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Scientists seeking a simple solution to the tricky task of separating single cells from a herd of others have found a way of making light of the problem. The new technique dubbed the "optoelectronic tweezer" combines a relatively low intensity light source with photo electricity to allow scientists to literally corral the cells they want to study, and could have major medical implications. "Our design has a strong practical advantage in that, unlike optical tweezers, a simple light source such as a light-emitting diode ... is powerful enough," said Pei Yu Chiou, part of the team led by Ming Wu...

Genetically-modified foods have been historically treated with caution in the U.S. and subjected to heavy regulations in Europe. But a new Ernst & Young report reveals a 17 percent jump in biotechnology sales worldwide last year, with totals exceeding $54 billion. In particular, American purchases increased 19.2 percent, accounting for 80 percent of global sales. Months before Ernst & Young reported investment and sales highs in genetically-altered foods, TAE laid out the benefits of biotechnology in its March 2004 issue. In “How Much Should We Worry About Biotech?” Tony Gilland writes, “The whole character of these regulations is informed by...

On the site of a former hat factory in Danbury, Conn., a stand of genetically altered cottonwood trees sucks mercury from the contaminated soil. Across the continent in California, researchers use transgenic Indian mustard plants to soak up dangerously high selenium deposits caused by irrigation of the nation's bread basket. Still others are engineering trees to retain more carbon and thus combat global warming. The gene jockeys conducting these exotic experiments envision a future in which plants can be used as an inexpensive, safer and more effective way of disposing of pollution. "Trees are really made for this ... we...

Maryland is the "global hotspot for biotechnology," the state's secretary of business and economic development told a group visiting from India last month. "I made it up this morning," Aris Melissaratos acknowledged, shortly after the meeting in Montgomery County.

Earlier this month, “advocates of embryonic stem-cell research” from “academia, politics, health care, and medicine” met in Houston. Not to share the results of their research, but to plot strategy, specifically, how to beat the political opposition and “get the research money flowing.” As has been the case since the start of this debate, the preferred tactic is to promise the public the moon. Paul Mandabach, who helped convince California voters to spend billions on state-funded stem-cell research, summed it up: “As the realities of these cures become clear, the morality arguments will be lessened.” Set aside the inconvenient fact...

Candidates square off over biotech Wednesday, June 22, 2005 Public, private partners in a brave new world The Record asked the gubernatorial campaigns of Democrat Jon S. Corzine and Republican Douglas Forrester to respond to questions about public investment in biotechnology. acting Governor Codey is not seeking a full term and will leave office in January.The following comes from e-mail responses received from the campaigns.Do you support using state taxpayer money to finance embryonic stem-cell research?Corzine: "Jon Corzine supports the investment of public funds in embryonic stem-cell research partnerships with the private sector. The Edison Innovation Fund proposal that Corzine...

N.J.'s big-bucks experiment Sunday, June 19, 2005 Series archive: Betting on BiotechFirst of four partsWith little fanfare and no direct approval of the electorate, the state of New Jersey has spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting the biotech industry.Powerful forces are hard at work in Trenton, selling biotechnology as a way to simultaneously bolster the state economy and improve the health of citizens. Acting Governor Codey has been front and center, promoting a plan to spend $380 million more on research into embryonic stem cells.Much is at stake in a state where 200,000 jobs depend on the pharmaceutical industry...

PHILADELPHIA - Prosecutors on Wednesday announced charges against five protesters in connection with a skirmish outside a biotechnology convention during which a police officer collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack. The most serious charges were to be filed against Guillaume Beaulieu, a 23-year-old Canadian who faces two counts of felony aggravated assault in Tuesday afternoon's confrontation, authorities said. Officer Paris Williams, 52, fell to the ground during the incident and was later pronounced dead at Hahnemann University Hospital. Williams had an enlarged heart and the struggle with protesters "created a cardiac situation in which he collapsed and died,"...

