Biotechnology, Genetically Designed Crops, etc.
Genetically engineered or altered seeds, trees, microbes, animals and crops,
"Biopharming" engineered pharmaceuticals, growth hormones and proteins,
Biomedicine (gene therapy, custom medicines),
and possibly human organs and embryos (stem cell)
The year 2002 through 2004
Food will get organic labels.
More farms sprout biotech plants

Pharmaceutical corn poses some challenges
Nanocages developed to transport medicine
Screening Embryos For Deafness
Environmentalists fear fruitage of genetically engineered trees
Poll shows most oppose gentically modified foods
BIO POWER
Protests against biotechnology turn more violent, widespread
Genetic bits now fit on chip the size of a dime
Amgen thinks small to Grow

Bioengineered bugs hold promise, but questions linger
Monsanto halves output due to quality issues
Bioethics panel urges oversight of fertility research, treatments
Europe is tightening rules on genetically modified foods
Minton to lead biotech company
Bioengineered grass sprouts controversy
Biotech corn bound for markets in Europe
Scientists pinpoint genes that make wheat adaptable
States court biotech companies
Study finds genetic changes in the brain as people age
'Bio-beer' tested in Europe
Genetically modified bodies
Genetically-engineered cats nearly allergen-free
Large Scale gets $1 million for biowarfare projects


• 10/20/2002 - Food will get organic labels.
      Washington -- Sales of organic food have increased, from $3.5 billion in 1996 to $4 billion in 1999, and the Agriculture Department has taken notice: Labeling rules for farmers and companies that want to market their products as organic take effect tomorrow.    The agency also will begin marking some of those foods with a seal of approval, meaning the food was grown by a certified farmer who does not use conventional pesticides and fertilizers, biotechnology, antibiotics, or growth hormones to produce food.    Entirely orgainc will be labeld "100 percent organic" while those at least 95% will carry just "organic."
  
  
• 1/16/2003 - More farms sprout biotech plants - Modified crops still draw critics, especially in Europe - by Paul Elias, The Associated Press.
      San Francisco - A record number of genetically modified crops were planted around the world last year, proving resistant not just to bugs and weeds but also to political and financial pressures.    The potential trade war between the United States and the European Union over the crops, the financial struggles of the companies that push the products and still-doubtful consumers.    A report issued by a group that promotes use of the technology in poor countries found that about 6 million farmers in 16 countries planted genetically modified crops on 145 million acres last year.
      Clive James, founder of the industry-supported International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, said "Biotechnology continues to be the most rapidly adopted technology in agricultural history due to the social and economic benefits the crops offer farmers and society."
      Despite controversy, such as the refusal of some African nations to accept engineered food as drought relief, genetically modified crops are being embraced around the world.    Genetically modified crops in 2002, in millions of acres: United States - 96.4, Argentina - 33.4, Canada - 8.6, China - 5.2, Indonesia - 1.0, others below this are Uraguay, Mexico, South Africa, India, Columbia and Honduras.
      The most popular biotech crops contain bacterium genes that make the plants resistant to either bugs or weed killers.    The crops still meet resistance in Europe, as the European Union authorities imposed a moratorium on the import of genetifcally modified food in 1998, for fear of possible health risks.    American farm groups estimate the EU ban is costing them nearly $300 million a year in lost corn exports alone.    U.S. trade representive Robert Zoellick indicated that the Bush administration was close to bringing a case against the moratorium before the World Trade Organization.    Soy, corn, canola and cotton were the only four biotechnology crops grown widely last year.    Biotech versions of sugarbeets, potatoes and sweet corn have not taken off because of the controversy.
• 7/14/2003 - Pharmaceutical corn poses some challenges by Philip Brasher, Des Moines Register.
