Biotech World

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Preview Preview Preview 5 News EDITOR Charlotte Niemiec T: +44 (0)1737 241472 Email: editor@biotechworld.co ADVERTISING Steve Fulford T: +44 (0)1223 968 960 Email: stevefulford@biotechworld.co DESIGN & PRODUCTION T: +44 (0)1737 241472 Email: production@biotechworld.co Biotech World is published 12 times a year by Biotech World magazine, 13 Prospects Court, 20 Holmesdale Road, Reigate, Surrey RH2 0BQ, UK. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of Biotech World magazine, the copyright owners. Upon application, permission may be freely granted to copy abstracts of articles on condition that a full reference to the source is given.

Scientists find cellular snooze button Coffee genome successfully sequenced Just 8.2% of DNA is functional Synthetic biology creates natural food in the lab Syngenta AG sued by US farmers for MIR 162 variety Camelina sativa to produce Omega-3 in UK Oxford begins vaccinating volunteers against Ebola Synthesised scorpion venon makes cancer cells glow Zebrafish offer clues in identifying origin of genetic diseases

21 Ethics, policy, regulation Sterile seed technology offers tantalising new ways to police and protect intellectual property, but at what cost to world agriculture?

27 Marine

Researchers unveil life-size jellyfish robot that will patrol the ocean’s depths

31 Industrial Propane gas from E.coli gives promise to biofuels industry

Š 2014 Biotech World

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Views expressed by individual contributors in this issue are not necessarily those of Biotech World magazine. Equally, the inclusion of advertisements in this magazine does not constitute endorsement of the companies, products or services concerned

by Biotech World magazine. The publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising.

The global biotechnology market is expected to reach US$604.4 billion by 2020, as pharmaceutical requirements and genetic modification in seeds drive growth (p.15)

Website: www.biotechworld.co Biotech World q Preview q 3

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News & developments Comment Biotechnology is a global phenomenon. A glance over the last few months reveals how integral it is to our world, affecting politics, agriculture, food security, health, finances and more.

Currently, the UK is preparing to decide whether to legalise three-parent babies; Oregon State in the USA is mulling over labelling of genetically modified (GM) foods; China has halted imports of grain from the USA due to an unapproved variety found in shipments; and biotech companies the world over are scrambling to find a cure for the Ebola virus running rampant through West Africa. While these developments have entered the media spotlight, the biotechnology industry has many other stories to tell.

It’s extraordinary to reflect on how far the industry has come since we first leavened bread and fermented wine, or realised that selective breeding would ensure required characteristics.

Biotechnology now promises to find the answer to global food security, clean our oceans, power our vehicles and eradicate disease. It allows us to understand and tame nature, and manipulate and mould it to our advantage. Developments range from the fun, such as glow-in-the-dark plants, to the serious: the eradication of lethal diseases, artificial insemination, productive crops to feed a growing population. While there are perpetual question marks hanging over the ethics of the industry, it seems that biotechnology is ever more necessary in our struggle to keep the human species and our planet healthy and safe.

Biotech World aims to bring together all streams of biotechnology – including industrial, agricultural, pharmaceutical and marine – into one easy-to-read monthly digest. Packed with features, world news and events, Biotech World delivers to everyone from students and other interested parties to CEOs of major biotechnology companies.

Accompanying the monthly magazine, the website offers daily content, upcoming events and access to back issues of Biotech World. Much more is planned for the future. I encourage all readers to submit news and press releases for consideration in the magazine, to sign up for our digital edition and to get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you.

Charlotte Niemiec

Syngenta AG sued by US farmers for MIR 162 variety Syngenta AG is facing lawsuits from dozens of US corn farmers after the biotech and seed company’s Agrisure Viptera MIR 162 corn variety was discovered in shipments to China and rejected by that country.

One claimant, Cargill – a top US grain exporter – said China’s rejection had cost it more than US$90 million. It accused Syngenta of exposing it to losses by selling the seeds to US farmers before it had secured import approval from China, a major buyer.

The GM variety can be found throughout the US corn supply, effectively closing the lucrative Chinese market to US suppliers, the lawsuit was reported to have said.

Cargill’s filing said it was suing Syngenta for “deliberate, knowing and continuing contamination of the US corn supply with a product that it understood all along would substantially impair the US grain industry’s ability to sell corn and other commodities to buyers in China.”

On 16 September, four days after Cargill filed its lawsuit, Trans Coastal Supply Co sued Syngenta with the same complaint, but included byproducts used for animal feed. It is seeking class action

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status. The company said in court documents it stood to lose more than US$41 million as exports of the ethanol byproduct distillers’ dried grains (DDGs), used in livestock feed, had been rejected by China. Since Trans Coastal’s filing, dozens of farmers from Midwestern states have filed class action lawsuits.

Syngenta spokesman Paul Minehart said the lawsuits were without merit. A Syngenta press release added: “[Syngenta] strongly upholds the right of growers to have access to approved new technologies that can increase both their productivity and their profitability.”

The company explained that the MIR 162 trait was approved for cultivation in the USA in 2010 and it was commercialised in full compliance with regulatory and legal requirements.

Syngenta said it had obtained import approval from major corn importing countries and had been fully transparent in commercialising the trait over the last four years.

A Reuters report added that Syngenta had invested around US$200 million and between five to seven years developing the corn, which represents about 25% of its corn portfolio.

BIOTECHNOLOGY? WE’VE GOT IT COVERED.

Biotech World brings together the best of the fast-moving biotechnology industry in one monthly digest. Revealing the latest discoveries and explaining developments in simple language, it offers a birds-eye view of a vast but interconnected industry.

The sectors of biotechnology are ever growing and Biotech World covers them all, from industrial biotech to bioterrorism, agriculture to ethics and regulations.

To advertise, call Steve Fulford on +44 (0)1223 968 960 or email stevefulford@biotechworld.co www.biotechworld.co

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News & developments Oxford begins vaccinating volunteers against Ebola

Oxford University in the UK has become the first institute to begin Ebola vaccination trials on human volunteers, using a vaccine co-developed by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

The decision to begin human trials was made as the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak an international public health emergency. Phase 1 trials received expedited ethical and regulatory approvals.

The Oxford University’s Jenner Institute was provided with a £2.8 million grant

from the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the UK Department for International Development.

The consortium’s funding will enable GSK to begin manufacturing up to 10,000 additional doses of the vaccine at the same time as the initial clinical trials. If trials are successful, stocks could be made available immediately

by GSK to the WHO to create an emergency immunisation programme for high risk communities.

The candidate vaccine is against the Zaire species of Ebola, which is the strain

circulating in West Africa.

The vaccine uses a single benign Ebola virus protein to generate an immune response. It does not contain infectious Ebola virus material and therefore cannot cause a person who is vaccinated to become infected with Ebola.

Pre-clinical research by the NIH and Okairos, a biotechnology company acquired last year by GSK, indicated that it provides promising protection in nonhuman primates exposed to Ebola, without significant adverse effects.

The safety trials, involving small groups of healthy volunteers, are now required to ensure that the vaccine does not cause unforeseen side effects and that it generates a good immune response to Ebola in humans.

The trials are necessary before the vaccine can be

rolled out to larger at-risk populations, even on an experimental basis.

The Oxford study will involve 60 volunteers, while those in Gambia and Mali will each involve 40. Each set of volunteers will be split into groups of 20 that will receive different doses of the vaccine so that researchers can evaluate the best dose to use in terms of both safety and activity.