PHILADELPHIA -- Violence between biotech protesters and police in Center City Philadelphia has turned tragic. A Philadelphia police officer has died after a scuffle in Center City on Tuesday. The officer, Paris Williams, 52, may have died from a heart attack but homicide is also investigating the case. He is a 19-year veteran. Williams collapsed near the end of a brawl between protesters and police that lasted for several minutes near 12th and Arch Streets. Some protesters were seen being taken away in handcuffs by police after the incident. The fallen officer was taken away in an ambulance. Police department...

HAVING showcased itself as the most attractive destination for development of low cost drugs for the world market, India has sought active partnership with the United States through enabling protocols and transfer of biological materials. A meeting of the US-India High Technology Cooperation Group went into the nitty-gritty of clinical trials, regulatory regimes, technology transfer, patent protection and potential for alliances. Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, who led the delegation and also held separate talks with Acting Deputy Commerce Secretary David Sampson, told reporters later that the US reaction to the Indian proposals was "very positive". A major barrier...

Halting the March of Unreason reviewed by Henry I. Miller "Drunk as a lord" hardly applies to Lord Taverne of Pimlico, the sober, polymathic and persuasive author of "The March of Unreason" (Oxford University Press). Although not a scientist himself, Taverne, a Queen's Counsel (an especially learned barrister appointed to advise Her Britannic Majesty), former member of the British Parliament and currently member of the House of Lords, offers a spirited defense of science and its evidence-based approach to public policy. He argues that "in the practice of medicine, popular approaches to farming and food, policies to reduce hunger and...

--SNIP-- Mr. Taverne argues compellingly that the conflict over gene-spliced crops is the most important battle of all between the forces of reason and unreason, both because of the consequences should the forces of darkness prevail, and also because their arguments are so perverse and so consistently and completely wrong. In fact, agricultural practices have been "unnatural" for 10,000 years, and with the exception of wild berries and wild mushrooms, virtually all the grains, fruits and vegetables in our diets are genetically modified. Many of our foods (including potatoes, tomatoes, oats, rice and corn) come from plants created by "wide...

Farmers growing genetically modified rice in field trials have reported crop yields up by 10 per cent, pesticide use down 80 per cent and fewer pesticide-related health problems. The results, published today, place China on the threshold of commercialising GM rice, the world's most important crop. China's decision could influence the future of GM crops in the rest of the world but it is taking longer to reach than many scientists expected. "It's as though China is watching Europe while the world watches China.," said Prof Mike Gale of the John Innes Centre, Norwich. Prof Michael Lipton of Sussex University...

A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the Terra Madre conference, Turin, Italy, 23rd October 2004 Ladies and Gentlemen, I can’t tell you how pleased I am to be with you today and to share in this vitally important discussion about the future of small scale agriculture and of artisan food producers throughout the world. The fact that no fewer than 5,000 food producers have gathered here today, under the “Slow Food” banner, is a small but significant challenge to the massed forces of globalization, the industrialization of agriculture and the homogenization of food - which seem somehow...

SAN DIEGO -- The California biotechnology industry recently gathered for its annual CALBIO conference. Participants were excited at the prospect of developing new medical miracles. But the ever-present potential of government interference hung over the proceedings like dark clouds on the horizon. Much is at stake. Nearly $50 billion was spent last year in pharmaceutical and biotech R&D. The big drugmakers devoted $38.8 billion to finding new cures. Biotech companies, in the main smaller and more dependent on investors willing to risk their money on unproven ventures, spent another $10.5 billion. The U.S. dominates the biopharmaceutical industry worldwide. America's big...

The biotech industry may be the greatest economic hope for the New York region — but that hope could be crushed by the liberalism for which the Northeast is known.... Each job in the industry creates another 5.7 jobs elsewhere in the economy, substantially above the average for all industries." California ranks first.... The results are higher than average wages and higher than average real output per worker, $72,600 and $157,300, respectively, in 2003. The Northeast is particularly well suited to capitalize upon the promise of biopharmaceuticals.... Worldwide, the United States dominates the industry — not because its citizens are...

