Anhui Rice Research Institute signs agreement with Syngenta

Swiss agri-biotech company Syngenta announced in a press release that it had entered into a 8-year research collaboration with Anhui Rice Research Institute (ARRI) of Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences in China. The collaboration program will revolve around conducting laboratory and field tests of novel gene functions and will focus on drought tolerance and nitrogen utilization optimization in key crops such as corn and soybean. ARRI will work closely with Syngenta’s new biotech research and technology center in Beijing which was opened in October last year.

“This collaboration will accelerate our research and increase our efficiency and competitiveness,” said Xun Wang, Head of Syngenta Biotechnology China. “ARRI has strong expertise and experience in genetics, breeding and field experiments.”

According to Syngenta, the base crop for the program will be rice, which is highly suited for gene research. It is a well-characterized crop regarding genetic, molecular and agronomic information and its genome is closely related to those of major crops such as corn. The relatively short growing cycle of rice will also allow more testing to be completed in a shorter time frame.

The agreement expands on Syngenta’s existing collaborations with China. In 2007, the company entered into a five-year research collaboration with the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) in Beijing on the development of novel agronomic traits for key crops such as corn, soybean, wheat, sugar beet and sugar cane.

Founded in 1987, ARRI is a leading institute in rice research and technology innovation in Anhui Province in China. Since its establishment, ARRI has undertaken many key projects such as with the United Nations Development Programme and the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation.

Formed in 2000 from the merger of Novartis and AstraZeneca’s agri-businesses units, Syngenta is one of the world’s leading companies in this field with more than 24,000 employees in over 90 countries.

Biotechnology Firm successfully Refines Algae to produce Jet Fuel

New Zealand firm Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation announced that its wild algae has been successfully refined to produce the world’s first sample of synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK).  SPK, when blended with petroleum-based kerosene, can be used to power commercial and military aircraft.

Sample of Diesel and Jet Fraction derived from Wild Algae. Picture from UOP and Aquaflow.

Aquaflow Company Director, Nick Gerritsen says the sample meets Jet A-1 specifications and, when blended with petroleum-based Jet A-1, could be used by commercial aircraft.  According to press release, the algae was converted using technology from United States-based UOP LLC, a Honeywell company. UOP utilized its proprietary hydroprocessing technology to convert the sample to SPK and confirmed that the sample meets the critical specifications for SPK including density, flash point and freeze point.

Besides refining wild algae into jet fuel, the wild algae sample also yielded a sample of diesel fuel. Though the press release did not elaborate on the diesel fuel.

“This is a major breakthrough and confirms that wild and naturally occurring algae and its components can produce quality, sustainable aviation fuel,” says Gerritsen.

Aquaflow obtains its wild algae from the local oxidation ponds in Marlborough, essentially recycling a waste product. Wild algae grows in wastewater and is thus able to be continuously harvested. The other great benefit of it is that it doesn’t compete with food crops or agricultural land.

Stempeutics opens Stem Cell Research Facility in Malaysia

Stempeutics, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of India’s Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), opened its RM20 Million groundbreaking stem cell research facility in Malaysia, leading the way for such research to be conducted in the South East Asian Nation.

Malaysia’s Biotechnology Corporation Sdn Bhd (BiotechCorp), the organization in charge for facilitating biotechology and life sciences investment into the country, and Manipal Group first formalised their partnership through a memorandum of understanding in May last year. The research facility was officially opened by Malaysia’s Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Fadillah Yusof.

In an address to the opening launch of the centre, Stempeutics President, B.N. Manohar said, “Stempeutics will conduct research and study on stem cells. Currently, we are working with local institutions like Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Institute for Medical Research and Kumpulan Perbadanan Johor in the area of stem cell research.”

According to Fadillah, a total of RM13.7 billion have been allocated under the country’s Budget 2009 to enhance healthcare, which included increasing the supply of medicine, intensifying research and enforcement activities as well as further strengthening the growth of healthcare biotechnology. The minister also added that independent studies have identified Malaysia as a market with potential in stem cell research and therapy with an estimated value of US$157 million with year-on-year growth of 12 percent.

