UNSUNG BIOTECH HEROES
Scientists from around the globe use biotechnology to improve the developing world, from new crops and medical treatments to biofuels and adding diversity to the research community. The following profiles introduce some of the lesser-known leaders.
Sequencing for Sugarcane Power
While the United States struggles to come up with an abundant, cost-effective, alternative fuel, Brazil has already discovered energy in one of its major agricultural products, sugarcane. The translation of sugarcane into ethanol has been successful, in part, because of the work of geneticist Paulo Arruda.
Brazil produces 311 million tons of sugarcane per year and half of that sugarcane is turned into fuel. Over 30 years ago, the government of Brazil initiated a cane-to-ethanol program that emphasized improving sugarcane yield and requiring all automobile fuel to contain some bioethanol. But sugarcane, like all agricultural products, is vulnerable to viruses, bacteria, and fungi. These plants are also subject to changes in weather, drought, and toxins.
Arruda has been a collaborator in research that draws together 65 labs focused on the genetics of Brazilian crops. His lab has helped map 240,000 sequence tags in sugarcane, which provides the foundation for improving sugarcane. According to Carlos Frederico Martins Menck of the University of São Paulo, "Paulo Arruda did an excellent coordination of this project. The work revealed many different biochemical pathways that, if engineered, could improve crop production." Menck adds, "This could be useful for biofuels."
Giving Back in Vietnam
Tracey Nguyen's company manufactures and supplies inexpensive generic drugs in Vietnam. "The challenges of doing business in a communist country are [greater] since it takes longer to build a level of mutual trust and respect," Nguyen says. But she was determined to give back to her native country.
Nguyen came to the United States from Vietnam in 1979 as a teenager. As an adult, she worked in the computer industry and then started a pharmacy, quickly expanding into nursing homes in several states. Her company also purchased generics in bulk from pharmaceutical companies and repackaged them. With that experience in hand, Nguyen returned to Vietnam.
She negotiated with manufacturers in Vietnam to make low-cost generics and gained licenses to sell across the country. "The country imports over 75% of the prescription drugs that it needs," she explains. "When Vietnam can manufacture its own drugs, thus relying less on imports, more of its people can afford the medication they need."
Her company has also brought low-cost aspirin and vitamins to the Vietnamese. As Nguyen says, "Being Vietnamese American implies an emotional commitment to 'make it work,' independent of financial rewards."
Teaching and Applying Biotech in Africa
Thomas Egwang aims to create a modern generation of scientists in Africa. To do that, he uses his Med Biotech Laboratories, which trains African scientists in biotechnology, genetic engineering, functional genomics, and bioinformatics. The company also runs genomics workshops and conducts research on diseases very close at hand.
For example, Egwang and his African colleagues are working on a new generation of antifilarial drugs that might destroy parasites that cause schistosomiasis, giardiasis, trypanosomiasis, and malaria. Egwang is also concerned about Africa's children. In Uganda, malaria is the main cause of death for children under the age of five. Mosquitoes bearing the malarial parasite are inordinately attracted to pregnant women, and Egwang's research indicates that pregnant women should receive prophylactic treatment to stave off low birth rates. Jeffrey T. Safrit, program director of research at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, notes, "Egwang set up a first-class laboratory focusing on research and teaching on malaria immunology, molecular mechanisms of drug resistance, and malaria pathogenesis," all in "the resource-limited setting of Uganda."
In 2004, Egwang received the International Leadership Award from the Glaser Foundation for developing low-tech laboratory assays for sustainable healthcare of pediatric AIDS patients. "Uganda clearly has a substantial pediatric HIV/AIDS healthcare crisis," says Safrit. "Simple, low-cost assays for determining prognosis and making treatment decisions would be valuable and could have a significant impact on the epidemic and on treatment of HIV-positive children on a national level."