Of mice and men - and the monsters in-between by Alex Williams, Australia 25 April 2005 Genetic engineering began in 1973 when Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen successfully inserted a foreign gene into a bacterium. Boyer went on to co-found a biotechnology company and in 1978 began the world’s first commercial production of human insulin from bacteria.More recently, scientists have begun to insert whole foreign cells (the special “stem cells’ you may have heard about) into developing embryos to produce chimeras - artificially created hybrids between species. (The word comes from a Greek mythological monster with the front parts of...

Minuscule microscope testing hope The biochip has been funded with a £2.2m grant Scientists have developed a tiny microscope - the width of a human hair - which they say could "revolutionise" the examination of biological samples.Cardiff University researchers said the optical biochip could help doctors test for diseases and develop new drugs. The team is looking to integrate the biochip into medical technology, such as diagnostic equipment. The biochip, developed with a £2.2m grant, works by emitting tiny lasers which analyse a cell. Biological samples can be placed on the biochip - just visible to the human eye...

Britain may have "thrown the baby out with the bath water" because of its poor handling of the debate about GM crops, according to Lord Broers, the BBC Reith lecturer. Lord Broers, who will discuss risk and responsibility when he gives his final lecture next month, spoke out yesterday as experts warned that the country is falling far behind in plant science. This, they say, is a direct result of public hostility to GM food. The agrobiotech industry is now pulling out of Britain. Rather than discussions about the merits of each GM crop, say the scientists, the debate has...

WASHINGTON Anheuser-Busch says it won't buy rice from Missouri if the state allows genetically modified, drug-making crops to be grown. The St. Louis-based beer giant -- the nation's number-one buyer of rice -- says it's concerned about possible contamination. Other companies have also expressed concern about Ventria Biosciences' plans to grow 200 acres of rice engineered to produce human proteins that can make drugs. The idea is to lower drug-making costs by using plants to grow medications. Biotechnology firms are seeking federal approval for outdoor plantings. But other food companies, environmentalists and farmers fear cross-pollination could leak foreign genes into...

A trade group overseeing an effort to unlock corn's genetic code says more than 120 researchers have already used a Web database created to speed up development of biotech crops.The National Corn Growers Association said this week that the researchers, representing 35 academic institutions, accessed maize gene sequences catalogued in the database. "There are only little pieces of gene sequences available in the public domain," said Jo Messing, a professor of molecular biology at Rutgers University, who has used the database. "The private collection offers a lot of those missing pieces." The 8-month-old Web site pools research done on the...

A major study has confirmed growing genetically modified crops can harm wildlife. Government-commissioned scientists compared GM winter-sown oilseed rape with a conventional version of the crop, and found that fewer broad leaved weeds and their seeds were present in fields where the GM herbicide-tolerant oilseed rape was grown. Flowers of such weeds are important as food for insects, while the seeds are a major source of sustenance for farmland birds. The study, published yesterday, found fewer bees and butterflies in the GM crop compared with the conventional oilseed rape. More grass weeds and some soil insects were discovered in the...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Biotechnology company Syngenta AG said Tuesday it mistakenly sold to consumers tons of experimental genetically engineered corn never approved by U.S. regulators. Syngenta said the corn, inadvertently shipped between 2001 and 2004, doesn't pose any health risks because it's similar to a Syngenta product approved by federal regulators. The Swiss company said it discovered the mistake itself and reported it to federal authorities. An afternoon news conference was planned. In trading Tuesday afternoon, U.S.-traded Syngenta shares fell 27 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $21.57 in light trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has...

The Congress of Racial Equality’s recent conference, video and commentary on agricultural biotechnology* presented personal testimonials from African farmers whose lives have been improved by GM crops, impressive data on progress, and a message of hope for poor, malnourished people in developing countries. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. But not from all quarters. Predictably, anti-GM zealots continue to offer a steady stream of unsupported and unsupportable invective. To hear them tell it, biotechnology is a "scourge" that will do nothing to save lives or reduce poverty and malnutrition. "Evil multinationals" like Monsanto are determined to impose "a new form...

