With available technologies, we can now biomimic an ecosystem best features. If cities learned to take advantage of these new technologies,
Carrying the label of USDA organic also means the use of irradiation, genetic engineering, and irradiation of sewage sludge is prohibited.
and East Malling Research have come up with a novel way of using bumble bees to deliver minute quantities of bio-fungicide to strawberry flowers.
As the bees move through the dispenser a minute quantity of a powdered formulation of the bio-fungicide containing Gliocladium catenulatum adheres to their bodies and legs.
allowing a very precise application of this bio-fungicide throughout flowering. The bio-fungicide, which is itself a fungus,
competes for living space with the grey mould on the flower parts, preventing the latent flower infection
The team said there was no clear bias towards biofuel crops. Invisible hand But apart from direct investment, the new database suggests there are some worrying trends emerging."
and warns that the banana's unique reproductive system each new fruit is a genetic duplicate of the next makes it especially susceptible to epidemics
The candy maker Mars is expected to announce on Wednesday that a project it financed has completed essentially the raw sequence of the genome of the cacao tree,
but cannot discuss it until its paper analyzing the genome is published in a scientific journal.
The rivalry between the two big chocolate companies projects in some ways mirrors what occurred in the race to sequence the human genome, between Celera Genomics and the publicly financed Human genome Project.
Scientists say it might be possible to as much as quintuple the output of beans per acre in Africa through breeding that relies on genetic information.
and analyze the cocoa genome, in a project involving the Department of agriculture, I b m. and some academic collaborators.
Dr. Shapiro said a goal of the project was to make sure the genetic data was available for all to use without intellectual property restrictions.
like specific genes, from their findings. He said that while Mars would gain from larger supplies and potentially lower prices for cocoa,
Mark J. Guiltinan, a professor of plant molecular biology at Penn State, a leader of the other effort, said his group also intended to make its data freely available,
Dr. Guiltinan said the new genetic information could lead to chocolate that tastes better and contains more flavonoids,
and studying just four genes involved in making flavonoids. oeafter we sequenced the genome, he said,
oewe got all the genes in a couple of days. Dr. Guiltinan said there had initially been efforts to do one genome project,
but that Mars and the Agriculture department oedecided to go it alone, so we decided to keep doing
Raymond J. Schnell, a geneticist at the Department of agriculture Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami said the Mars project started before the other one.
but that the genome data was being released now because it was ready. The tree, known officially as Theobroma cacao (meaning oefood of the gods), contains about 420 million DNA units, represented by the letters A c, G and T. That is fairly small for a plant.
The human genome has about three billion units. The Mars group used so-called second generation sequencers made by Illumina and 454, a division of Roche.
The superweeds could temper American agriculture enthusiasm for some genetically modified crops. Soybeans, corn and cotton that are engineered to survive spraying with Roundup have become standard in American fields.
belies the claims made by the biotechnology industry that its crops would be better for the environment. oethe biotech industry is taking us into a more pesticide-dependent agriculture when they ve always promised,
Monsanto and other agricultural biotech companies are also developing genetically engineered crops resistant to other herbicides.
But what about biology? Might biohacking tinkering with the DNA of existing organisms to create new ones lead to innovations of a biological nature?
The potential is certainly there. The cost of sequencing DNA has fallen from about $1 per base pair in the mid-1990s to a tenth of a cent today,
One place for them to learn about biohacking is DIYBIO, a group that holds meetings in America and Britain and has about 800 people signed up for its newsletter.
Strictly, that is not really biohacking. But attempts to construct microorganisms that make biofuels efficiently certainly are though it will be impressive
if a group of amateurs can succeed in cracking a problem that is confounding many established companies.
When a science blog called io9 ran a competition for biohackers, it received entries for modified microorganisms that, among other things,
The template for biohacking's future may be the International Genetically Engineered Machine (igem) competition held annually at the Massachusetts institute of technology.
This challenges undergraduates to spend a summer building an organism from a oekit provided by a gene bank called the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
As Jason Kelly, the cofounder of a gene-synthesis firm called Ginkgo Bioworks, observes, there is no equivalent of an electrical engineer's diagram to help unravel
another, from Imperial College, London, worked on a oebiofabricator capable of building other biological materials.
or living organisms, that motivates many biohackers. Tito Jankowski, now a member of DIYBIO, became interested in toolmaking for biohackers after taking part in igem with a team from Brown University that had set itself the goal of modifying bacteria to detect lead in water.