The National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is testing this same vaccine in the USA, in addition to a related vaccine that is designed to protect against both the Ebola Zaire and Ebola Sudan species.

It is hoped that phase 1 trials will be finished by the end of 2014, after which deployment of the vaccine could be fasttracked should it prove to be safe and immunogenic.

Scientists sequence complex rapeseed genome Scientists have successfully sequenced the complex rapeseed genome, which will accelerate the ongoing breeding efforts of the crop to benefit animal and human nutrition.

A Reuters report said Germany’s Bayer – the world’s largest supplier of genetically modified (GM) rapeseed seeds – was primarily responsible for the mapping out of the entire genetic code of the oil plant.

Academic researchers in Australia and China, as well as Dutch biotechnology firm Keygene NV, contributed to the project, Bayer said.

Coordinator Boulos Chalhoub of the French public research institute INRA said: “We have discovered the mechanism by which the levels of glucosinolates, which make the crop less nutritious for livestock, can be reduced.”

He added that the breakthrough would “help scientists in their efforts to make oilseed rape more resistant to disease, improve yield and its take-up of nitrogen from the soil, thereby improving its environmental profile.”

Oilseed rape has one of the most complex genomes among flowering plants.

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“The gene number is four times that of the human genome,” said Chalhoub. He said that after five years of research, the consortium had detected 1,600 genes that are implicated in oil-based synthesis, findings which, again, will support researchers aiming to develop rapeseed variants rich in Omega-3 for human and animal feed.

Rapeseed is used for edible oil and is a common feedstock for biofuel in Europe. Bayer made US$370M in sales from GM rapeseed and from pesticides for rapeseed farmers last year, around 15% of the global market.

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The sectors of biotechnology are ever growing and Biotech World covers them all, from industrial biotech to bioterrorism, agriculture to ethics and regulation. The magazine brings together the best of this fast-moving industry, revealing the latest discoveries and explaining developments in simple language, offering a birds-eye view of a vast but interconnected industry.

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News & developments Scientists capture ‘genetic snapshot’ of original corn

Early corn (or maize) farmers selected the best crops for genes that improved the intake of sunlight, a new detailed study of how plants use ‘doubles’ of their genomes reveals. The findings could help current efforts to improve existing crop varieties.

Researchers at Oxford University, UK captured a ‘genetic snapshot’ of corn as it existed 10 million years ago when the

plant made a double of its genome – a ‘whole genome duplication’ event.

They then traced how corn evolved to use those ‘copied’ genes to cope with the pressures of domestication, which began around 12,000 years ago.

They discovered that those copied genes were vital to optimising photosynthesis in corn leaves and that early farmers selecting for them ‘fuelled’ the transformation of corn into a highyield crop.

“Although whole genome duplication events are widespread in plants, finding evidence of exactly how plants use this new ‘toolbox’ of copied genes is very difficult,” said Dr Steve Kelley of Oxford University’s Department of Plant Sciences.

“With crops like wheat it’s not yet possible for us to unravel the ‘before and after’ of the associated genetic changes, but with maize we can chart how these gene copies were first acquired, then put to work and, finally, ‘whittled down’ to create the modern maize plant farmed today.”

It is particularly useful for such genetic detective work that close relatives of corn did not duplicate their genomes 10

million years ago; those that retained a single copy went on to become the plant we now know as sorghum. This enabled the researchers to compare genetic data from these ‘duplicated’ and ‘nonduplicated’ descendants of ancient corn, something that is not yet possible with other duplication crops, such as wheat.

In the wild, plants have to overcome the challenges posed by pathogens and predators in order to survive. However, once domestication by humans began, plants grown as crops had to cope with a new set of artificial selection pressures, such as delivering a high yield and greater stress tolerance.

“Whole genome duplication events are key in allowing plants to evolve new abilities,” said Kelly. “Understanding the complete trajectory of duplication and how copied genes can transform a plant is relevant for current efforts to increase the photosynthetic efficiency of crops, such as the C4 Rice Project. Our study is great evidence that optimising photosynthesis is really important for creating high-yield crops and shows how human selection has ‘sculpted’ copies of genes to create one of the world’s staple food sources.”

Camelina sativa plants to produce Omega-3 in UK A trial aiming to provide a more sustainable source of Omega-3 fatty acids for both fish and humans is nearing completion at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire, UK. Researchers are aiming to produce GM camelina sativa that is high in these fatty acids, usually found in oily fish such as mackerel.

The field trial gained approval in April from the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and marks the first time Omega-3 producing plants have been grown in the field in the UK. Lead scientist, Johnathan Napier, explained that the risk of cross-contamination was low, because camelina does not cross-pollinate with other oilseed crops. “The beauty of it is, [camelina] has capsules, so it does not suffer from pod shatter.”

However, Louise Payton, Soil Association policy officer, commented: “These GM plants have had more genetic modification done to them than most other GM plants that you see out there – this potentially increases the risk that the tweaking of genes has resulted in unintended adverse effects.

And field trials always run the risk of seeds escaping, making this GM experiment very risky.”

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News & developments Coffee genome successfully sequenced

Scientists have successfully sequenced the genetic code of robusta coffee (coffea cenephora), offering insight into the world’s most popular caffeinated beverage and sowing the seeds of possibility for genetic improvement of the bean.

The research reveals that the sequences and positions of genes in the coffee plant show that they evolved independently from genes with similar functions in tea and cocoa, which also produce caffeine. In other words, coffee did not inherit caffeinelinked genes from a common ancestor, but developed the genes on its own.

Philippe Lashermes, a researcher at the French Institute of Research for Development (IRD), Patrick Wincker and France Denoeud, genome scientists at the French National Sequencing Center (CEA-Genoscope) and Victor Albert, professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo, were the principle authors of the study.

They found that, compared to several other plant species – including grape and tomato – coffee harbours larger families of genes that relate to the production of alkaloid and flavonoid compounds, which contributes to qualities such as coffee aroma and the bitterness of beans.

Coffee also has an expanded collection of N-methyltransferases, enzymes that are involved in making caffeine.

The researchers found that coffee’s caffeine enzymes are more closely related to other genes within the coffee plant than to caffeine enzymes in tea and cocoa.

This finding suggests that caffeine production developed independently in coffee. If this trait had been inherited from a common ancestor, the enzymes would have been more similar between species.

“The coffee genome helps us understand what’s exciting about coffee,” Albert said. “By looking at which families of genes expanded in the plant and the relationship between the genome structure of coffee and other species, we were able to learn about coffee’s independent pathway in evolution, including – excitingly – the story of caffeine.”

Scientists don’t yet know why caffeine is important in nature. Some theorise that the chemical may help plants repel insects or stunt competitors’ growth. One recent paper has shown that pollinators, such as bees, often return to plants containing caffeine – so they, too, develop caffeine habits.

“It turns out that, over evolutionary time, the coffee

genome wasn’t triplicated as in its relatives, the tomato and chile pepper,” Wincker said. “Instead, it maintained a structure similar to the grape’s. As such, evolutionary diversification of the coffee genome was likely more driven by duplications in particular gene families as opposed to en masse, when all genes in the genome duplicate.”

This stands in contrast to what has been suggested for several other large plant families, where other investigators have noted correlations between high species diversity in a group and the presence of whole genome doublings or triplings.

Others involved in the study are still attempting to sequence the most popular and flavoursome arabica strand of coffee, which contains around twice as much genetic information.