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, March 3 - In a significant victory for large biotechnology companies like Monsanto, Brazil's lower house of Congress has overwhelmingly approved legislation paving the way for the legalization of genetically modified crops. After months of delays and heated debate, legislators passed a biotechnology law late Wednesday night by a vote of 352 to 60. The bill had pitted farmers and scientists against environmental and religious groups. Besides lifting a longstanding ban on the sale and planting of gene-altered seeds, the legislation also clears the way for research involving human embryonic stem cells that have been frozen for...

Race to the Finish Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World, by Wesley J. Smith By Travis D. Smith Wesley J. Smith excels at making complicated and controversial biotechnologies easier to understand while exposing the tricks and rationalizations that are oftentimes used to advance them. His latest book offers an inventory of the interested parties in these matters, from ethicists to ideologues and cult leaders, to scientists, celebrities, politicians, and businessmen. But the most essential and durable part of Smith's book is the author's uncompromising yet carefully considered arguments, which will hold, while various procedures, and those devoted to...

We’ve all heard the expression “truth in advertising.” We have laws that require advertising to be “truthful” and “non-deceptive.” They prohibit claims that are likely to mislead consumers when they’re making a decision about buying or using a product. Unfortunately, the laws that govern selling toothpaste and detergent don’t apply to the most important issue of our times: the sanctity of human life. That’s why I’m so glad we have Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute. Unlike Procter & Gamble, you see, politicians are legally free to mislead consumers, that is, voters, about what their products, that is, legislation,...

The university (MIT) is expected to approve today an undergraduate major in biological engineering, the first time it has created an entirely new field of study in 29 years. Linda Griffith, a professor of biological and mechanical engineering, who helped organize the biological engineering proposal. Griffith was part of a group of faculty who realized that biology represented both an opportunity and a problem. Griffith, who has long been interested in tissue engineering, said that she was convinced that there is a lot of fascinating -- and necessary -- research to do at the interface between the two fields.

Former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker, who heads the inquiry into corruption in the United Nations' defunct oil-for-food program, has just issued a sobering interim report. He concludes that the program was "tainted, failing to follow the established rules of the organization," and that "political considerations intruded." But the U.N.'s problems don't stop at Oil-for-Food — as if that weren't enough. Those of us who study ongoing U.N. agencies' deliberations on regulatory issues find obvious and egregious flaws in them, even when they do follow established rules. The U.N.'s systematic sacrifice of science, technology, and sound public policy to...

Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Dr. Ruth Oniango has a dream. A member of Kenya’s parliament, she dreams of the day when the people of her poor country "can feed themselves." Congress of Racial Equality national chairman Roy Innis shares that vision. But he also knows the obstacles. "Over 70 percent of Africans are employed in farming full time," he points out. "Yet, half of those countries rely on emergency food aid. Within 10 years, Africa will be home to three-fourths of the world’s hungry people." Many of the continent’s farmers are women who labor sunup to sundown on 3...

Africa needs GMOs to survive the impending continental famine. DR. Norman Borlaug, the architect of the Green Revolution and Nobel Laureate keeps reminding us “People talk about the potential of the sub-Sahara region of Africa. Yes, the potential is there. But you can’t eat potential.” The farm productivity has increased in Africa on par with the rest of the world, but the higher rate of population growth in this continent necessitates an urgency of need to increase the food production. Already, the rate of malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa is among the worst in the world and is expected to reach...

Canada backs terminator seeds John Vidal Wednesday February 9, 2005 Guardian An international moratorium on the use of one of the world's most controversial GM food technologies may be broken today if the Canadian government gets seed sterilisation backed at a UN meeting. Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show that Canada wants all governments to accept the testing and commercialisation of "terminator" crop varieties. These are genetically engineered to produce only infertile seeds which farmers cannot replant. Jointly patented by the GM company Monsanto and the US government, the technology was condemned in the late 1990s by many African...

Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras-a hybrid creature that's part human, part animal. Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells. In Minnesota last year researchers at the Mayo Clinic created pigs with human blood flowing through their bodies. And at Stanford University in California an experiment might be done later...