After graduating, Mr Jankowski was interested in doing more, but found his access to equipment restricted.
Mr Jankowski likens the current state of biohacking to the years in which amateurs first began working with personal computers, a metaphor that Dr Kelly also uses.
then the stage will be set for a bioscience version of Apple or Google to be born in a dormitory room or garage.
But what about viruses? The computer metaphor, though, is a reminder that there is no shortage of fools
and criminals ready to construct viruses and other harmful computer programs. If such people got interested in the biological world,
the consequences might be even more serious because in biology, there is no rebooting the machine. More than any other detail of biohacking, this is the one that laymen grasp.
And the resulting fear can have unpleasant effects, as Steve Kurtz, a professor of art at the State university of New york in Buffalo who works with biological material, found Out in May 2004 he awoke to find that his wife,
Hope, was not breathing. The police who accompanied paramedics to his home found Petri dishes used in his art displays,
and notified the Federal bureau of investigation (FBI), which brought in the Department of Homeland Security and charged him with bioterrorism.
The authorities claimed the body of his wife, who had died of congenital heart failure, for examination.
The right way to regulate biohacking may not become apparent for some time. The initial reaction of the local police was hardly surprising.
But the FBI may genuinely be wary of biohackers; rumour suggests it has followed up the case by discreetly instructing reagent suppliers not to sell to individuals,
the basic tools of biohacking will be both cheap to buy and easy to construct at home. Many DNA sequences, including those for harmful diseases,
But a strict government policy regulating the chemical components of biohacking might have much the same effect as laws banning gun ownership ordinary citizens will be discouraged,
In all likelihood, the right way to regulate biohacking will not become apparent for some time. But some people think that any regulation at all could be harmful.
Dr Carlson, who has a book on biohacking coming out later this year, is a proponent of light regulation at most. oeif you look at our ability to respond to infectious diseases at this point in time,
is also a believer in biological innovation. He has written about a variety of futuristic possibilities,
If regulation of biohacking is too tight, such innovations or, at least, things like them might never come to pass
I argue herein that aging can be slowed dramatically by fine-tuning your longevity genes. Indeed, scientific research carried out in the last 20 years has shown that lifespan can be modulated readily by a variety of genetic or dietary strategies.
In this article, I describe our efforts at Genescient LLC in Irvine, CA to develop strategies to delay aging and age-related disease.
but in conjunction with its spinoff firm Life Code LLC, it has provided testing services for the development of nutraceuticals based on its unique genomics platform.
Aging is linked to altered expression in more than a hundred genes; We employed artificial intelligence algorithms combined with animal longevity assays to screen for wide-spectrum herbal extracts that extend lifespan;
We succeeded in doubling animal lifespan using a novel class of nutrigenomic supplements that modulate genes involved in both aging and age-related disease.
but the impacts of this decline can differ with the individual genes and environment. The net result of aging in an animal population is a progressive increase in all-cause mortality and morbidity.
which selects the best genotype for fitness in a particular ecological niche. In 1952 The british Nobel zoologist Peter Medawar proposed that aging is the simple result of the failure of natural selection to maintain fitness in older animals with declining fertility.
As fertility wanes, then the chances to correct inappropriate gene expression via natural selection also decline, generating the aging phenotype.
Thus, according to Medawar hypothesis, aging is caused indirectly by the declining forces of natural selection to select the best fitness genes for the aged animal as reproductive capacity declines.
wherein a gene may promote fitness in young fertile animals (and thus be selected for) but become a liability late in life leading to a subsequent decline in fitness.
Studying gene expression in the wild type and Methuselah flies, Genescient has shown that several hundred genes have altered an expression in the Methuselah flies.
In late 2010, Genescient sequenced the DNA of the wild type and Methuselah flies and again found that more than a hundred genes appear to be altered in the long-lived Methuselah flies.
These experimental results are fully consistent with the Evolution Theory of Aging, which predicts that aging leads to poorly functioning organisms as natural selection for optimal gene function wanes with age.