With more than 2.25 billion cups of coffee consumed per day worldwide, coffee is the principal agricultural product of many tropical countries.

According to estimates by the International Coffee Organization, more than 8.7 million tonnes of coffee was produced in 2013, revenue from exports amounted to US$15.4 billion in 2009-10 and the sector employed nearly 26 million people in 52 countries.

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Sweden: Trypsin, an enzyme found in the Arctic species of cod, has been found to trap the cold virus and stop it in its tracks, scientists claim.

The enzyme has been adapted by biotechnology company Enzymatica into a mouth spray that reduced the spread of the virus in clinical trials by 99%.

The spray works by forming an invisible barrier in the mouth and throat, which stops the virus being taken up by human cells and multiplying.

The active barrier showed that the spray also halved the average number of ‘symptom’ days for those who caught a cold from 6.5 to three days.

Dr Mats Clarsund, head of R&D at Enzymatica, said the remedy had been five years in the making.

He added: “The enzyme doesn’t kill the virus. It effectively disarms it because it stops it being taken up with human cells, so the cold and its symptoms can’t progress.”

Trypsin is found in the pancreas of deep-sea cod and becomes more efficient at body temperature, making it effective at stopping the virus when it comes into contact with skin or other tissue.

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Biotech World brings together the best of the fast-moving biotechnology industry in one monthly digest. Revealing the latest discoveries and explaining developments in simple language, it offers a birds-eye view of a vast but interconnected industry.

Advertising in Biotech World ensures your products and services reach the right people.

Call Steve Fulford on +44 (0)1223 968 960 or email stevefulford@biotechworld.co

World news

News & developments Synthesised scorpion venom makes cancer cells glow

Scientists have discovered that injecting synthetic scorpion venom into cancer patients causes cancer cells to glow, allowing surgeons to remove just the ‘bad’ cells.

The discovery was made after a girl named Violet died last year at age 11 from an inoperable brainstem tumour. Before she died, she and her family requested a rapid autopsy to enable the creation of important research tools from her brain tumour.

She wanted those tools to be shared with scientists worldwide to help children diagnosed in the future.

Known as ‘Project Violet’, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Hutch) is using crowdfunding to enlist the help of the community to develop a fundamentally new class of anti-cancer compounds derived from scaffolds of nature – chemical templates from organisms such as violets, scorpions and sunflowers – to attack cancer cells while leaving healthy cells untouched.

The ultimate goal is to develop highly targeted treatments that kill the cancer while sparing patients from the toxic side effects of

chemotherapy, such as hair loss and nausea.

The project was built on the success of research conducted

by Dr Jim Olson, who invented ‘tumour paint’, a molecule derived from scorpion venom that safely travels through the body and causes cancer cells to light up to help surgeons visually distinguish cancer from normal tissue.

“We were impressed that scorpions have evolved amazing drugs, which led us to begin looking deeply into the drugs produced by other plants and animals,” Olsen said.

“For example, sunflower petals are not eaten by bugs because they make a compound that protects them from hungry insects. Likewise, we found exquisite examples of drugs made by potatoes, spiders, cone snails, sea slugs and, yes, violets.”

Olson and his colleagues created an entirely new class of drugs: ‘optimised peptides’ or ‘optides’ for short. These tiny molecules can be instructed to bind to particular kinds of cancer cells, disabling only those cells. They can also be instructed to bind to particular kinds of cancer cells, disabling only those cells, and can be

attached to chemotherapy drugs, transforming them into precision therapies that spare healthy cells. Optides are potentially less expensive and more powerful than other next-generation therapies.

Olson and colleagues are developing optides that target some of the most treatmentresistant malignancies: brain cancer, melanoma, breast cancer and tumours of the neck and throat.

While developing new cancer treatments is the primary focus of optides research at Hutch, this new class of drugs also offers the potential to develop new treatments for epilepsy, depression, anxiety and other disorders of the central nervous system, Olson said.

“Optides offer unprecedented accuracy – an entirely new class of drugs that are far less toxic, far more effective and flexible enough to be used in a wide range of applications,” he said.

Using scaffolds from nature to develop drugs is not a new

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concept; other researchers and drug companies have been interested in creating new drugs using molecules derived from plants and animals.

However, most efforts have failed because there have been huge barriers to making thousands of optide variants inexpensively, rapidly and in quantities large enough to conduct scientifically rigorous experiments.

“Our team at the Hutch has overcome six major barriers,” Olson said. He and his collaborators have developed a new optide production system to quickly synthesise thousands of optide variants that can then be evaluated for therapeutic production.

“Whereas it takes some companies a decade to make hundreds of peptide drug candidates, we can make 12,000 a month and are ramping up beyond that,” Olson said, adding: “Nature provides the raw materials and we provide the expertise to turn them into lifesaving therapies.”

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News & developments Just 8.2% of DNA is functional Only 8.2% of human DNA is ‘functional’, Oxford University research scientists have said.

This figure is very different from the one given in 2012, when scientists involved in the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project stated that 80% of our genome has some biochemical function.

Professor Chris Ponting of the MRC Functional Genomics Unit at Oxford, explained: “When sequencing the genomes of patients, if our DNA was largely functional, we’d need to pay attention to every mutation. In contrast, with only 8% being functional, we have to work out the 8% of the mutations detected that might be important. From a medical point of view, this is essential to interpreting the role of human genetic variation in disease.”

The scientists looked at where insertions and deletions of chunks of DNA appeared

in mammals’ genomes. These could be expected to fall randomly in the sequence – except where natural selection was acting to preserve functional DNA – where they would lie further apart.

The results found that just 8.2% is functional, while the rest of the genome is simply leftover evolutionary material, parts of the genome that have undergone losses or gains in the DNA code – often called ‘junk’ DNA. Furthermore, not all of the functional 8.2% is equally important, the researchers said.

A little over 1% of human DNA accounts for the proteins that carry out almost all of the critical biological processes in the body. The other 7% is thought to be involved in the switching on and off of genes that encode proteins – at different times, in response to various factors and in different

parts of the body. These are the control and regulation elements, and there are various different types.

In comparing the genomes of different species the researchers found that, while the protein-coding genes are very well conserved across all mammals, there is a higher turnover of DNA sequence in the regulatory regions over the 80 million years of evolutionary separation between the two species.

“Regulatory DNA evolves much more dynamically than we thought,” said Dr Lunter of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford – and joint senior author.

He explained that, although there is a lot of functional DNA that isn’t shared between mice and humans, we can’t yet tell what is novel and explains our differences as species, and what is just a different geneswitching system that achieves the same result.

Photo: Kotist/dreamstime.com

Biotech market expected to hit US$604 billion by 2020

The global market for biotechnology is expected to reach US$604.04bn by 2020, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. The report said that increasing application scope, coupled with the rising demand for effective vaccines and drugs in an attempt to improve healthcare access to patients with unmet medical needs, would

drive market demand over the next six years. In addition, the need to enhance agricultural productivity via the use of genetically engineered seeds would serve this market as a driver.

Biopharmacy dominated the overall market, accounting for over 60% of the total revenue in 2013.

High costs associated with the drug discovery process coupled with increasing healthcare expenditures in emerging markets such as India, China and Brazil are some of the factors augmenting biopharmacy growth.

The growing popularity of contract research outsourcing (CRO) services in an attempt to curb manufacturing and R&D costs were forecast to drive bioservices demand, which should be the fastest growing application market for

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biotechnology.