      Washington -- The problem keeping pharmaceutical corn out of the food supply is leading companies to look at other types of plants -- and at regions of the country other than the Corn Belt -- for producing biotech drugs.    "It's going to be a tremendous challenge to get the food (industry) comfortable with growing the crop in an area where a lot of the crop is grown" for food, said Andrew Baum, who leads the Biotechnology Industry Organization's committee on plant-made pharmaceuticals.    Baum is chief executive of SemBioSys, a Canadian company that engineered safflower to make pharmaceutical proteins.    Safflower can be used for vegetable oil, but relatively little of it is grown in North America.    Companies are reporting success at engineering pharmaceutical products in a range of plants, including rice, barley, tobacco, lettuce and even a tiny aquatic plant called lemna.    Many of the companies working on corn, including agribusiness giants Monsanto and Dow, are growing the crop in places such as California and Hawaii.
      "Biopharming" promises to save drug companies money, in not having to make human antibodies by cultivating animal proteins in fermentation complexes that can cost $500 million or more to build.    Harvesting the proteins from genetically engineered plants could cut costs in half, experts say.
      Food companies are worried that a pharmaceutical crop could contaminate food supplies.    Their concerns were heightened last fall when corn engineered to make a pig vaccine contaminated a grain elevator in Nebraska.    That scare prompted federal regulators to tighten growing restrictions for pharmaceutical corn -- and promoted a new pitch for sales of other plants.    Corn produces a lot of protein, can be stored for months, but also spreads its pollen for long distances, making it difficult to prevent contamination of food crops.
      Biolex of North Carolina, working with Bayer Corp. and a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, are using plants such as lemna, an aquatic plant grown in greenhouses, which does not need seeds or pollen to reproduce.
• 7/28/2003 - Nanocages developed to transport medicine by The New York Times.
      Supporters of nanotechnology have made many claims about its future, not the least of which is that someday it will help cure what ails you.    One idea is that tiny particles will be able to deliver minute amounts of a drug directly to a target - such as a diseased cell - within the body.    Scientists from several Japanese universities have taken steps toward doing just that.    They have created hollow "nanocages" of proteins that can hold a few molecules of a drug and bring them to the liver.    They used a protein from the hepatitis B virus, and when created in large amounts, it forms cage-like structures of about 110 molecules each, with a diameter of about 80 nanometers (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter).    The researchers took these nancages and, using small electric pulses, were able to put genetic material or proteins inside.
• 7/28/2003 - Screening Embryos For Deafness by The Washington Post.
      Melbourne, Australia -- Monash IVF fertility doctors say they have used genetic test to screen out embryos that carried a gene for deafness - the first known instance of pre-selecting embryos to eliminate a non-life-threatening trait.    They were using "pre-implantation genetic diagnosis," in which doctors look for a gene of interest in one cell taken from a developing eight-cell embryo created by in-vitro fertilization.    The technique has allowed parents to identify embryos bearing fatal genetic defects and transfer only health ones to the womb.    In this case, doctors screened for a gene mutation that causes deafness if inherited from both parents.
      Some ethicists warn that embryo selection against nonfatal traits such as deafness could lead to selection against cosmetic traits such as short stature or for genes that may be found to play a role in intelligence -- moves that could spark a costly race for genetic perfection.
• 8/1/2003 - Environmentalists fear fruitage of genetically engineered trees by Paul Elias, The Associated Press.
      San Farancisco -- Roll over John Muir and tell Johnny Appleseed t Monash IVFhe news: Biotechnology is coming to the forest and orchard.    Scientists are planting genetically engineered trees in dozens of research projects across the country.    They are working to create trees that grow faster, yield better wood, produce hardier crops (by infusing material from viruses and bacteria), fight pollutioy splicing mercury-gobbling bacteria genes), even serve sentinel for detecting germ and chemical attacks (by changing colors when exposed).
      Environmentalists fear dangerous unintended consequences for a science that is not totally understood.    "It won't be as widespread as agricultural biotechnology, but it could be much more destructive," said Jim Diamond of the Srra Club.    "Trees are what's left of our natural environment and home to endangered species."
      Biotechnology, they say, may provide just what is needed to help reverse global deforestation and industrial pollution while satisfying increased demand for wood and paper products (including the reduction of toxic chemicals needed for processing).    Already, biotechnology has been credited with saving Hawaii's $14 million-a-year papaya industry.    A virus had wiped out 40% of the crop and threatened to destroy the rest before seeds engineered to resist the virus were introduced in 1998.    Now the industry is thriving again.