In summary, we age because of the declining force of natural selection in adult life, which leads to unfit gene expression with age.
Developing Nutraceuticals That Can Extend Mean and Maximum Lifespan If there are hundreds of genes that function poorly as we age,
then one possible anti-aging strategy is to utilize wide-spectrum nutraceuticals to modify gene expression to a state consistent with greater longevity.
Note that the ideal gene expression pattern is not identical to youthful gene expression as some of the youthful gene expression is inconsistent with longevity (e g. genes promoting rapid growth that can lead to cancer.
To develop potential wide-spectrum antiaging nutraceuticals, Genescient initially set out to identify nutraceutical compounds that would target as many of the complementary longevity pathways as possible
and thereby extend Drosophila lifespan. Unfortunately, none of the single compound nutraceuticals tested appeared to significantly extend fly lifespan in our longevity screens.
To affect as many longevity genes as possible I focused on complementary herbal extracts that have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory,
and metabolic potential (known factors in driving aging) along with a positive effect on longevity genes and a proven history of use in traditional herbal medicine to treat a wide spectrum of diseases.
or Western medicine based on its long term traditional use and data indicating that the herbal extract can target multiple longevity genes identified by Genescient or by other research groups.
Modern herbal treatments with Astragalus membranaceus root (often in concert with other herbs) are partly based on clinical trials showing benefits in strengthening immune function during viral (e g. chronic hepatitis)
promote peripheral nerve regeneration in rats, and inhibit mtor (a major longevity gene shown by extensive government studies to extend lifespan in mice).
In looking for the best herb in the Indian Ayurvedic medicinal tradition, I soon focused on the potent antidiabetic herb, Pterocarpus marsupium.
or all of the longevity genes targeted by resveratrol, but has far greater stability and efficacy.
OPCS are reported to reduce genetic mutations so they have some anticancer benefits. OPCS have also been shown in clinical trials to promote blood flow and endothelial nitric oxide while reducing edema, capillary fragility,
The doubling of mean lifespan by Stemcell 100 outperforms every lifespan enhancing treatment ever tested in flies including experiments using genetic modification and dietary restriction.
It is possible that the single longest living fruit fly lived longer for other reasons such as genetic mutation;
The study was carried out by the University of Edinburgh and the Unhwa Biotech company in Korea.
The study was published in Nature Biotechnology and supported by the Biotechnology and Biological sciences Research Council and the Engineering and Physical sciences Research Council.
Professor Gary Loake, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Biological sciences, who led/took part in the study,
But, while it may take decades to transmit something as complicated as a virus or a single molecule of DNA,
and bacteria are the two most important biofuel technologies of the 21st century. As a replacement for oil, algae is extremely practical,
the cost of halophytic algae biofuel is less than the cost of petroleum trading at $70 per barrel or higher.
It like getting a remote checkup from your doctor all the time. 2. Genome Specific Cures. A few years ago, the notion of cancer treatment that was specific to a person genome was seen as a fantasy.
But, as geneticist and open-source medicine evangelist Andrew Hessel wrote in the January-February 2010 issue of THE FUTURIST, oethanks to rapidly moving technologies like synthetic biology,
the prospects are very different today. This is a powerful new genetic engineering technology founded on DNA synthesis that amounts to writing software for cells.
It the ideal technical foundation for open-source biotechnology. Moreover synthetic biology drops the cost of doing bioengineering by several orders of magnitude.
Small proteins, antibodies, and viruses were amenable to the technology and within reach of a startup.
According to Hessel, individualized drugs could lower the cost of drug development across the entire spectrum of the development chain.
Only very small-scale manufacturing capability is necessary. Lab testing is simplified. And clinical trials are reduced to a single person:
and Without Corna biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon,
but biofuel experts said Coskata is the first to combine them. Doing so, they said,
Each region has been blessed with the ability to grow its own biomass.""Still, consumers will need some way of getting that fuel into their vehicle.
says Gene Gregory, president of United Egg Producers (UEP), the biggest egg-farmers group in the country. oeso what we did reached,
In addition to land degradation, there also increasing competition for land and water between urban and industrial users and within the agricultural industry itself between livestock, staple crops, non-food crops and biofuel production.
developed a water-carrying device modeled after a biological cell (Idea#22), and opened an arts and science incubator, Le Laboratoire in Paris,
and more technological and genetic fixes. These measures only strengthen the corporate status quo controlling the world's food.