Further key findings revealed that North America was the largest regional market, accounting for over 40% of global revenue in 2013. Asia Pacific was expected to register the fastest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.8% during the forecast period, owing to the presence of untapped opportunities in emerging markets such as India and China.

Tissue engineering and regeneration technology dominated the market in terms of revenue share in 2013 at 32.5%, on account of the rising demand for regenerative medicine.

Key industry participants included Novo Nordisk, Amgen, Gilead Sciences, Celgene, Biogen Idic and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

BIOTECHNOLOGY? WE’VE GOT IT COVERED.

Biotech World brings together the best of the fast-moving biotechnology industry in one monthly digest. Revealing the latest discoveries and explaining developments in simple language, it offers a birds-eye view of a vast but interconnected industry.

The sectors of biotechnology are ever growing and Biotech World covers them all, from industrial biotech to bioterrorism, agriculture to ethics and regulations.

To advertise, call Steve Fulford on +44 (0)1223 968 960 or email stevefulford@biotechworld.co www.biotechworld.co

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News & developments Photo: Mopic/dreamstime.com

Scientists find cellular snooze button

A team of scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) has discovered a ‘cellular snooze button’ – the protein CHT7 – that enables algae to produce more oil. The discovery has applications in the biofuel industry and could slow down tumour growth in humans.

Christoph Benning, MSU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and his colleagues unearthed the protein’s potential while seeking ways to improve algae’s capacity as a biofuel. Its application in cancer research, however, was a surprise finding that has led Benning’s lab in a new direction.

The discovery was made while tackling the conundrum of algae’s vexing inverse relationship with growing mass versus producing oil.

When algae are awake, they grow; when they’re asleep, they produce oil.

“Producing oil is part of the cells’ survival strategy when it’s under stress,” said Chia-Hong Tsai, doctoral candidate with MSU’s Department of Energy

Plant Research Laboratory and Department of Plant Biology and co-author. “They go into quiescence to conserve energy and nutrients. That’s when they produce the equivalent of vegetable oil. But, to convert them into truly viable biofuel producers, we need them to grow and produce oil simultaneously.”

The secret for making this happen was CHT7 – the gatekeeper that cues cells to wake up or fall asleep. By engineering this protein, Benning’s team might one day develop an organism that can’t doze and is always active. For biofuels, this would remove a major hurdle and give scientists a way to potentially produce high amounts of oil and biomass.

In terms of human medicine, the discovery gives scientists a promising new model to study tumour suppression and growth. Because quiescent cells are found in many plants and animals, it is a model that can provide important insights into the regulation of cellular behaviour in organisms,

such as humans, in ways that traditional yeast models cannot replicate.

“It’s quite difficult to grow many types of human cells in test tubes. However, we can readily grow, manipulate and study algae, which have the genomic repertoire that make them relevant in their capacity to drive advances in human medicine,” Benning said.

He added: “For cancer research, it’s a new paradigm.

The switch that tells an organism to grow or, possibly, to go rogue and grow uncontrollably – that’s exactly what we want to understand.

That is the first step of tumour growth.”

Additional MSU team members included Jaruswan Warakanont, plant biology doctoral student; Tomomi Takeuchi, biochemistry and molecular biology doctoral student; Barbara Sears, professor emeritus of genetics and plant biology; and Eric Moellering, former doctoral candidate of biochemistry and molecular biology now at Synthetic Genomics Inc.

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UK: Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered the role played by more than 250 genes key to cell growth and development. The researchers surveyed the fission yeast genome with respect to three key cellular processes simultaneously: cell shape, microtubule organisation and cell cycle progression.

Dr Rafael Carazo Salas, who led the research, said: “More than 10 years since the publication of the human genome, the so-called ‘Book of Life’, we still have no direct evidence of the function played by half the genes across all species whose genomes have been sequenced.

We have no ‘catalogue’ of genes involved in cellular processes and their functions, yet these processes are fundamental to life. Understanding them better could eventually open up new avenues of research for medicines that target these processes, such as chemotherapy drugs.”

The researchers were able to understand how the processes of the genes might be linked. For example, they found in the yeast – and, importantly, validated in human cells – a previously unknown link between control of microtubule stability and the machinery that repairs damage to DNA. Many conventional cancer therapies target microtubular stability or DNA damage and, while there is no evidence in scientific literature that drugs targeting both processes might interact, the reason why has been unclear.

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News & developments Zebrafish offer clues in identifying origin of genetic diseases

Scientists have used zebrafish to identify the cause of an unknown genetic disorder affecting a boy and two of his uncles. The boy presented with a puzzling constellation of symptoms, including poor head growth (microcephaly).

As two of the boy’s uncles shared many of these symptoms, it suggested that the disorder was caused by a recessive mutation on the X-chromosome.

Using this clue, the scientists tracked down a mutation carried only by the affected males and their mothers, within a gene called RPL10 located on the X-chromosome.

To be certain it was the problematic gene, they tested the effect of the mutation in a zebrafish. They showed that dampening expression of the zebrafish RPL10 gene caused the animals to develop significantly smaller heads.

When they replaced the suppressed zebrafish gene with the human version, the fish heads developed to a normal size. But, when the researchers tried the same trick using the mutated variant of the human RPL10 gene, it didn’t work. In other words, the change in DNA sequence prevented RPL10 from functioning properly. These findings strongly suggested that the mutation was responsible for microcephaly in the males from the original family.

The researchers emphasised that, while identifying the likely cause of the disorder does not mean they can now cure the boy and his uncles, the findings provide a crucial first step for further research into the molecular details of the disease and, ultimately, for

Synthetic biology creates natural food in the lab Evolva, a Swiss biotech company, has developed a synthetic vanilla and synthetic saffron which Todd Kuiken, senior programme associate with the Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, said was “the next stage of genetic engineering.”

Synthetic biology (synbio) has been applauded for its potential to create drugs, biofuels and even designer creatures. According to a November article in The Salt, synbio involves taking genes from a plant and giving them to yeast to make the same compound the plant makes, but much more efficiently, via fermentation.

While artificial vanilla flavouring is available, it is produced from petrochemicals and paper mill waste, and

cannot therefore be labelled ‘natural’. Synbio vanillin, the name of the compound in the vanilla bean that imparts most of its flavour, can be labelled natural as it is made from fermentation.

After years of experiments, the company figured out how to give yeast directions – in the form of genes for enzymes – to turn sugar into stevia (a sweetener), vanilla, saffron and resveratrol (a compound found in red wine and grapes that is believed to have numerous health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and helping prevent heart attacks).

Yeast is a natural for transforming sugar into other substances, such as alcohol.

One advantage of synbio food is that the engineered yeast used to produce it does not require any land.

Other companies are also attempting to produce food in a lab. A group of ‘biohackers’ is pursuing vegan cheese while the start-up Muufri is using fermentation to engineer yeast to make cow, goat and buffalo milk.

As its website explains, milk contains six key proteins for structure and function, and eight key fatty acids for flavour and richness.

The company can choose to leave out lactose or bad cholesterol in the milk product, which would be of advantage to many consumers.

Additionally, “because our products are made with the same precision as medicines, they’ll be free of all bacteria – meaning a great-tasting milk with unprecedentedly long shelf life, no pasteurisation needed.”

Biotech World ! Preview ! 18

developing treatments.

One scientist speculated that many other ribosomal protein genes will now be added to the list of candidates for other people with rare microcephaly symptoms who are searching for the molecular cause of their diseases.

