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By Bill Beggs
Jr.
Imagine a day when tobacco will be used to help cure cancer.
And when a new generation of plastics can be manufactured from corn
stalks.
Or when vehicles can run on fuels made from corn and soybeans.
That day is here, or almost, thanks to research under way in Missouri,
Illinois and throughout the Midwest. And the three examples cited
just scratch the surface of brilliant ideas that have metamorphosed
into commercially viable products: Ideas that sprouted because scientists
were encouraged to think outside the box. Ideas that were nurtured
in university laboratories, incubators, and at research parks. Ideas
that made it to harvest as the result of infusions of capital from
visionary investors and government entities.
Ideas that are no less revolutionary than greatly reducing suffering
and lessening dependence on foreign petroleum. Ideas that were daydreams
just a decade ago, when bioengineering started to gain momentum
in the plant and life sciences. Ideas that were widely publicized
when they first emerged on the east and west coasts. Ideas that
have quietly emerged among gently waving corn tassels that have
grown for centuries on millions of acres in the Heartland.
This April 9-12 at BIO 2006 in Chicago, Illinois and Missouri will
be seen and heard by an estimated 20,000 international decision-makers
when they get to show off the dizzying advances in biotech being
made on both sides of the Mississippi. This is the first time BIO
will be held in the Midwest; it has bounced from the east to the
west coasts since the first meeting 14 years ago in Raleigh, N.C.—with
one meeting in Toronto.
Kelly
Gillespie
Executive Director Missouri Biotechnology Association
(MOBIO) |
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Kelly Gillespie, executive director of the Missouri Biotechnology
Association (MOBIO), and David Miller, president of the Illinois
Industry Biotechnology Association (iBIO), will be on hand with
a contingent of bi-state corporate and government entities. Gillespie,
Miller et al. are excited to show the world what is happening in
what Miller terms the “silos of excellence” throughout the Great
Midwest.
“Folks who have been tracking biotechnology for the last couple
of decades think that, when all is said and done, the biosciences
will permeate everything we do,” Miller has said. “There will 10,
maybe 15 places on the planet that are seen as major contributors
to making the science useful. We intend for Illinois to be recognized
as one of those places.”
Divided only by the Mississippi River, Illinois and Missouri might
as well be separated by an ocean, some Midwesterners have said.
Fact is, they’ve always had much in common. Then, as now, hundreds
of thousands of acres cultivated for corn and soybeans. Today, much
of that crop is “biotech,” developed for increased yields and resistance
to diseases. But scientists and entrepreneurs have barely scratched
the surface of a kernel of corn to unlock the secrets that lie within.
Same goes for cotton and soybeans, to name just two crops that are
largely biotech today: According to 2004 figures from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, corn is 45 percent biotech; soybeans, 85 percent;
and cotton, 76 percent.
And that’s just a glimpse at what’s going on in the plant sciences.
Advances in life sciences seem to occur daily in the heartland.
Veterinary research with pigs in Columbia, Mo., is geared toward
improving cardiac care for humans by developing replacement heart
valves. Pharmaceutical research continues apace in Illinois, from
Chicago to Carbondale. With great regularity, breakthroughs in both
states occur at the great research universities and incubators in
St. Louis and Chicago.
And it will all be in Chicago for the world to see at McCormick
Place, where in terms of space taken up by exhibits the show will
be about twice as big as it was last year in Philadelphia: More
than 600,000 square feet, compared to about 325,000.
It will be in the main entrance to the hall, hard to miss with a
sign that will be eight feet tall by 21 feet wide. What the billboard
will say, Gillespie is holding close to the vest. Suffice it to
say it will be enticing to anyone who hadn’t expected to investigate
biotech developments in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and
Iowa.
What’s driving the engine in the Midwest? Translational research,
which—greatly simplified—means taking a good idea, funding it, developing
it and taking it to market.
As Gillespie says, “It’s all right here: World-class research, from
pharma to biologics. We’re making it marketable... conquering diseases
that we thought were unsolvable.”
Collaboration is key, and artificial geography such as state or
city lines is irrelevant, say Gillespie and Miller. There are joint
ventures between small and big companies.
“Someone once asked me in an interview whether I saw such things
as a threat,” Miller says. “This is not a zero sum gain, but a way
to make the pie bigger—for everybody.”
Further informing and educating the public is a continuing effort,
Gillespie and Miller note.
“Down here in the state capital, we have a lot of people who translate
biotechnology into stem-cell research,” says Gillespie, who is based
in Jefferson City. “You’d never think the things we’re doing in
plants would benefit humans.”
Notes his Illinois counterpart: “We talk a lot about the economic
development aspects of all this, and they’re certainly there in
abundance. On a more profound level, we’re talking about our community,
our region living up to its potential in making important contributions
to the planet: to the eradication of disease, to better nourishment,
an end to hunger, and to a much cleaner, safer environment,” Miller
says. “When I talk about this to local audiences, people respond,
sometimes tearfully, because that’s really what folks here want
to do: make a positive difference. That’s at the heart of what we’re
about, and that’s what makes all the difficulties along the way
worthwhile.”
It bears repeating: Scientists are working to isolate a protein
in the tobacco plant that may become a viable cancer-fighting drug.
Biotechnology has made unimaginable strides with corn and soybeans,
and with cotton. Canola, sugar beets and alfalfa are being tweaked
in the lab.
What’s next? Maybe biotechnologists will eventually find the good
in poison ivy, dandelions, crabgrass, thistles and kudzu. |
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