Interestingly, the antibacterial Orgacids product manufactured by Malaysia homegrown Sunzen Biotech Bhd has quickly become a reliable substitute for many farmers in Shandong
he told representatives from Sunzen Biotech and Malaysia ambassador to China Datuk Iskandar Sarudin who visited the farm recently to see for himself how the green product fared in China.
Together wih Sunzen Biotech, the university conducted a two-month test in the farms and found that the livestock had shown significant growth after using the product.
Loh Wee Keng, general manager of Regal Plus (China) Co Ltd, the importer of the product in China, said the university wanted to develop the project together with Sunzen Biotech but because of differences in approach,
Dr. Mark Post, a vascular biologist at the University of Maastricht in The netherlands is one of a handful of scientists around the world working on the problem of cultivating meat artificially in a laboratory.
a French surgeon and biologist working in New york city in the first half of the 20th century. There at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, Dr. Carrel conducted a unique experiment when in 1912 he cultivated tissues from an embryo chicken heart.
such as agricultural biotechnology, which can help meet the needs of the Asian middle class in a sustainable manner through trade,
Joachim described the potential of biopolymers produced by living things, with the example of using a kind of massive mushroom grown within frames to create blocks of building materials.
These biopolymers often have comparable (if not superior) strength to conventional building materials like concrete. The emphasis there is heavily on the theoretical, of course."
biotechnology genetic manipulation of food DNA to meet consumer desire has frequently been cited as the cause,
Timothy Wise recently cited biofuel production as a oedemand shock that consumes crop production and yields price increases.
And Nestle Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe also cited rising production of biofuel and the high subsidies it receives as the direct cause of rising food prices. oethe only difference is that with the food market you need 2,
The move towards biotechnology Prior to 8, 000 BC, nomadic hunter gathering was the norm.
GMOS oecan be defined as organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally it allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between non-related species. Simply put,
genetic modification involves manipulating the genetic makeup of food to create or enhance characteristics that are desired by humans.
The success of the first tested genetically engineered cotton in 1990 led biotech company Monsanto to introduce herbicide-immune soybeans aka, oeround-Up Ready in 1995,
and vitamins has made biotechnology a global giant in the world of food production
DISNEY ANNOUNCES PAPER SOURCING AND USE POLICYBURBANK, CA, October 11, 2012 Disney today announced a new Paper Sourcing
They produced just as much total crop biomass. When the researchers calculated the value of their environmentally friendly harvest
The EU defines oerenewable to include wood (biomass) but excludes nuclear power. This upside-down perspective has led Germany (via subsidies) to spend more than $350 per ton CO2 avoided by mass harvesting of forests around the globe.
In its various forms, from sticks to pellets to sawdust, wood (or to use its fashionable name, biomass) accounts for about half of Europe renewable-energy consumption.
But if subsidising biomass energy were an efficient way to cut carbon emissions, perhaps this collateral damage might be written off as an unfortunate consequence of a policy that was beneficial overall.
the assumption oethat biomass combustion would be inherently carbon neutral is not correct as it ignores the fact that using land to produce plants for energy typically means that this land is not producing plants for other purposes,
Synthetic biology. What woes it mean for agriculture? Today post was prompted by an invitation from Andrew Revkin to join in on a discussion spawned by his recent post at NYTS oedot Earth titled,
oewill Synthetic biology Benefit or Threaten Wild Things?.A recent conference at Cambridge university brought together two unlikely groups for a groundbreaking conversation between conservationists and synthetic biologists over the subject of synthetic biology.
The two groups attempted to discuss all aspects of the subject including ethics, the science, concerns, regulation, purpose,
whether synthetic biology that utilizes plants for food, energy, and medicine might lead to an increase or loss of biodiversity.
The framing paper for the conference was oehow will synthetic biology and conservation shape the future of nature?