Of Mice & Men, and Death
In the late 1990s, virologist Delia Enria became alarmed by an outbreak of a virus in the Argentinean city of Pergamino that she suspected was carried by rodents. Samples sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed her suspicion: It was indeed a hantavirus - a virus transmitted from rodents to humans.
James Mills, chief of the CDC's medical ecology unit, says, "Delia Enria is probably the foremost authority on clinical, epidemiological, and ecological aspects of viral hemorrhagic fevers, including hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, (HPS), in South America."
During the 1990s outbreak, Enria and her colleagues trapped and tested mice around Pergamino. Her team also tested people for the antibody of hantavirus to determine if they might have been exposed without becoming sick. Although the captured mice didn't have the virus, citizens of the area had one of the highest reported rates of antibodies.
Mills says, "the laboratory, under her direction made the first isolations and characterizations of hantaviruses in South America, described the distinct epidemiology of HPS in the southern cone, and clearly demonstrated … person-to-person to transmission of a hantavirus." He adds, "This surprising demonstration represented a paradigm shift in the way scientists think about hantaviruses."
As Mills says, "Dr. Enria and her collaborators continue to make advances in the study of hantaviruses in Argentina through a uniquely multidisciplinary research program that integrates molecular, clinical, epidemiological, and ecological investigations - truly an example worthy of emulation by researchers throughout the world."
Power from Palm Oil
The goal of biofuel discovery and manufacturing is to take an abundant resource and turn it into energy. Malaysia produces more than 30 million tons of palm oil a year, and 90% of that is consumed as food. The remaining 10%, however, can be turned in biodiesel fuel.
Subhash Bhatia, professor of chemical engineering at University Sains Malaysia, is working on a process that will make biofuel from palm oil as well. "The biggest advantage of bio-gasoline is that it does not have the sulfur and nitrogen compounds found in fossil-derived fuels, which pollute the atmosphere," says Bhatia.
His technique breaks down compounds using zeolite-based catalysts, which are made in his lab. "Our process is a direct process, which can produce hydrocarbon gases such as ethylene and propylene, kerosene, and diesel fractions, besides the gasoline fraction," he explains. The raw materials can even be waste palm oil from fast-food restaurants and waste fatty acids. Regardless of the source of palm oil, says Bhatia, one kilogram of palm oil can turn into a liquid that is up to 45% gasoline and an additional 15% composed of kerosene and diesel fractions.
Although this palm-based gasoline has yet to be tested on gasoline engines, it might turn into a renewable and clean fuel.
Bringing Diversity to Developing-World Science
Through 15 agricultural research centers around the world, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has distributed new seeds, stocked fisheries, and introduced new methods of farming to help feed the world. Vicki Wilde makes sure that everyone of the 8,000 people in the consortium gets respect. Under Wilde's direction, the gender and diversity program holds workshops, conducts research, develops policy, and provides a communication forum on issues of diversity. They are always guided by the principals of inclusion, opportunity, dignity and well-being, and the idea of providing an "inclusive workplace" where everyone can contribute.
The program, CGIAR, and Wilde are especially supportive of women. Women scientists are underrepresented, but in developing nations, the path to education, training, and a job is often closed. Wilde knows this first hand from her years of field work in rural settings around the world.
Her program pays particular attention to African women scientists through its fellowship program, which is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. "I am so tired of the image of African women as downtrodden," says Wilde. "I see them as the solution. We are not going to address issues of poverty without them."
Fostering that knowledge, though, is a challenge. "These women have a lot of talent, but they need greater visibility," Wilde says.
Combating River Blindness in Cameroon
Vincent Titanji is both a president and a knight. He is president of the African Societies of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a Cameroon Knight of the Order of Valor. He is also a soldier in the war against infectious diseases.
Titanji is best known for his work on the parasite that causes river blindness or onchocerciasis. Over 17 million people in Africa and South and Central America suffer from this disease. A person becomes infected with thread-like worms after a bite from a black fly or buffalo gnat. Once infected, the offspring of the worms cause chronic inflammation and bleeding in the eyes. Without treatment, victims eventually go blind.