Zebrafish are particularly useful for this kind of study because they strike a balance between evolutionary relatedness to humans and the speed and cost of research.

For example, around 70% of human protein-coding genes have an equivalent in zebrafish. That figure rises to 84% when you consider only those genes known to be associated with disease.

But, compared to laboratory mice and rats, zebrafish are considerably cheaper to maintain and faster to grow.

World news

News & developments Micreos, a Dutch biotech company that develops antibacterial solutions based on bacteriophage (phage) technology, has developed an enzyme that kills antibioticresistant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

The company explains that a phage is a bacterial virus that infects and replicates within a bacterium. Every bacterial strain has co-evolved to have phage counterparts that depend on the host bacterium to survive and proliferate. Phages utilise the host bacterium to replicate and produce progeny (new) phages, which exit the bacterial cell following cell wall lysis (bursting), to find new bacteria to infect.

Phages produce enzymes that have the ability to target specific components on a bacterial cell wall, resulting in lysis of the bacterium and, therefore, cell death.

These enzymes are known as endolysins. The working mechanism of endolysins is unrelated to that of antibiotics, meaning even bacteria

resistant to antibiotics are susceptible.

The new enzyme, called Staphefekt, is the first endolysin available for human use on intact skin. It kills the target bacteria quickly with very limited likelihood of emerging resistance, as it works independently of the bacterial metabolism – which harbours the resistance mechanisms – and targets a region of the bacterial cell wall less susceptible to mutation.

An additional feature is that its action is specific to S. aureus and does not affect beneficial bacteria.

Dr Bjorn Herpers, clinical microbiologist at Public Health Lab, Kennemerland, The Netherlands, said: “The results are exciting and demonstrate the potential this technology has to revolutionise the way we treat certain bacterial infections. With the increasing prevalence of multi-drugresistant bacteria, new strategies for the treatment of bacterial infections are needed. As well as being less prone to resistance induction

Photo: rgpilch/dollarphotoclub

Antibiotics replaced by endolysin in fight against MRSA bacteria

than antibiotics, endolysins destroy only their target bacterial species, leaving the beneficial bacteria alone.”

Observations in patients demonstrated that the enzyme works. In one patient, after the local application of Staphefekt for a week, S.aureus was eradicated, while other skin problems remained present.

Mark Offerhaus, Micreos CEO, said: “With the introduction of Staphefekt,

we enter a new era in the fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria, targeting only the unwanted bacteria. This is a far more logical and elegant approach. Millions of people stand to benefit. That’s very exciting and gratifying.”

Micreos has started clinical trials for new therapeutic areas and the company is looking to collaborate with clinicians internationally to establish further trials.

bioLytical Laboratories produces 60-second Ebola virus test

Privately-owned Canadian biotechnology company, bioLytical Laboratories – the producer of rapid infectious disease diagnostic tests such the world’s fastest 60-second HIV test – has successfully developed a pre-clinical prototype diagnostic test for the rapid detection of antibodies to the Ebola Zaire strain responsible for the current outbreak in West Africa.

The prototype is based upon the company’s proven, accurate and accepted Insti rapid test platform, which is capable of providing results within 60 seconds.

“We are very excited about what our research and development team has been able to accomplish in such a short period of time,” said bioLytical CEO Dr Christopher Shackleton.

“There is clearly a pressing need for a diagnostic test that can rapidly and accurately detect the presence of this potentially deadly infection as early as possible and in diverse testing environments.” He added that the test could prove invaluable in settings where there were time constraints, such as travel points of entry. bioLytical chairman, Robert Mackie, added: “This test is a significant step forward in the battle to contain the current Ebola epidemic, and bioLytical is continuing to work with international authorities to ensure that we’re contributing to the containment efforts.”

Biotech World ! Preview ! 19

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Ethics/policy/regulation Ethics, policy, regulation

Hitting the genetic switch Terminator technology offers seed companies an effective way to police and protect their intellectual property and investments in biotechnology, but concerns about monopolisation, food security and ethical boundaries prevent its use Diversity (UNCBD), multinational seed companies have been quietly logging patents behind the scenes.

While giants, such as Monsanto, Syngenta and DuPont uphold public commitments not to commercialise sterile seed technology, they have nevertheless invested in research and development (R&D) and hold patents on the technology. If preparation is the key to success, these companies stand to hit the ground running should the moratorium be lifted.

There are, conceptually at least, two types of GURT. The first developed was the variety-level GURT (V-GURT), in which the seeds are modified so that second-generation seeds are sterile. A farmer could purchase seeds optimised for maximum productivity or drought resistance and harvest an excellent crop. The seeds produced by that crop, while safe for human or animal consumption, would not grow if replanted. Therefore, the farmer would have to purchase new seeds every year. These first GURTs were jointly developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and seed companies as a way of protecting US technology.

The second GURT developed was the trait GURT

There are whispers of a subtle shift in the global consensus regarding so-called ‘Terminator’ technology. In October last year, Brazil’s Judicial Commission prepared to consider a bill that would allow the commercial sale of genetic use restriction technology (GURT), sparking uproar around the globe. Later in the month, however, the country upheld its ban on Terminator seeds and the President of the Commission pledged that he would not allow the topic to be discussed while he remained in office. But is this the end of the debate?

According to Maria Jose Guazzelli of the nonprofit Centro Ecológico, no. “The Terminator bill was withdrawn from the agenda, but it could be resuscitated at some point, and we know there is a second Terminator bill lurking in the labyrinth of the legislature. However, the immediate and unequivocal mobilisation from inside and outside the country reminded those in Brazil that attempts to legalise Terminator won’t go unnoticed or unchallenged.”

Nevertheless, over the eight years following the affirmation of a global moratorium on the commercial sale of GURTs at the 2006 COP8 meeting of the United Nations Convention on Biological Biotech World q Preview q 21

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Ethics, policy, regulation (T-GURT), which modifies the seed at the trait level so that the genetic enhancement does not function without the additional use of a chemical that is sold by the biotechnology company. Using this method allows the farmer to replant the seeds produced by the first generation – saving the seed company production and distribution costs – but they will be ‘average’ seeds unless a chemical is added.

Creating a superseed One advantage of T-GURT technology is that a seed genetically modified to resist drought may not need this characteristic ‘activated’ by chemicals if the season brought plenty of rain. The chemical turns these ‘genetic switches’ on and off and need only be purchased if circumstances require it, saving the farmer money. The seed could be modified to carry any number of these switches so that, in the case of specific disease or pest problems, chemicals could be purchased to activate the required genes that fight the disease. A lucky farmer may never need to purchase chemicals if conditions were favourable for his crop. This would curtail the use of potentially harmful chemicals and could prevent resistance build-up in the plant.

Other chemicals could activate genes that improve productivity – larger oilseeds in the case of sunflower, for example, or broader leaves in the tobacco plant.

Another advantage is a lowered risk of cross contamination. If a bee that had visited a GURT plant pollinates a ‘normal’ plant, the second-generation seeds from the normal plant would be sterile – or inactive until a specific chemical was added – and the contamination would end there. GURT proponents argue that this should appease those with concerns about containment.

Unethical but necessary?

On the face of it, sterile seed technology would seem a fair and unbiased way for seed companies to protect their investments. This was certainly the aim of the USDA when it began developing the technology. In 1998, Willard Phelps, the official spokesman of the USDA at the time, made clear the

“ The

centuriesold practice of farmersaved seed is really a gross disadvantage to third-world farmers who inadvertently become locked into obsolete varieties because of their taking the ‘easy road’ and not planting newer, more productive varieties ” Willard Phelps, former spokesman of the United States Department of Agriculture

T-GURT technology modifies the seed at the trait level.