A confidential document leaked today to ETC Group reveals that the Canadian government, at a United Nations meeting in Bangkok (Feb 7-11), will attempt to overturn an international moratorium on genetic seed sterilisation technology (known universally as Terminator). Even worse, the Canadian government has instructed its negotiators to "block consensus" on any other option. "Canada is about to launch a devastating kick in the stomach to the world's most vulnerable farmers - the 1.4 billion people who depend on farm saved seed," said ETC Group Executive Director Pat Mooney speaking from Ottawa. "The Canadian government is doing the dirty work...

Freeman Dyson is professor emeritus of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. His research has focused on the internal physics of stars, subatomic-particle beams, and the origin of life. Carl Woese published a provocative and illuminating article, “A New Biology for a New Century,” in the June 2004 issue of Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. His main theme is the obsolescence of reductionist biology as it has been practiced for the last hundred years, and the need for a new biology based on communities and ecosystems rather than on genes and molecules. He also raises another...

lab a-z index | phone book search: January 20, 2005 news releases | receive our news releases by email | science beat   Key Molecule in Plant Photo-Protection Identified Contact: Lynn Yarris (510) 486-5375, lcyarris@lbl.gov BERKELEY, CA – Another important piece to the photosynthesis puzzle is now in place. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have identified one of the key molecules that help protect plants from oxidation damage as the result of absorbing too much light.The researchers determined that when chlorophyll molecules in green...

WASHINGTON, - Rat cells grown onto microscopic silicon chips worked as tiny robots, perhaps a first step towards a self-assembling device, researchers working in the United States reported on Sunday. They described a new method for attaching living cells to silicon chips. They then got the combined entities to move like tiny, primitive legs. Writing in the journal Nature Materials, Jianzhong Xi, Jacob Schmidt and Carlo Montemagno of the University of California Los Angeles said it is possible to make such devices, starting with a single cell “seeded” on a specially treated silicon chip. They used rat heart cells in...

The robot is a dramatic example of the marriage of biotechnology with nanotechnology Tiny robots powered by living muscle have been created by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles. The devices were formed by "growing" rat cells on microscopic silicon chips, the researchers report in the journal Nature Materials. Less than a millimetre long, the miniscule robots can move themselves without any external source of power. The work is a dramatic example of the marriage of biotechnology with the tiny world of nanotechnology. In nanotechnology, researchers often turn to the natural world for inspiration. But Professor Carlo...

The state should invest $1 billion in stem-cell research over the next 10 years to keep scientists from leaving New York for California, three state senators said yesterday. On Nov. 2, California voters passed Proposition 71, which mandates the state spend $3 billion on stem-cell research. "If the state of New York does not recognize the competitive need, our research scientists are all going to change their tune from 'I Love New York' to 'California, Here I Come,' " Deputy Minority Leader Eric Schneiderman (D- Bronx) told a press conference at City Hall.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Monsanto Co.'s "seed police" snared soy farmer Homan McFarling in 1999, and the company is demanding he pay it hundreds of thousands of dollars for alleged technology piracy. McFarling's sin? He saved seed from one harvest and replanted it the following season, a revered and ancient agricultural practice. "My daddy saved seed. I saved seed," said McFarling, 62, who still grows soy on the 5,000 acre family farm in Shannon, Miss. and is fighting the agribusiness giant in court. Saving Monsanto's seeds, genetically engineered to kill bugs and resist weed sprays, violates provisions of the company's...

Tsunami survivors and millions of others could benefit from a marvel of modern science: golden rice. By adding two daffodil genes to common rice, researchers made it rich in beta-carotene, which humans can convert to vitamin A. This miracle rice could help reduce widespread Vitamin A deficiency that causes up to 500,000 children to go blind every year--and 2,000,000 a year to die from diseases they would likely survive if they weren’t so malnourished. Just a few ounces a day will do wonders. Unfortunately, thanks to anti-biotechnology zealots, the rice is still not available. Even if it were, these unfortunate...

Farmers around the world are embracing genetically modified crops at near record levels, and Australia has increased its GM cotton plantings significantly, according to a new report. The report by the pro-GM International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) said the global area for GM crops grew 20 per cent in 2004 - an increase of 13.3 million hectares. About 8.25 million farmers in 17 countries planted GM crops last year, 1.25 million more farmers than in 2003. About 90 per cent of these farmers were in developing countries. "The continued rapid adoption, especially among small, resource-poor farmers,...