FIRST, NOTES FROM the CONFERENCE S FRAMING PAPER I ve read through the lengthy paper
This new field of biological engineers appears reckless at times to the conservationists because of their prevailing enthusiasm
First, the paper three oeconcepts of synthetic biology: â oethe design and construction of new biological parts, devices,
and systems and the redesign of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes â oea scientific discipline that relies on chemically synthesized DNA,
along with standardized and automatable processes, to address human needs by the creation of organisms with novel
and fabrication of biological components and systems that do not already exist in the natural world,
and on the redesign and fabrication of existing biological systems Or, as explained by Paul Freemont of the Centre for Synthetic biology at Imperial College in London,
oewe can now chemically synthesise very large sections of DNA, and that allows us to design biological systems from scratch,
just as an engineer designs and builds a piece of equipment starting from basics. The paper also sums up the six sectors in which innovation of synthetic biology will have an important role to play:
â bioenergy: synthetic fuels, biofuels, electricity, hydrogen, etc. â agriculture and food production: engineered crops, pest control, fertilizers, etc. â environmental protection and remediation:
restoration, monitoring, detection, etc. â consumer products: computers, sporting goods, cosmetics, etc. â chemical production:
industrial compounds, high-value compounds, plastics, chemical synthesis, etc. â human health: medical drugs and devices, over-the-counter medicine, clinical therapies, etc.
and industrial biotechnology (e g.,, fuels, materials, and enzymes) at $115 billion. U s. biotech revenues are growing at an annual rate of approximately 15%.
%Global revenues are similarly growing at a rapid clip; China and Malaysia may each have biotech revenues in excess of 2. 5%of GDP,
and both countries plan to at least double that share by 2020. These revenues are generated primarily through the application of more than three decades of experience with RECOMBINANT DNA TECHNOLOGY.
In this context, a very generous estimate of 2012 total international revenues from synthetic biology would be $1 billion,
primarily consisting of engineering tools and reagents, including synthetic genes. The paper points out that our own Obama administration has embraced oegarage biology entrepreneurs here in the U s. The relevant document
signed by President Obama, can be paraphrased as oegarage biology is good and necessary for the future physical and economic security of the United states. This position acknowledges the historical analysis that
because entrepreneurs and small organizations i e. oegarages have been critical drivers of diverse technological innovation in the U s. for several centuries,
so are garages likely to be critical for future innovation in biotechnology. And it really entered the Star wars realm
when it quoted this, by Freeman Dyson: oegenetic engineering, once it gets into the hands of housewives
Designing genomes will be a personal thing a new art form, as creative as painting or sculpture.
and biodiversity as it relates to synthetic biology must address the topic of land use changes, and so far, the most important category for land use change has come from biofuels policies.
A few things that synthetic biology might bring to us in agriculture are: the ability to raise crops using fewer pesticides;
an offer of greater food security; improved nutrition; livestock which produce medications or biological substances such as spider-silk;
and an optimal source of biofuel. For our health, we may see new ways to target infectious diseases
and cancer, develop vaccines and cell therapies, enable regenerative medicine, or make cancer cells self-destruct.
The paper bioethical discussion was on target for including this key paragraph: Synthetic life delivers private benefits.
Many forms of life being developed by synthetic biology are being patented. The benefits provided by these organisms will reflect the economic interests of those able to invest in
and hence future patterns of biodiversity loss. How will a balance be struck between private risk and gain versus public benefit and safety?
Yet, progressive conservationists recognize that there is potential for synthetic biology to increase biodiversity, too. Not to be overlooked, the paper noted that oepopulation growth
(and corresponding consumption) are key macro-scale drivers of biodiversity loss. It is unclear what role synthetic biology and its products will play in these relationships.
But in fact, I might argue that a bigger driver is the opportunity to profit from using land for production purposes.
They engineered E coli bacteria to contain sets of genes with growth hormone and also with malate, a root detector.
He said that synthetic biology is oegrander in scope than most genetic modification which involves modestly changing a few genes.
By contrast, synthetic biologists work with large networks of genes, thus a new acronym, SMO.
I enjoyed Yong quote of conference organizer, Kent Redford, from the Wildlife Conservation Society, oeconservationists get more pessimistic
but synthetic biologists only get more optimistic. After all of the reading that I did about the event, the subject,
Synthetic biologist Jay Keasling, says that oeanything that can be made in a plant can now be made in a microbe.
While many of these vats of production may help save biodiversity in some regions, they clearly come with new economic winners
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