Chemicals must be added to take advantage of the genetic enhancement (Photo: cutimage/dollarphotoclub)

Biotech World q Preview q 23

department’s position on GURTs in an interview with New Scientist: “Our system is a way of self-policing the unauthorised use of American technology. It’s similar to copyright protection. This technology is designed to increase the value of proprietary seed owned by US companies and to open up new markets in second- and third-world countries.”

He added: “The centuries-old practice of farmersaved seed is really a gross disadvantage to thirdworld farmers who inadvertently become locked into obsolete varieties because of their taking the ‘easy road’ and not planting newer, more productive varieties.”

However, not everyone agreed with him. Many felt that, on an ethical basis, seed companies should not prevent these ‘third-world farmers’ from replanting the seeds they had grown, when they relied so heavily upon them for a livelihood.

Others questioned whether GURTs would be a help or hindrance to global food security; if farmers could not afford to purchase the optimised seeds each year, surely fewer would be planted? If the seed industry was monopolised by giant corporations, what would prevent them from raising their prices and, by so doing, force farmers to dig ever deeper and deeper in their wallets? Even more cynically, if seed companies could manipulate genes to that extent, what was to stop them removing desirable traits so that farmers were forced to buy chemicals to reactivate them and return them to ‘normal’ seeds?

More questions than answers Currently, it is against the law for farmers to replant seeds produced from patented GM crops. This was brought into the media spotlight last year in the second of just two cases ever put before the US Supreme Court relating to the patenting of living organisms, Bowman v Monsanto.

For many years, Indiana farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman purchased legitimate herbicide-resistant Monsanto seeds through its licensed distributor, Pioneer. One year, he purchased some additional seeds from a local commodity seed provider that he believed were non-GM but, when he planted them, he found they too were herbicide-resistant.

Occasionally, GM seeds become mixed with nonGM seeds in grain elevators and can be accidentally re-sold, a practice over which Monsanto has little control. While Bowman continued to purchase legitimate seeds from Pioneer, he replanted the progeny seeds of the illegitimate seeds on the side – and continued to do so for seven years. Upon discovery, Monsanto sued.

The Supreme Court ruled in favour of Monsanto and Bowman was ordered to repay US$84,000, but the case generated more questions than answers.

Do seed companies have any right (ethical or practical) to restrict the use of GM progeny seeds, which are a natural result of the growing process?

Can this be effectively policed? Should patents extend to self-replicating technologies such as

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Ethics, policy, regulation seeds and, if so, what would this mean for other selfreplicating technologies such as vaccines, cell lines and even DNA? How, if not by enforcing the issue via sterile seed technology, are seed companies to protect their intellectual property and retain the financial incentive to continue R&D? For biotechnology companies, the answer is tantalisingly available and yet firmly out of reach.

The technology is there, but the global consensus is that it cannot ethically be used.

The future of Terminator Is Terminator technology unethical? On the one hand, the rewards appear to work both ways: farmers are all but guaranteed a healthy and profitable crop (as long as they pay for it), while seed companies see a reasonable return on their investment.

On the other hand, there remain too many unanswered questions. What would be the longterm implications of using Terminator technology on global food security when ‘seed saving’ is estimated to account for between 15% and 20% of the world’s food supply (practised by 100 million farmers in Latin America, 300 million in Africa and one billion in Asia)? What are the risks of cross contamination?

Is it fair to force farmers in third-world countries to comply with the rules of large multinationals such as Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, Dow, Monsanto and DuPont which, together, control 60% of the global commercial seed market? How much of this argument, which seems weighted towards the production of more food to meet rising population

Seed saving accounts for between 15% and 20% of the world’s food supply and is practised by 100 million farmers in Latin America, 300 million in Africa and one billion in Asia (Photo: Matthew Collingwood/ dreamstime.com)

AN EYE ON THE FUTURE? Your buyers’ eyes. Here.

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Biotech World q Preview q 25

levels is, in fact, simply about adding to the pockets of biotech giants? Will there be market restrictions when it comes to the export of these GM goods – to the European Union, for example, which actively excludes GMOs? Would the technology end at crops or could it be extended to encompass mammals; will we next be modifying cattle to produce subpar milk unless it is fed with chemicals produced by biotechnology companies?

Before any commercial sale of GURTs is considered, we must first satisfy the requirements laid out at the UNCBD in 2000, which recommended that “in the current absence of reliable data on genetic use restriction technologies, without which there is an inadequate basis on which to assess their potential risks, and in accordance with the precautionary approach, products incorporating such technologies should not be approved by Parties for field testing until appropriate scientific data can justify such testing, and for commercial use until appropriate, authorised and strictly controlled scientific assessments with regard to, inter alia, their ecological and socio-economic impacts and any adverse effects for biological diversity, food security and human health have been carried out in a transparent manner and the conditions for their safe and beneficial use validated.”

Despite continued R&D behind the scenes, we have not moved forward since 2000. While our developing technologies are ever more sophisticated, our ethical quandry remains t unchanged.

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Photos: Virginia Tech University

Marine biotechnology

Propulsion from the ocean As we seek to understand the secrets of the ocean, what better way to get a glimpse than to become one among the many creatures that explore its depths? Researchers at Virginia Tech College of Engineering are doing just that. While we cannot yet send ourselves to the ocean floor for any length of time, we can send a decoy Meet Cyro, the robotic jellyfish that looks and moves like a real jellyfish, but has the potential to study aquatic life, map ocean floors, monitor ocean currents, water quality and sharks, and could even detect pollutants or act as a clean-up filter during oil spills.

By replicating nature’s propulsion technology in the form of a robot, in order to aid human understanding, Cyro is biotechnology in its finest form. Professor of mechanical engineering and head of the research team, Priya Shashank, explains: “Our focus has been using the experimental models to understand the fundamental principles of nature.”

He adds that “building the robotic jellyfish is a true example of interdisciplinary research activity,” and lists materials scientists, mechanical engineers, biologists, chemists, physicists, electrical engineers and ocean engineers as being involved in the project.

Cyro is a life-like, autonomous robotic jellyfish the size and weight of a man, five foot seven inches in length and weighing 170 pounds. The robot is modelled and named after the jellyfish cyanea capillata, Latin for ‘lion’s mane jellyfish’, with ‘Cyro’ derived from ‘cyanea’ and ‘robot’. It is a larger version of a previous model, called the RoboJelly, that the same team unveiled in 2012. The former model was the size of a man’s hand and typical of jellyfish found along beaches.

Both robots are part of a multi-university, nationwide, US$5 million project funded by the US

The original version of the robot, RoboJelly, was tethered, whereas Cyro runs on a rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery

Biotech World q Preview q 27

Naval Underseas Warfare Centre and the Office of Naval Research. The goal is to place self-powering, autonomous machines in waters for the purposes of surveillance and monitoring the environment.

But why choose to mimic jellyfish? As the team explains, jellyfish have an extraordinary ability to consume little energy, owing to a lower metabolic rate than other marine species. They appear in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colours, which allows for multiple designs. Additionally, jellyfish inhabit every major oceanic area of the world and are capable of withstanding a wide range of temperatures in both fresh and salt waters. While most species are found in shallow coastal waters, some have been found in depths 7,000 metres below sea level.