      About 230 notices of genetically engineered tree experiments have been filed with the Department of Agriculture since 1989, with about half since 2000.    So far, papayas are the only approved engineered tree for market.    The rest are still experimental for at least the next five to 10 years.
  
• 9/18/2003 - Poll shows most oppose gentically modified foods by Elizabeth Weise, USA Today.
      Americans still don't know much about genetically modified foods, even though increasing amounts of their food comes from biotech corn and soybeans.    Grocery Manufacturers of America says 70 percent to 80 percent of processed foods sold in supermarkets contain products made from genetically engineered corn, soybeans or cottonseed oil.    That includes most products sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, which is almost sure to contain at least some genetically modified corn.    U.S. Department of Agriculture figures for 2003 show that 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop was biotech, as were 81 percent of the soybeans and 73 percent of the cotton.
      I just do not remember getting to vote on this during any elections in the past.    Who sneaked that one in on us.
• 9/22/2003 - BIO POWER by Elizabeth Weise, USA Today.
      Scientists Swades Chaudhuri and Derek Lovley at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have developed a battery using iron-breathing bacteria (Rhodoferax ferrireducens) that eat the sugars in carbohydrates (straw to fruit) and turn them into electricity.    "You can harvest enough electricity to power a cell-phone battery for about four days from a sugar cube," Lovley said.    "A cup of sugar contains enough power to light a 60-watt light bulb for about 17 hours."    The researchers found a way to dupe the bacteria (found in sediments at Oyster Bay, Va.) into passing those electrons onto an electrode instead (of the iron-rich oxygen-poor bay sediments), producing an effcient 80% coversion to electrical current.    The downside is that a cup of sugar could take weeks to digest, but can eventually be used to charge up a battery when needed.
      The Department of Defense funded the research, and biopower may be used in batteries to power scientific monitoring equipment at the bottom of the ocean, and use glucose in the bloodstream to power medical devices such as pacemakers.
• 10/15/2003 - Protests against biotechnology turn more violent, widespread by Paul Elias, The Associated Press.
      San Francisco - A growing militant movement opposed to genetic engineering in agriculture and medicine is turning violent and criminal sabotage -- from bombing of a Bay Area biotech company (Chiron Corp. of Emeryville) to the destruction of genetically modified crops.    The F.B.I. states that this has resulted in frustration that peaceful protests have failed to slow the pace of biotech's progress.    A range of militant environmental economic and animal-rights activist groups have used the Internet to organize around biotechnology, first in Europe and now in the United States.    Many fear that the technology will forever harm nature, while others object to how animals are treated in drug experiments.
      In France, an estimated half of the 100 plots of experimental biotech crops were destroyed this year by vandalism.    Genetically modified crop experimentation in Britain is also in danger from opposition.
      One group for four years has harrassed Lawrenceville, N.J., laboratory of Huntingdon Life Sciences, which tests drugs and chemicals on animals for companies, including biotech firms.
      Almost since James Watson and Francis Crick discovered DNA 50 years ago, scientists have been exploring ways to manipulate and exploit those building blocks of life for everything from boosting crop yields to germ warfare.
      After Herb Boyer and Stanley Cohen succeeded 30 years ago in splicing genes from one species into another, did opposition to biotechnology begin, first in agriculture and later in medicine, which has grown, especially in Europe.
      Unrest has grown in developing worlds, where biotech is heralded by proponents as a panacea for famine and pestilence but where anti-globalization activists fear corporate control of their livelihoods.
      The Monsanto Co., which sells genetically modified seeds, has been attacked by rioters twice in the last few months.
• 10/18/2003 - Genetic bits now fit on chip the size of a dime - Market leader Affymetrix joins in breakthrough - by Paul Elias, The Associated Press.
