pay the people for their cars, even.
posted at: 23:33 | path: /sci/bio/biotech | permanent link to this entry
Aksimentievean DNA sequencing @ nanopore on silicon
src
Using computer simulations, researchers at the University of Illinois have demonstrated a strategy for sequencing DNA by driving the molecule back and forth through a nanopore capacitor in a semiconductor chip. The technique could lead to a device that would read human genomes quickly and affordably.
Being able to sequence a human genome for $1,000 or less (which is the price most insurance companies are willing to pay) could open a new era in personal medicine, making it possible to precisely diagnose the cause of many diseases and tailor drugs and treatment procedures to the genetic make-up of an individual.
"Despite the tremendous interest in using nanopores for sequencing DNA, it was unclear how, exactly, nanopores could be used to read the DNA sequence," said U. of I. physics professor Aleksei Aksimentiev. "We now describe one such method."
Aksimentiev and collaborators describe the method in a paper accepted for publication in the journal Nano Letters, and posted on the journal's Web site.
"Through molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that back-and-forth motion of a DNA molecule in a nanopore capacitor 1 nanometer in diameter produces an electrostatic fingerprint that can be used to read the genetic sequence," said Aksimentiev, who also is a researcher at the Beckman Institute.
In the researchers' simulations, performed at the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the nanopore capacitor consists of two conducting layers of doped silicon, separated by an insulating layer of silicon dioxide.
As DNA passes through the nanopore, the molecule's electric field induces sequence-specific electrostatic potentials that can be detected at the top and bottom layers of the capacitor membrane.
A semiconductor device capable of reading the electrostatic potentials and decoding the genetic sequence is within the grasp of current technology, Aksimentiev said.
"Nanometer pores in electronic membranes have been manufactured, and the voltage signals resulting from DNA movement through such pores have been recorded." The next big challenge, Aksimentiev said, is to minimize noise in the system, and reduce the speed of DNA molecules moving through the pore.
----------------------------
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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With Aksimentiev, co-authors of the paper are postdoctoral research associate and lead author Grigori Sigalov, electrical and computer engineering professor Gregory Timp and graduate student Jeffrey Comer.
The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the University of Illinois.
Source: James E. Kloeppel
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
posted at: 23:33 | path: /sci/bio/biotech | permanent link to this entry
Engineered blood vessels
http://www.physorg.com/news117130370.html
When a gel that induces tube formation is added to the cells, the cells grown on a nanopatterned surface form tubes aligned in the same direction (right). Cells grown on a flat surface form tubes extending in many directions (left). Images / Christopher Bettinger
MIT scientists have found a way to induce cells to form parallel tube-like structures that could one day serve as tiny engineered blood vessels.
The researchers found that they can control the cells' development by growing them on a surface with nano-scale patterning. A paper on the work was posted this month in an online issue of Advanced Materials.
Engineered blood vessels could one day be transplanted into tissues such as the kidneys, liver, heart or any other organs that require large amounts of vascular tissue, which moves nutrients, gases and waste to and from cells.
"We are very excited about this work,” said Robert Langer, MIT Institute Professor and an author of the paper. “It provides a new way to create nano-based systems with what we hope will provide a novel way to someday engineer tissues in the human body.”
The work focuses on vascular tissue, which includes capillaries, the tiniest blood vessels, and is an important part of the circulatory system. The team has created a surface that can serve as a template to grow capillary tubes aligned in a specific direction.
The researchers built their template using microfabrication machinery at Draper Laboratory in Cambridge. Normally such technology is used to build micro-scale devices, but the researchers adapted it to create nano-scale patterns on a silicone elastomer substrate. The surface is patterned with ridges and grooves that guide the cells' growth.
“The cells can sense (the patterns), and they end up elongated in the direction of those grooves,” said Christopher Bettinger, MIT graduate student in materials science and engineering and lead author of the paper.
The cells, known as endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), not only elongate in the direction of the grooves, but also align themselves along the grooves. That results in a multicellular structure with defined edges, also called a band structure.
Once the band structures form, the researchers apply a commonly used gel that induces cells to form three-dimensional tubes. Unlike cells grown on a flat surface, which form a network of capillary tubes extending in random directions, cells grown on the nano-patterned surface form capillaries aligned in the direction chosen by the researchers.
The researchers believe the technique works best with EPCs because they are relatively immature cells. Earlier attempts with other types of cells, including mature epithelial cells, did not produce band structures.
Growing tissue on a patterned surface allows researchers a much greater degree of control over the results than the classic tissue engineering technique of mixing cell types with different growth factors and hoping that a useful type of tissue is produced, said Bettinger.
“With this technique, we can take the guesswork out of it,” he said.
The next step is to implant capillary tubes grown in the lab into tissues of living animals and try to integrate them into the tissues.
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
posted at: 23:33 | path: /sci/bio/biotech | permanent link to this entry
GeneArt: Design and order your own custom/synbio genes.
http://geneart.com/
posted at: 23:33 | path: /sci/bio/biotech | permanent link to this entry