Almost everywhere food is sold these days, you are likely to find products claiming to contain no genetically modified substances. But unless you are buying wild mushrooms, game, berries or fish, that statement is untrue. Nearly every food we eat has been genetically modified, through centuries of crosses, both within and between species, and for most of the last century through mutations induced by bombarding seeds with chemicals or radiation. In each of these techniques, dozens, hundreds, even thousands of genes of unknown function are transferred or modified to produce new food varieties. Most so-called organic foods are no exception....

Committing malpractice on the world’s poor These unnatural disasters should no longer be tolerated by Paul Driessen The tsunami that struck Asia and Somalia left unprecedented, unfathomable death and destruction in its wake. It was a shocking reminder that, for all its beauty and bounties, Mother Nature still periodically unleashes awesome powers that threaten our lives, even our very civilization – and expose the shocking vulnerability of our Earth’s poorest communities. Equally unprecedented is the life-giving aid that continues to flow to these battered regions. It reflects the best that humans are capable of – and the vital importance of...

The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com Pew's parallel universeBy Henry I. MillerPublished January 6, 2005 The "new biotechnology," or gene-splicing, applied to agriculture and food production is here to stay. More than 80 percent of processed foods on supermarket shelves soft drinks, preserves, mayonnaise, salad dressings include ingredients from gene-spliced plants, and Americans have safely consumed more than a trillion servings of these foods.     But opposition continues to genetically improving plants by use of these precise and predictable techniques, largely due to a drumbeat of misrepresentations by antibiotechnology activists.     Some of these radicals, like Greenpeace, make no secret they intend to...

WEST PALM BEACH -- Environmentalists dumped sand and rotten oranges in a county development board's office in a protest of plans to build the Scripps biotech research facility on a rural citrus grove. Nine protesters were arrested Monday after storming the offices of the Palm Beach County Business Development Board, police said. They ruined an Oriental rug in the lobby foyer by stomping the fruit, officials said. Two of the protesters had to be removed by the city Fire Department after they used bicycle locks to chain themselves to a stairway railing in the agency's lobby, police said. The protesters...

Researchers at Rockefeller University in the US have made the first tentative steps towards creating a form of artificial life. Their creations, small synthetic vesicles that can process (express) genes, resemble a crude kind of biological cell. The parts for their "vesicle bioreactors", as they call them, all come from diverse realms of life. The soft cell walls are made of fat molecules taken from egg white. The cell contents are an extract of the common gut bug E. coli, stripped of all its genetic material. This essence of life contains ready-made much of the biological machinery needed to make...

In Minnesota, pigs are being born with human blood in their veins. advertisement In Nevada, there are sheep whose livers and hearts are largely human. In California, mice peer from their cages with human brain cells firing inside their skulls. These are not outcasts from "The Island of Dr. Moreau," the 1896 novel by H.G. Wells in which a rogue doctor develops creatures that are part animal and part human. They are real creations of real scientists, stretching the boundaries of stem cell research.

In Minnesota, pigs are being born with human blood in their veins. In Nevada, there are sheep whose livers and hearts are largely human. In California, mice peer from their cages with human brain cells firing inside their skulls. These are not outcasts from "The Island of Dr. Moreau," the 1896 novel by H.G. Wells in which a rogue doctor develops creatures that are part animal and part human. They are real creations of real scientists, stretching the boundaries of stem cell research.

The Supermarket's Unnatural Selections By Henry I. Miller Agricultural practices have been "unnatural" for 10,000 years. With the exception of wild berries and wild mushrooms, virtually all the grains, fruits and vegetables in our diets have been genetically modified by one technique or another. Many of our foods (including potatoes, tomatoes, oats, rice and corn) come from plants created by "wide cross" hybridizations that transcend "natural breeding boundaries." More than 80 percent of processed foods on supermarket shelves -- soft drinks, preserves, mayonnaise, salad dressings -- contain ingredients from gene-spliced plants, and Americans have consumed more than a trillion servings...