KAIST opens Cell Bench Research Center

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) officially opens a new Cell Bench Research Center on its campus within the city of Daejeon. The research center marked the start of a joint project with Samsung Electric Co. and Samsung Medical Center. A total of about 100 people from the three organizations, including KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh, Samsung Electric’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Byung-Cheon Koh and Samsung Medical Center Vice President Hyo-Geun Lim, were present for the official opening ceremony.

In the press release by KAIST, the center will start work on the development of individually-tailored anti-cancer medicine using bio-inspired cell chips and technologies for clinical applications. KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh mentioned on the opening ceremony that he expected the center will open a new path for the science and technology community and the industry to combine their strengths and develop innovative anti-cancer therapeutics through the involvement of the best professionals within academia, the electronic industry and the medical community.

The opening of the research center also marks Samsung Electric’s move into biomedical research from its usual focus of the information technologies industry. Samsung Electric CTO Byung-Cheon Koh commented that he hopes the cooperation with KAIST and Samsung Medical Center will allow the development of a simple and efficient cure for cancer patients.

Initial research work within the research center is to focus on the development of cell chips for lung cancer, one of the primary causes of death for Koreans.

Thailand’s BIOTEC launches Enzhance, a lysis buffer reagent

From Thailand’s National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the government supported research center has released the Enzhance lysis buffer reagent that would be useful in microbial protein extraction.

According to the website, the product named Enzhance, is developed by the BIOTEC Enzyme Technology Laboratory, and provides quick, efficient and gentle extraction of active proteins from various types of microbial cells. The product will also be useful in extracting high levels of cellular proteins from bacteria, yeasts or fungi. Interested parties could purchase this product directly from BIOTEC, as it is not known if they have set up any distribution partners to market the product outside of Thailand.

Promotional Material for Enzhance. Picture from Thailand's BIOTEC.

Abnova signs agreement with Assay Designs regarding distribution

Taiwan’s Abnova Corporation went forward with a strategic agreement with Assay Designs for the distribution of Abnova’s 3,200 types of highly characterized monoclonal antibodies to U.S. and Canadian customers which will greatly expand the Taiwanese company’s reach beyond Asia. This agreement will also be expected to help Abnova achieve its objective of being the world’s largest antibody manufacturer.

According to a press release, Assay Designs’ current product portfolio will also be expanded to over 5,300 reagents for important research sectors within cell signalling, cellular stress, neuroscience, and inflammation. Dan Salvo, CEO of Assay Designs, commented, “This new partnership with Abnova expands our current product portfolio trem endously with high quality monoclonals for a broad range of applications and research areas” In addition, he added that Abnova’s capacity to develop and produce antibodies is very complementary to our current antibody and immunoassay businesses, and affords our customer base easy access to their most highly characterized monoclonals for applications such as ELISA , immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence as well as western blotting.

Antibody Pair for Sandwich ELISA. Photo from Abnova Corp.

“Assay Designs’ expertise in immunoassay and system development highly complements Abnova’s capability in industrial-scale antibody manufacturing based on “one gene one antibody” translation of the human genome. Assay Designs and Abnova will work closely together to realize the next generation of analytical products which will accelerate the translational research in the proteomics era”, Wilber Huang, CEO of Abnova, said of the agreement. Abnova, based out of Taipei, have the capacity of generating up to 500 mouse monoclonal antibodies and 500 rabbit polyclonal antibodies every month.

Chinese Scientists discover genes that controls Grain-Filling process in Rice Growth

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have, in conjunction with the Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology (IPPE) under the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, find the functional gene that could control the rice’s grain-filling process, one that would increase the size and weight of each rice grain.

It is mentioned that grain-filling is a part of growth of the rice plant and will contribute to rice yields as well. However, technical difficulties have prevented breeders from directly and effectively select relevant characteristics and genes, thus stagnating developments in the quest for improved rice yields.