In a bid to better understand the fundamentals of propulsion mechanism utilised by nature, the team studied many different jellyfish around the world. Priya explains: “Most of these species adopt either a row or jetting form of propulsion. We are investigating both these propulsion mechanisms.”

After years of research and collaboration, Cyro is finally ready to meet the world. “It’s very exciting when everything comes together and we can create experimental models that surpass millions of years of evolution,” Priya says.

“Nature has done a good job in designing propulsion systems, but it is a slow and tedious process. On the other hand, the current status of technology allows us to create high performance systems in a matter of a few months.”

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Photos: Virginia Tech University

Marine biotechnology

Left: Robotic jellyfish research team members Alex Villanueva of St Jacques, New Brunswick, Canada, and a doctoral student; Kenneth Marut of Washington, DC and Tyler Michael of Lexington, NC, both masters students, all in the mechanical engineering programme. Right: Cyro is too large to fit in a tank and must therefore be tested in a swimming pool

Building the robot

A bigger and better model

Cyro manoeuvres in water by a rigid support structure powered by direct current electric motors, which control the mechanical arms that are used in conjunction with an artificial mesoglea, or jelly-based pulp of the fish’s body, creating the hydrodynamic movement. The robot’s skin is constructed of silicone, squishy in texture, that mimics the sleek skin of a real jellyfish. The skin is placed over a bowl-shaped device that contains the electronic guts of the robot. When moving, the skin floats and moves with the robot, looking eerily alive.

“Cyro showed its ability to swim autonomously while maintaining a similar physical appearance and kinematics as the natural species,” Priya states, adding: “This autonomous operation in shallow water conditions is already a big step towards demonstrating the use of these creatures.” Not just capable of moving by itself, the robot is able to simultaneously collect, store, analyse and communicate sensory data.

Jellyfish can move vertically via propulsion but are dependent on ocean currents to move horizontally.

With no central nervous system, jellyfish instead use a diffused nerve net to control movement and can complete complex functions. A parallel study is seeking to create a control system inspired by the jellyfish’s system, which will eventually replace the current simplified controller.

“It has been a great experience to finally realise the biomimetic and bio-inspired robotic vehicles,” Priya says. “Nature has too many secrets and we were able to find some of them, but many still remain. We hope to find a mechanism to continue on this journey and resolve the remaining puzzles.”

A stark difference exists between the larger and smaller models. Cyro is powered by a rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery, whereas the smaller models were tethered, Priya notes. While experiments have been conducted on powering the jellyfish with hydrogen, which is abundant in water, there is still much research to be done in this area.

In both cases, the jellyfish must be able to operate on their own for months or longer at a time, as engineers likely won’t be able to capture and repair the robots, or replace power sources.

Alex Villenueva of St Jacques, New Brunswick, Canada – and a doctoral student in mechanical engineering working with the team – says: “We hope to improve on this robot and reduce power consumption and improve swimming performance, as well as better mimic the morphology of the natural jellyfish.” He is enthusiastic about how the project allows researchers to better understand how aquatic creatures live. “Our hopes for Cyro’s future is that it will help understand how the propulsion mechanism of such animals scales with size.”

Numerous universities are in on the project, which requires the expertise of many different sectors. The University of Texas in Dallas is handling nanotechnology-based actuators and sensors; Providence College in Rhode Island is handling biological studies; the University of California in Los Angeles is handling electrostatic and optical sensing/controls; and Stanford University is overseeing chemical and pressure sensing. Virginia Tech is responsible for building the jellyfish body models, integrating fluid mechanics and developing control systems. t

Robotic jellyfish swims with its creators: Cyro is covered with a silicone skin that prevents water from entering the robot and mimics jellyfish in the ocean

Upclose shot at robotic jellyfish Cyro’s electronic body: the robotic jellyfish Cyro without its silicone skin covering shows the electric compartment where the ‘brains’ and battery-operated power supply of the machine are kept. While in the water, the compartment is water-insulated with a fast-drying, rubber-like gel to prevent damage

Biotech World q Preview q 29

See the potential? We do.

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The sectors of biotechnology are ever growing and Biotech World covers them all, from industrial biotech to bioterrorism, agriculture to ethics and regulation. The magazine brings together the best of this fast-moving industry, revealing the latest discoveries and explaining developments in simple language, offering a birds-eye view of a vast but interconnected industry.

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Industrial

E.coli, widely known for causing food poisoning, is part of the normal bacteria in the gut

Running on bacteria Does the key to cheap and efficient biofuel production lie in our own intestines? A group of scientists from Imperial College London (ICL) in the UK and the University of Turku in Finland believe it does.

Escherichia coli (E.coli) has been successfully engineered into propane, providing another weapon in the fight for renewable energy Propane use is growing rapidly in non-industrialised areas of the world and is a popular choice for barbecues and portable stoves. It is one of a group of liquefied petroleum gases (LPGs) and is often compressed to transportable liquid. In the USA, over 190,000 on-road vehicles use propane, as well as over 450,000 forklifts, ranking it as the third most popular vehicle fuel in America. In 2007, around 13 million vehicles used LPG worldwide.

To produce the fuel, researchers used a strain of E.coli that functions by absorbing sugar and turning it into fat. They used enzymes to channel the fatty acids along a different biological pathway, so that the bacteria made engine-ready renewable propane instead of cell membranes. The scientists chose to target propane because it can easily escape the cell as a gas, yet requires little energy to transform from its natural gaseous state into a liquid that is easy to

transport, store and use. The scientists’ ultimate goal, they say, is to insert this engineered system into photosynthetic bacteria, so as to one day directly convert solar energy into chemical fuel.

Dr Patrik Jones, from the Department of Life Sciences at ICL, who was involved in the study, says: “Although this research is at a very early stage, our proof of concept study provides a method for renewable production of a fuel that previously was only accessible from fossil reserves. Although we have only produced tiny amounts so far, the fuel we have produced is ready to be used in an engine straight away. This opens up possibilities for future sustainable production of renewable fuels that at first could complement, and thereafter replace, fossil fuels like diesel, petrol, natural gas and jet fuel.”

He adds: “Fossil fuels are a finite resource and, as our population continues to grow, we are going to Biotech World q Preview q 31

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Industrial

have to come up with new ways to meet increasing energy demands. It is a substantial challenge, however, to develop a renewable process that is low-cost and economically sustainable. At the moment, algae can be used to make biodiesel, but it is not commercially viable, as harvesting and processing requires a lot of energy and money. So we chose propane because it can be separated from the natural process with minimal energy and it will be compatible with the existing infrastructure for easy use.”

Propane is the third most popular vehicle fuel in the USA

The way forward Nevertheless, scientists are still five to 10 years away from commercialising the technology. The research team says the current process produces less than 1,000 times the yield required for a commercial product. Using current methods, it is estimated to require a staggering 100 litres of bacteria to produce one teaspoon of fuel. Therefore, the team has turned its attention to refining its newly designed synthetic process.

Jones says: “At the moment, we don’t have a full grasp of exactly how the fuel molecules are made, so we are now trying to find out exactly how this process unfolds. I hope that, over the next five to 10 years, we will be able to achieve commercially viable processes that will sustainably fuel our energy demands.”

It is an appealing idea. Despite the limited applications at this stage, these developments in bacteria-derived fuel come at a time when biofuels are expected to contribute to the world’s future energy requirements. However, scientists are stretched to find a method of producing a fuel that is renewable, cost-effective and sustainable.