      San Francisco - The lofty goal of "personalized medicine" is one step closer to reality as two companies say they have successfully placed vital bits of humankind's estimated 35,000 genes on a small glass chip.    Rivals Affymetrix Inc. (owner of 80% of market) and Agilent Technologies produced so-called gene chips -- dime-size pieces of glass infused with genetic material, where previous they needed two chips to hold the material.
      Chips with portions of the genome are indispensable in biology laboratories around the world.    Now, Affymetrix (CEO Stephen Fodor) says researchers can buy the entire genome for between $300 and $500 each, half the old price.
      Researchers use the chips to do basic genetic research.    Scientists believe many diseases are caused by genes "turning on" when they shouldn't.    Knowing this, researches can design drugs to attack suspect genes.
• 10/23/2003 - Amgen thinks small to Grow - Biotech woos start-ups working on breakthroughs - by Matt Krantz, USA today.
      Thousand Oaks, Calif. - Amgen and CEO Kevin Sharer is one the fastest growing companies of its size, being the only biotech company to manufacture the drug: anemia treatment Epogen.    Amgen has tried to persuade over 100 up-and-coming biotech firms who may become cash strapped next year to become partners with them.    Some firms are trying to find treatments for arthritis, others for tumors.    Amgen has also pioneered a protein called GDNF, which actually works as a treatment for Parkinson's disease when poured directly on the brain.
  
  
• 2/2/2004 - Bioengineered bugs hold promise, but questions linger by Paul Elias, Associated Press.
      Some high-tech insect experiments soon may be flitting out of the laboratory: Mosquitoes genetically modified to eliminate malaria.    Silkworms engineered to produce bulletproof vests.    Pink Bollworm moths designed to self-destruct before they can wipe out cotton crops.    Genetically engineered insects hold the promise of benefitting millions, eradicating diseases and plagues that can cause famine in the developing world.    Many scientists are alarmed that few safeguards exist to keep unintended consequences from harming humans or the environment.    Fast-producing insects anchor food chains around the globe.    Yet the impact that genetically engineered bugs could have on the ecosystems is only now being explored, even as researchers push to release biotech insect experiments into the wild.    Such questions could be vitally important, particularly since many researchers are engineering insects designed to change the genetic makeup of their very species.
      Unlike with biotech crops or livestock, which are at least designed to be controlled, releasing the designed insects into natural insect populations, for example, rendering the Tse Tse flies incapable of carrying deadly sleeping sickness, a disease that afflicts millions in Africa.    No biotech insect experiment has been conducted outside a laboratory yet, but a few projects are getting close, and may be moving quicker than the regulations that must be approved.    No U.S. law specifically addresses biotech bugs, but they must get prior federal approval from the USDA.
      No regulator stepped in to monitor the GloFish, a fluorescent zebra fish recently put on the market, because no federal agency was tasked with overseeing biotech house pets.    Other projects in the works are to make silkworms mass-produced spider silk, which will be stronger than steel and tougher than the artificial fibers now used in body armor worn by military troops.    Also honeybees to be more disease resistant, and medflys to be less damaging to crops.    The University of California, Irvine, is trying to synthesize a gene that boosts the mosquito's immune system, giving it the means to fight off the malaria parasite.    Malaria afflicts between 300 million and 500 million people each year, killing more than 3 million annually.
• 2/17/2004 - Monsanto halves output due to quality issues by Paul Elias, Associated Press.
      San Francisco - The genetically engineered hormone that induces a third of the nation's dairy herds to make more milk is short supply now that FDA federal inspectors have found sterility quality-control problems at the factory where it's produced.    Starting March 1, Monsanto Co. will be able to provide only half of its usual shipments of recombinant bovine somatotrophin, or rBST, which is sold under the brand-name Posilac and the price will increase by 9 percent.    Although there is an overabundance of milk, because of the glut prices have been low for a couple of years now.    The FDA approved the hormone in 1993, ruling that there's no differnece betwen milk produced by hormone-injected cows and conventionally bred bovines.    Since then 22 percent of the nation's milk comes from treated cows.