Comparison between a GM cultivar and a normal rice strain. From CAS

In a report published in the journal, Nature Genetics, the group of Chinese scientists led by He Zhehua from IPPE discovered that a particular gene termed as Grain Incomplete Filling 1 (GIF1) is responsible for regulating the mobilization and placement of glucose within the rice plant, after much comparison of genes across rice strains with poor grain-filling characteristics. It is found that rice varieties with a mutated GIF1 gene has lower enzyme activity that was essential for the creation of starch within the plants, leading to poor grain-filling characteristics. The study also developed a transgenic rice strain which over-expressed the GIF1 gene, resulting in the plants having larger and heavier grains than normal strains.

Progentech teams up with Human Genetic Signatures to Develop Assays for Bacteria

Progentech Limited, Inc, a Shanghai-based clinical diagnostics equipment manufacturer has signed a licensing agreement with Australian life science company Human Genetic Signatures, to develop and commercialize assays that measure levels of common hospital-acquired bacteria.

Under the agreement, Human Genetic Signatures will develop assays for MRSA, MSSA, VRE and C. difficile, which will be integrated for use within Progentech’s automated Entura platforms. The manual assays for these initial infection targets is expected to be submitted to the FDA for regulatory approval in 2009, while the fully integrated and automated versions of the assays will follow in 2010. The financial terms of the agreement was not disclosed by both companies. 

Dr. Trevor Hawkins, Chairman & CEO, Progentech, said ”We are very excited to be working with Human Genetic Signatures to develop and commercialize these assays. Our venture will provide a valuable solution to the underserved hospital-acquired infections market.” The partnership is expected to yield benefits to both companies as it marks the beginning of Progentech’s Applied Sciences businesses, positioning their products further into the Molecular Diagnostics, Forensics and Immunoassay market segments while marking Human Genetic Signatures’ entrance into the commercial Clinical Diagnostics market.

Reagent for Affordable and Rapid Detection of Melamine Developed in China

Scientists from the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Lanzhou University in northwest China announced last Saturday that they have developed a reagent that could find out melamine rapidly and at a cost-effective method.

A dose of the reagent will be able to detect melamine within 20 minutes at a cost of 20 Yuan (approximately US$ 2.90). This is compared to the traditional practice of using liquid chromatography which would take a week and cost a total of 2,000 Yuan, according to three professors who have jointly developed the reagent.

Prof. Chen Baohua told Xinhua that the color of milk containing melamine would change with the presence of the new reagent. This new testing method has been made simple to enable dairy farmers to test the milk themselves. In addition, scientists are also considering to further manufacture test paper out of the reagent, which would be even cheaper and more convenient for users, said Prof. Zhang Haixia.

The university has set up a task team to develop the reagent at the request of the Gansu provincial government. It was from Gansu that the tainted milk power scandal broke out, when media reported two weeks ago that fourteen babies suffered from kidney stones after drinking milk powder of the same brand.

Sydney IVF gets First License to Clone Human Embryos

Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) issued its first license in allowing scientists to create cloned human embryos so as to be able to extract embryonic stem cells. The license was granted to Sydney IVF, an in-vitro fertilization firm who reportedly has access to 7,200 human eggs for its research. Should the company be successful in extracting embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos, it would be the first to do that in the world.

Schematic diagram showing Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Picture from Wikipedia

Therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer, the method used for cloning human embryos was banned in Australia until the national parliament voted to lift the ban in December 2006. However, Australian national legislation still restricts the use of excess IVF embryos and the creation and use of other embryos in research. Human cloning for reproductive purposes have also been banned in the country. Even with the granting of the license to Sydney IVF, Dr John Findlay, Chair of the NHMRC’s licensing committee, said that the firm’s research will be closely monitored. He also added that scientists are not licensed to reach the fetal stage.

Stem cells that are extracted from the research would initially be used for testing of new drugs that will be used to combat diseases like muscular dystrophy and Huntington’s disease, while future therapeutic cloning would ultimately create body tissues matched to patients.

The research firm, Sydney IVF said that only eggs unusable for IVF and those that have been consented by donors would be used in the research. Three different types of cells, embryonic stem cells, cumulus cells attached to the collected eggs, and skin cells will be used to develop the cloned embryos. The firm had been the first in 2004 to extract stem cells from Australian IVF embryos and since then, have extracted and grown 10 more colonies of embryonic stem cells through its method.