The advantage of using biofuels derived from crops is that this method is considered ‘carbon neutral’. Theoretically, unlike fossil fuels – which add to the net quantity of carbon in the atmosphere – the amount of CO2 produced by biofuel is equal to the amount of CO2 absorbed by the crops used to produce them. Using bacteria is another carbon neutral method of producing fuel, but this method has the edge over crop-derived biofuels: they do not require or encourage the devastation of valuable land, which many NGOs have argued nullifies any benefits biofuels provide.

“ Fossil fuels

are a finite resource and, as our population continues to grow, we are going to have to come up with new ways to meet increasing energy demands ” Dr Patrik Jones, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, UK

butanol product is toxic to the cyanobacteria that produce it.

Cyanobacteria has much to offer. As a bacteria that obtains its energy through photosynthesis, the raw materials required to produce it are almost infinite – sunlight, carbon dioxide and water. In other words, like plants, cyanobacteria offer the opportunity to convert sunlight directly to energy.

In the USA, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Joint BioEnergy Institute announced in March this year that they had engineered a bacterium to synthesise pinene, a hydrocarbon produced by trees that could potentially replace high-energy fuels such as JP-10, used in missiles and other aerospace applications.

By inserting enzymes from trees into the bacterium, the researchers boosted pinene production six-fold over earlier bioengineering efforts. E.coli was again selected as the bacterium of choice.

Despite promise, the method is not considered commercially viable as the amount of oil produced was limited, driving the price of JP-10 to around US$25/gallon. Pamela Peralta-Yahya, assistant professor at the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech, explains: “If you are trying to make an alternative to gasoline, you are competing against US$3/gallon. That requires a long optimisation process. [The bacteria route] will be competitive with US$25/gallon in a much shorter time.”

Fungus speeds up biofuel production Perhaps most promisingly, another team at the University of Michigan, USA paired E.coli with the fungus Trichoderma reesei, known for its ability to efficiently decompose the non-edible parts of plants. They applied the mixture to a vat of dried corn husks and found that, once the fungi had degraded the husks into sugars, the E.coli converted the sugars to fuel (isobutanol). The US Department of Energy (DOE) designated isobutanol as a ‘drop-in’ replacement for gasoline in 2011. In these experiments, yields of 62% were reached, the highest so far using consolidated bioprocessing (CBP). Again, however, the process cannot be commercialised until 80-90% yields are reached.

While not yet commercially viable, the use of bacteria in biofuel production offers scientists another option in the fight for global energy security. t

Is bacteria the magic bullet?

This is not the first time bacteria has been touted as the next step for biofuels. In 2013, researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, began investigating whether certain strains of the cyanobacteria Synechococcus elongatus (S. Elongatus) could synthesise alkanes along enzymatic pathways. The team managed to successfully produce butanol with a production method up to 20 times more efficient than producing ethanol from corn or sugarcane. However, scientists have yet to reproduce these results outside of the lab and the Biotech World q Preview q 33

Events

Diary 11-16 January 2015 Precision Genome Engineering and Synthetic Biology Big Sky Resort, Big Sky, Montana, USA Contact: Heather Ford Tel: +1 800 253 0685 or +1 970 262 1230 E-mail: info@keystonesymposia.org Web: www.keystonesymposia.org/15A1 12-14 January 2015 7th Annual Conference Biotech Showcase 2015 Parc 55 Wyndham, San Francisco, California, USA Contact: Kelly Rogers, EBD Group Tel: +1 760 692 5917 E-mail: krogers@ebdgroup.com Web: www.ebdgroup.com 21-23 January 2015 National Conference on Genome Informatics ‘15 SRM University, Kattankulathur Campus, Tamil Nadu, India Contact: Dr Waheeta Hopper E-mail: hod.bioinfo@ktr.srmuniv.ac.in Web: www.srmuniv.ac.in/ncgi/ncgi.html 28-31 January 2015 2nd International Conference on Bioenergy, Environment and Sustainable Technologies Arunai Engineering College, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India Contact: BEST2015 Tel: +91 89038 88961 E-mail: icbest2015@gmail.com Web: www.best.biotechpage.com 1-6 February 2015 RNA Nanotechnology Conference Four Points Sheraton/Holiday Inn Express, Ventura, California, USA Tel: +1 859 218 0128 E-mail: peixuan.guo@uky.edu Web: nanobio.uky.edu/RNA2013 2-4 February 2015 BioAsia 2015 New Era of Life Sciences

Novotel Hyderabad Convention Centre, Hyderabad, India Contact: Ms Paridhi Gupta Tel: +91 40 6644 6477 / 6577 E-mail: paridhi@bioasia.in Web: www.2015.bioasia.in 5 February 2015 9th Swiss-Scandinavian Bio-Business Seminar SIX Stock Exchange building, Zurich, Switzerland Contact: Edin Erkocevic, Business Sweden E-mail: edin.erkocevic@business-sweden.se Web: www.b2match.eu/ssbbs2015 18-19 February 2015 The 3rd International Partnering of the Israeli BioMedTech Industry Life Sciences Israel 2015 Dan Panorama Hotel, Tel Aviv, Israel Contact: Gail Tito, Secretariat Tel: +972 3 5767753 E-mail: secretariat@gpcevents.com Web: www.lifesciencesisrael.com 23-24 February 2015 10th Annual Biomarkers Congress Manchester Central Convention Complex, Manchester, UK Contact: Oxford Global Conferences Tel: +44 (0)1865 248455 E-mail: a.pau@oxfordglobal.co.uk Web: www.biomarkers-congress.com 24-25 February 2015 Pharma CI Conference & Exhibition Hilton Amsterdam Hotel, The Netherlands Tel: +1 212 228 7974 E-mail: info@pharmaciconference.com Web: www.pharmaciconference.com 25-26 February 2015 Bitcom’s Global Life Science Partnering Conference The Lodge at Torrey Pines, La Jolla, California, USA Contact: Ashleigh Berry, Associate Manager of Events, Biocom

Tel: +1 858 455 0300 E-mail: aberry@biocom.org Web: www.biocom.org/event/index/ Partnering_Conference_2015 26-27 February 2015 Clinical applications of stem cells Singapore General Hospital, Singapore Contact: Select Biosciences Ltd Tel: +65 9186 3246 E-mail: sea@selectbio.com Web: www.selectbiosciences.com/ conferences/index.aspx?conf=CASC2015 24-25 March 2015 12th Annual BIO Asia International Conference Grand Hyatt, Tokyo, Japan Contact: Bernadette Blake E-mail: bd_registration@bio.org Web: www.bio.org/events/conferences/ bio-asia-international-conference 13-15 April 2015 8th International Conference on Biobased Materials Maternushaus, Cologne, Germany Tel: +49 (0) 2233 4814 49 E-mail: dominik.vogt@nova-institut.de Web: www.biowerkstoff-kongress.de 15-17 April 2015 International Work-Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering (IWBBIO) 2015 Science Faculty of the University of Grenada, Grenada, Spain E-mail: iwbbio@ugr.es Web: www.iwbbio.ugr.es 12-15 May 2015 11th Annual World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology Montreal, Canada Contact: Simon Englhart, EBD Group Tel: +49 89 2388 756 0 E-mail: senglhart@ebdgroup.com Web: www.ebdgroup.com/bioeurope/ index.php

For more diary listings, visit www.biotechworld.co To request that your event be listed here or on the website, email editor@biotechworld.co

Biotech World q Preview q 34

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