• 4/4/2004 - Bioethics panel urges oversight of fertility research, treatments by Rick Weiss, The Washington Post.
      Washington - The federal government should more aggressively oversee the unregulated fertility business, and Congress should set aside the issue of human embryo cloning for research and ban other embryo experiments that everyone deems unethical, President Bush's Council on Bioethics said.    The rapidly coverging fields of fertility treatment, human genetics and embryo research has lines between basic science, clinical medicine and human experimentation are becoming fuzzy.    At present no one knows what they are doing and the results.    Information is being requested from fertility clinics on their use of genetic tests that can help parents select the sex and the traits of their children.    Concerns of the unethical practice of creating human-animal hybrids and growing human embryos in wombs of animals is at issue.    The medical community and patient advocacy groups are at odds with a intrusive government or a political agenda from conservative Christians.    They must decide on whether to ban only the creation of cloned babies or also the creation of cloned embryos, which scientists believe could be medically valuable.
• 4/17/2004 - Europe is tightening rules on genetically modified foods by Paul Geitner, Associated Press.
      Brussels, Belgium - European countries start enforcing the world's strictist rules on labeling genetically modified foods tomorrow, but few such products are expected to come to market as consumers continue to shun what's often derided around the continent as "Frankenfood."    Companies such as the Swiss food giant Nestle, which uses approved genetically engineered ingredients "without hesitation" in the United States and elsewhere but keeps them out of Europe.    European research shows more that 75 percent of European consumers do not want genetically modified foods and prefer products that are quaranteed biotech-free.    They even plan on pushing for even tougher rules to require labels on any meat or diary that ate genetically modified feed.
      Farm groups in the United States, the world's leading producer of genetically engineered crops, have opposed labeling, arguing that it is unnecessary because their products have been proven safe.    In the U.S., about 80 percent of the soy crop, half of the canola crop and 40 percent of the corn crop comes from genetically engineered seeds.    The Bush administration is challenging the EU at the WTO for violating international trade rules, opposing labeling rules.
• 4/20/2004 - Minton to lead biotech company by Patrick Howington, The Courier-Journal.
      Terry Minton, former CEO of Louisville cancer drug developer Aptamera, has been named CEO of Allylix, a biotech company that grew out of research at the University of Kentucky.    The 2-year-old company has developed a way to create chemical compounds found in nature, which can be produced for use in the pharmaceutical, agricultural and flavor-and-fragrance inductries.
• 5/8/2004 - Bioengineered grass sprouts controversy - Environmentalists want to ban turf - by Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press.
      Gervais, Ore. - Bob Harriman chief research scientist puts one foot on the world's most controversial grass, a blanket of brilliant green, as thin as a peice of paper and as uniform as cellophane.    If it sounds unnatural, thats because it is.    The turf is a genetically modified version of the creeping bent-grass popular on golf course greens and fairways, and it is being tested here by Scotts Co., which hopes its creation will be resistant to a common weed-killing chemical.    Scotts keeps the test site incognito because environmentalists are trying to ban the bioengineered grass and concerned about sabotage.    Even the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service is concerned that it may escape onto public land and would not know how to control it.    We would not want our state park blanketed in acres of perfect putting green turf, with no biodiversity.    U.S.G.A. and golfers would probably like it since there would be no rough patches on the greens.    It is resistant to Roundup, and only the yellow weeds will die.    The bioengineered grass is in its final stage of approval.    In all, 60 bioengineered crops have received federal approval - including tomatoes, corn, soybeans, canola, potatoes and papaya trees.    We are already cooking our french fries in genetically engineered oil, but in the case of grass they want to know more on its impact.
• 5/20/2004 - Biotech corn bound for markets in Europe - Genetically-modified food from the U.S. wins grudging OK - by Paul Geitner, Associated Press.
      Brussels, Belgium - Bowing to pressure from Washington, the European Union lifted a six-year moratorium on new biotech foods by allowing onto European markets a modified strain of sweet corn, grown mainly in the United States.    But even the company that develeoped the insect-resistant corn, Swiss-based Syngenta, concede it will take a while before anyone buys it.    The Bush administration still intends to push his complaint to the WTO, for a rulling in September.    Labeling is still a requirement by the EU.