"Dr. Titanji has made significant contributions to the diagnosis, at individual and population level, of river blindness in collaboration with other investigators in Germany and England," says Mario Rodriguez of the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico. "They developed serologic tests based on recombinant antigens which have proved to be suitable for monitoring current onchocerciasis control and elimination programs in Africa and Latin America." Rodriguez says, "Vincent Titanji stands out as one of the most successful investigators of river blindness in the international public-health community."
Engineering Advanced Cell Walls
Chris Somerville found his calling during the "Green Revolution" in the 1970s. The genetics of plants, Somerville realized, might be the savior of humankind, and he turned to a small plant with white flowers called Arabidopsis, or mouse ear cress. This plant is a good model for understanding the genetics and development of plants in general, because it has only five chromosomes and 157 base pairs. By 2000, Somerville and a community of scientists had sequenced the mouse-ear-cress genome.
Today, Somerville hopes to contribute to a second Green Revolution. The first step, he believes, is to understand cell walls. "I work in this unfashionable area because most of the terrestrial biomass on the planet is plant cell walls," he says. "We use cell walls for paper, clothing, construction, animal feed, and fuel. My hope is that by understanding the chemistry and biology of cell walls, we may eventually be able to develop plants that produce cell walls that are better suited to our needs."
One of Somerville's goals is to figure out how cell walls can be efficiently broken down into sugars to make liquid biofuels, such as bioethanol. When that happens, he says we can think of plants as not just food, but as cheap fuel.
Making Maize Resist a Virus
Maize streak virus starts as a small, pale spot on the top of a corn stalk leaf, then paints the leaf with streaks that join and forms stripes that cut off the plant's air and water, stunting growth and mutilating what was once a simple ear of corn. Then it spreads, carried from plant to plant, field to field by the African leaf hopper, an insect that feels no ill effects as it leaves destruction and hunger in its wake.
But hope is on the way. After two decades of research, Edward Rybicki and Jennifer Thomson are ready to go ahead with field trials of a genetically engineered maize designed to resist the maize streak virus. As Rybicki points out, "This is the first successful project in Africa by Africans to genetically engineer resistance to a serious virus problem in maize."
For corn in Africa, an engineered variety might be a life saver. Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa rely on fewer plants, and they can't always afford commercial pesticides. "I think plant viruses are very underestimated as causes of human problems, especially where they have the potential to cause widespread crop failure and subsequent starvation," says Rybicki.
Completed experiments already offer promise. "The lab results are so very positive that it's hard to imagine the field trials won't also be positive," says Thomson. "If they aren't we have a back-up strategy using [short interfering RNA] to inhibit the virus."
HIV's Not-So-Wimpy Subtype
HIV hides. It mutates. It keeps surprising scientists. Eric Arts found one shocker: Contrary to common assumptions, HIV-1 subtype C might be a greater threat than any other form.
In the lab, subtype C turned out to be the "wimpiest" virus when compared to other HIV-1 subtypes. Moreover, in a study of 200 women in Uganda and Zimbabwe, Arts and his colleagues found that women with subtype C progressed much more slowly to AIDS than those with subtypes A and D. Here's the problem: "If subtype C has a lower virulence," explains Arts, "then a subtype C-infected individual should survive longer with asymptomatic disease and as a result have more opportunity to transmit the virus and, thus, spread in the human population."
Arts' base in Uganda is the Joint Clinical Research Center (JCRC) in Kampala, where he works closely with JCRC's founder Peter Mugyenyi, director Immaculate Nankya, and JCRC's Ugandan staff. "I am happy to say that all the sample processing and all of the analyses for the studies in Uganda and Zimbabwe are performed at the JCRC," Arts notes.
Arts is hopeful about conquering HIV. He says, "All the HIV-1 subtypes respond well to treatment. The only complications in containing infection are good prevention strategies, empowerment of women, and rolling out more antiretroviral treatment."
