Introduction to Biotechnology 540
August 25, 2005

Readings:
(1) Genentech: What is Biotechnology?
(2) The Motley Fool: It's the Revolution, Baby !
(3) WetFeet.com: Biotechnology: Industry Profile
(4) July 11, 2004: One World Health: Saving the world on a shoestring budget

Guide to Biotechnology 2005

"Biotech is exciting as all heck, extremely risky, changing faster than teen fashions, and challenging to understand. But if you've got passion and time and can follow high school biology, it could just be for you." --- David Gardner, co-founder of The Motley Fool

The Three Key Questions in Biology 540: How this class will be organized

1. What is Biotechnology?

• Definitions of Biotechnology
• Timeline of Biotechnology
• Techniques used in Biotechnology
• Who's Who in Biotechnology

2. How is Biotechnology being used?

• Applications of Biotechnology
• Medicines on the market today
• Agriculture - GM Foods and Animals
• Genomics and Proteomics
• Gene Therapy and Transgenic Animals
• Human Embryonic Stem Cells and Cloning

3. What are some of the issues Biotechnology raises?

• Bioethics / "Genethics"
• Public attitudes to biotechnology - safety, awareness
• Patenting of genetically modified organisms
• Theraputic uses of human genes and tissues
• Social Responsibility of science as a business

Q: What exactly is Biotechnology?

A: It depends on who you talk to! and who they work for..

Warning! Be aware that the word Biotechnology has a range of meanings and connotations. It is also politically charged, and means different things to different people.

The meaning of the word biotechnology derives from the words:

bios, life teuchos, tool logos, 'study of' or 'essence.'  

Thus the word literally means: "the study of tools from living things."

(From the Biotechnology Education website)

Note that biology and technology are closely related but separate:

Biology is concerned with answers to questions about natural phenomena

Technology is concerned with applying those answers to solving human problems and meeting human needs.

Some Definitions of Biotechnology:

Classic: The word "biotechnology" was first used in 1917 to describe processes using living organisms to make a product or run a process, such as industrial fermentations. (Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology)

Warm and Fuzzy: Biotechnology began over 10,000 years ago when humans began to plant their own crops, domesticate animals, ferment juice into wine, make cheese, and leaven bread (AccesExcellence handout)

Grandiose yet Vague: Biotechnology is the process of harnessing 'nature's own' biochemical tools to make possible new products and processes and provide solutions to society's ills (G. Kirk Raab, Former President and CEO of Genentech)

Webster's Unabridged: The aspect of technology concerned with the application of living organisms to meet the needs and ends of man.

"bio.org": Biotechnology is a collection of technologies that capitalize on the attributes of cells, such as their manufacturing capabilities, and put biological molecules, such as DNA and proteins, to work for us ($ --> $$$).Biotechnology: A Collection of Technologies

"Dot.gov": Biotechnology is the application of technologies, such as recombinant DNA techniques, biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, genetics and genetic engineering, and cell fusion techniques, using living organisms, to manufacture products including antibiotics, insulin, and interferon, to improve plants or animals, to develop microorganisms for specific uses, to identify targets for pharmaceutical development, or to transform biological systems into useful processes and products. (National Science and Technology Council, July 1995.)

What about the definition for the purposes of Biology 540?

Biotechnology is the applied use of genetic engineering, recombinant DNA techniques, and computer technology to understand and influence specific biological processes (detailed above in the Dot.gov example) related to meeting human needs.

Some of the technologies that fall under this definition:

• Recombinant DNA technology
• Gene transfer within and between microbes, plants and animals;
• Manipulation and transfer of animal embryos and stem cells
• Regeneration of agriculturally important plants and crops
• Production and scale-up manufacturing of monoclonal anti-bodies .

Some specific examples of these technologies today:

• Humulin - recombinant Human Insulin (Lilly)
• Epogen - recombinant Erythropoetin (Amgen)
• Herceptin - monoclonal antibody to treat metastatic breast cancer (Genentech)
• RoundUp Ready - seed genetically engineered for herbicide resistance (Monsanto)
• Dolly - first mammal cloned from an adult cell (PPL Theraputics, Scotland)
• GeneChip -10,000 human gene sequences simultaneously synthesized on silicon chips

What has Biotechnology done for you lately?

Biotechnology Industry Facts

Guide to Biotechnology

Biotechnology and Society

"Society's views of biotechnology are closely tied to the perception of its goals. Seen as a way to develop life-saving medicines or cancer therapies, improving medical care, biotechnology is regarded by most of us as a good thing. But many people worry that this powerful technology will be mis-used or get out of hand - genetic discrimination, cloning humans, 'eugenics', unsafe food." (Quote from Biotechnology Unzipped)

Compare: Greenpeace and Monsanto

The "Dr. Evil" definition questions "Will the artificial creation of cloned, chimeric and transgenic animals mean the end of nature and the substitution of a 'bio-industrial world'? Will the mass release of genetically engineered life forms into the environment cause catastrophic genetic pollution and irreversible damage to the biosphere? What are the consequences of reducing the world's gene pool to patented intellectual property controlled exclusively by a handful of life-science corporations?" (Quote from Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends and often vocal opponent of biotechnology; in The Biotech Century, 1998)

"Honestly, throw me a bone here. What do we have?"
(Image from Dr. Evil's Photo Album, with respect to both Mike Myers and Jeremy Rifkin)

And keep in mind: A Biotechnology Company is a Business

A Biotechnology company may have the ultimate goal of developing life-saving medicines, new diagnostics, or develop better crops, but...

• Like any business, a Biotech company needs money to start, to operate, and to grow.
• To stay in business, it has an economic responsibility to devote some of its resources towards increaing profits and maintaining the ability to be competitive in the current and future market.
• To protect its inventions (or IP, "intellectual property"), its discoveries and products must be patented.
• Investors and stockholders with a financial interest in the company will be looking for a high return on their investment (ROI).
  
• However, is there also an element of social responsibility in biotechnology? Milton Friedman said that the "One and only one social responsibility of business [is] to increase profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud." [Quote]
• This sounds fine if the business in questions is, say, making xerox machines, but what if it is a company making a drug to treat AIDS or to alleviate anemia? What if it a company that develops and markets genetically modified grain to third world countries?
• We will discuss to what extent social responsibility should be the case, is the case, or must be the case that compels a Biotech company to consider the customer (patient), the community, ethical issues, or the environment when making its business decisions.
• A new idea: a non-for-profit pharmaceutical company: OneWorld Health, funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is leading the development, testing and manufacture of new drugs against imfectious diseases that threaten millions in the undeveloped world."

Have we ushered in "The Biotech Century"?

A Final Thought: "Great economic changes in history occur when a number of technological and social forces come together to create a new Operational Matrix. After more than 40 years of running on parallel tracks, the information and life sciences have fused into a single technological and economic force. The fusion of genetic engineering and computer technology, in just the last 10 years, has produced the seminal events of our age and is likely to change our world more radically than any other technological revolution in history. The Industrial Revolution has come to an end. The Biotech Century has begun."

(Jeremy Rifkin, The Biotech Century, 1998)

Also put another way in the The Motley Fool article : It's the Revolution, Baby !