• 5/29/2004 - Scientists pinpoint genes that make wheat adaptable - Discovery might help with world's food production - by Juliana Barbassa, Associated Press.
      Fresno, Calif. - A team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, has isolated and cloned the second of two genes of wheat that control vernalization - the plant's ability to flower only after exposure to a cold winter.    This gives it the ability to grow some in the fall but wait until after winter before flowering and to cross climates.    This discovery could aid humanity's ancient effort to make the world's most popular grain more productive, faster to mature and able to survive more extreme conditions.    People and wheat have moved together across the planet for the last 10,000 years, adapting to different climates and landscapes.    Human beings depend on wheat, and it depends on humans who select kernels that made harvesting easier by bunching tightly around the stalk, rather than those that fell to the ground when they ripened.    Last year this same group cloned the first wheat veranlization gene - VRN1, which sets off flowering, this year VRN2, identified as the gene which tells the plant to wait through weeks of cold weather before flowering.
• 6/10/2004 - States court biotech companies by Paul Elias, Associated Press.
      San Francisco - Governors and mayors from across the country were at the biotech industry's annual convention this week, offering tax breaks, government grants, even parking to lure companies and jobs.    The biotechnology industry is largely concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Boston because of the region's built-in venture capital communities, vibrant academic institutions and highly educated work forces.    The gold rush for the cutting edge may not pay off for the 29 states and their politcal officials.
• 6/10/2004 - Study finds genetic changes in the brain as people age by Associated Press.
      Scientists form the Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School say they've found a "gene signature" from brain tissue from 30 deceased people of aging in the human brain - changes in key genes that may be linked to deteriorating mental functions as we get older.    The study suggests that some genes start working less hard soon after age 40, at least in some people.    They still can not tell whats causing the genetic changes - whether it's environmental, a person's lifestyle, genetic makeup or some combination.
• 7/14/2004 - 'Bio-beer' tested in Europe by Matt Moore, Asociated Press.
      Copenhagen, Denmark - The biotech industry has turn its quest for European converts to the ultimate icebreaker: genetically modified beer.    Monsanto Co. helped fund a Swedish brewer's new light lager that's produced with hops, barley - and a touch of genetically engineered corn.    It a tough sell in countries with food-related health scares in recent years, from mad cow disease to poisoned poultry, stoking fears among Europeans about genetically modified foods.
• 8/26/2004 - Genetically modified bodies by Nicholas Kristoff.
      Will human athletes in 2012 Olympics look like the obscure breed of cattle called the Belgian Blue?    They have a genetic mutation, which means they do not have effective myostatin, a substance that curbs muscle growth.    They have no fat, just bulging muscles.    Gene thearpies are being developed that would block myostatin in humans, and they offer immense promise in treating muscular dystrophy and the fraility that comes with aging.    It has already been tested on mice, monkeys and baboons    But will it become the new steroid for athletes, since it leaves no trace in the blood or urine?    An olympic Game with genetically enhance athletes.    Or worse will we change what it is to be human?
• 11/1/2004 - Genetically-engineered cats nearly allergen-free by AP.
      A Los Angeles company, Allerca Inc. is exploiting the latest in biotechnolgy to create cats genetically engineered to be nearly free from the allergy-causing proteins that plague millions of people.    By 2007 the company will use RNA interference to "silence" a gene in cats that produces the irritant, which is excreted through saliva and the skin.    They will be accepting $350 deposits for the British Short Hair breed of cats it plans to sell for $3,500 each in the U.S., which will be spayed and neutered.
• 12/28/2004 - Large Scale gets $1 million for biowarfare projects by AP.
      Large Scale Biology Corp., which has a manufacturing facilities in Owensboro, Ky, announced that it has received $1 million in federal funds, President Bush signed Aug. 5, to develop more effective products to prevent and treat biowarfare-related illnesses for the Department of Defense.
  

Last updated January 27, 2004 and March 15, 2006.