POLST 362'3 IPE of Biotechnology

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POLST 362.3 IPE of Biotechnology

• Lecture 02
• Introduction to Biotechnology

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Outline
• What is Biotechnology?
• Scientific Opportunities and Limits
• Social Opportunities and Limits

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Scientific Opportunities and Limits

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Biotechnology to engineer living organisms
• Biotechnology is not a Product!
• Package of techniques and procedures where
  genetic modification (GM) is only one procedure
• Scientific Basis
• Molecular Biology
• Cellular Biology

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Basic Concepts
• Four Nucleotides Adenine (A) Thymine (T)
  Cytosine (C) Guanine (G)
• Specific Ordered Sequences Specific Amino Acids
  
• Specific Segments of Amino Acids Genes
• Specific Genes Specific Proteins
• e.g. insulin, hormones, digestive enzymes

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Entire set of Genes DNA
• DNA is found in Every Chromosome
• Chromosomes in Every Cell of an Organism
• Chromosomes impose sexual compatibility
  limitation on reproduction/genetic transfer

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Structure and Function
• Gene akin to a recipe
• Promoter
• Coding Region
• Terminator
• Cells Specialize
• Gene Regulation is Environment Specific
• Biotechnology Techniques to alter genes to
  perform certain functions

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Applying Biotechnology to Agricultural Crops

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Biotech Traditional Breeding Different or
  same?
• Conventional varieties are not natural
• Goal of traditional plant breeding
• to enhance performance
• Natural process environment remains the same
• Controlling sexual reproduction
• Hybridization of corn (is this natural?)

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Biotechnology in Plant Breeding
• Goal
• to enhance performance
• Circumventing natural limitations
• Four broad techniques
• Gene-Mapping and Tracking Genomics
• Tissue Culture Techniques Genetic Modification
• Transgenic Modification

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Gene-Mapping/Tracking
• Antibiotic resistant markers
• PCR Techniques
• Tissue Culture
• Tissue Culture Techniques
• Bio-Processes to Speed Cell/Seed Development

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Genetic Modification
• Endogenous Alteration no gene transfer
• Anti-sense Modifications
• FlavrSavr Tomato
• Mutagenesis
• is it traditional or biotech?

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Transgenic Modification
• Exogenous Alteration genetic transfer
• between sexually compatible organisms
• between sexually incompatible organisms
• Isolate DNA/Gene
• Cut using restriction enzymes
• Paste
• Vector Method (Bacteria or Virus) or vectorless
  (Gene Gun, electrophoresis)

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• GM Crop Examples
• Production-trait
• Output-trait
• Bio-Engineered products

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Production-Trait
• HT Canola
• Transgenic Modification of soil bacteria that
  metabolizes/digests Glufosinate or Bromonyxil
  Herbicide
• Bt Cotton
• Transgenic Modification of soil micro-organism
  toxic to certain insects
• No new agronomic practices
• No differences in distribution

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Output-Trait
• Targeting crop value for specific end-users
• Livestock feeders
• Food processors
• Industrial users
• No new agronomic practices
• New distribution system (to capture value)

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Bio-Engineered Products
• Pharming
• Drugs
• Edible vaccines Cholera B potatoes Vitamin A
  rice Anti-oxidant enhanced
• Industrial Use plant-based polymers
• New agronomic practices
• New distribution system

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Animal applications
• More than 90 vaccines (mostly for pets)
• Food based animals
• Brucillus-resistant cow
• Industrial animals
• Nexeria goat
• Health applications
• Transgenic pigs

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Applying biotechnology to non-agricultural uses

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Human therapeutics

• Genomics
• Patented drugs
• Gene therapy
• Xenotransplantation
• Cloning

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Scientific Opportunities
• Greater control, precision
• Quicker results
• Scientific Limits
• Mostly single-trait/simple diseases
• Viability not super-performance still main
  concern

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Social Opportunities and Limits

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Science yields social policy debates
• What are GM crops/foods
• GM or TGM? or Novel (PNTs)?
• GM crops GM foods?
• GM Organic?
• What can or should we do with human interventions?

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Yet, beyond clarifying the appropriate
  consideration of science, important social issues
  remain
• Why?

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Transformative Technology
• Horizontal Applications
• New Risks/Costs requiring new approaches to
  maximizing risks via technological precaution
• New Benefits requiring new approaches to
  maximizing opportunities via technological
  progress

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Applying a Social Filter
• Risks/Costs
• Technology-Inherent
• Technology-Transcendent
• Benefits
• Technology-Inherent
• Technology-Transcendent
• Basis for a cost-benefit analysis

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Technology-Inherent Risks/Costs
• Premature Science Pleiotropic Effects
  (unpredicted side effects), Positional Effects,
  Human safety (Toxic, Allergenic), Biodiversity
  Safety
• Technology-Transcendent Risks/Costs
• Critics of the Application, Management and
  Distribution of the technology
• Global Welfare Peril
• Tool of Corporatization

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Technology-Inherent Benefits
• Not that novel improvements to traditional
  methods
• Stability does exist
• Applications are tested for human and
  environmental safety
• Technology-Transcendent Benefits
• Supporters of the Application, Management and
  Distribution of the technology
• Global Welfare Promise
• National Competitiveness Promise (Horizontal
  benefits)

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Given this array of costs/risks and benefits, why
  does government promote biotechnology?

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Biotechnology Industry
• Biotechnology is an enabling technology with
  applications across Agriculture, Food (e.g.
  fisheries), Medicine, Pharmaceuticals,
  Industrial, Forestry, Horticultural,
  Environmental Science
• Pharmaceutical Total 440 Billion 2004, where
  biotechnology is an increasing component

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Agricultural Biotechnology
• Agriculture and Food (market for GM crops) 1995
  84 Million, 1999 3.1 Billion
• Commercialization
• 1996 1.7 M hectares (4.3 M acres)
• 2002 52 M hectares (130 M acres)
• US (70) Argentina (6.7) Canada (4.0)
• HT most dominant trait, then Bt, then HT/Bt, then
  virus resistance
• GM crops HT Soya, Bt Maize, HT Canola, Bt/HT
  Maize, HT Cotton, HT Maize, Bt Cotton, Bt/HT
  Cotton

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Agricultural Biotechnology
• Life Sciences firms
• NA firms Monsanto, DuPont
• EU firms Syngenta (Novartis and Astra-Zeneca),
  Aventis (Rhone-Poulence and Hoechst/AgrEvo)
• Significant consolidation
• 1996-99 25 major alliances and acquisitions
  valued at over 17 B
• Agro-Chemical firms have moved upstream.

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Agricultural Biotechnology
• Key Issue is Capacity
• Private firms willing and able to take the lead
• Therefore, rationale for government promotion
  Scientific, private-led solutions to pressing
  public policy problems

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Let private sector address the public policy
  problems of agriculture
• Variance in Quantity and Quality
• Permits
• Decrease farm support spending
• Decrease public RD spending
• National Competitiveness Objective
• To Build Biotechnology Capacity

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• All developed countries (OECD)
• Canada
• Canadian Biotechnology Strategy
• Capacity building initiatives
• US
• Knowledge-based industries
• EU
• Several initiatives at the EU and Member State
  level

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Policy Objectives
• Rationale Scientific Solutions to Pressing
  Public Policy Problems
• National Competitiveness Objective to Build
  Capacity
• Technological Progress

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POLST 362 Intro to Biotech

• Social Opportunities
• Scientific solutions to public policy problems
• National competitiveness
• Social Limits
• Risks and Uncertainty
• Domestic information gap
• International capacity gap insurmountable?