Biotechnology

“ The discovery of the structure of DNA also set the stage for the development of recombinant DNA technology, out of which has blossomed the biotechnology industry. In just the past 10 years, some 1,300 biotechnology companies have been formed. Through biotechnology, chemists and biologists are able to design and produce novel medicines and vaccines for clinical use. ”

“ Article 25 We call on the FAO, in conjunction with the CGIAR and other international research institutes, to advance agricultural research and research into new technologies, including biotechnology. The introduction of tried and tested new technologies including biotechnology should be accomplished in a safe manner and adapted to local conditions to help improve agricultural productivity in developing countries. We are committed to study, share and facilitate the responsible use of biotechnology in addressing development needs. ”

“ For thousands of years, man has been utilizing and modifying biological processes to improve man's quality of life. Scientific advances have enabled biotechnology to play an increasingly large role in the development of new products that enhance all areas of our lives. ”

“ The biotechnology industry is also improving lives through its substantial economic impact. Biotechnology has stimulated the creation and growth of small businesses, generated new jobs, and encouraged agricultural and industrial innovation. ”

“ The Minister of Knowledge Economy shall engage in supporting the advancement and improvement of the biotechnology-related industrial process, exploitation of new and renewable energy and efficient utilization of mineral resources, and to facilitate the industrialization of developed technologies, as well as to support the development of information communication technology for nurturing and building up biotechnology ”

“ The purpose of this Act is to develop and support biotechnology more efficiently by laying the foundation of biotechnology research, and to contribute to the sound progress of the national economy by facilitating the industrialization of the technology. ”

“ For the purposes of this Section, each Party shall apply this Article to, at a minimum, a product that is, or, alternatively, contains, a protein produced using biotechnology processes, for use in human beings for the prevention, treatment, or cure of a disease or condition. ”

“ Our Nation stands as a global leader in research and development, in large part because of our successes in understanding and utilizing the biological processes of life. The field of biotechnology is important to the quality of our lives, the protection of our environment, and the strength of our economy. ”

“ Today, a third of all new medicines in development are based on biotechnology. Designed to attack the underlying cause of an illness, not just its symptoms, these medicines have tremendous potential to provide not only more effective treatments, but also cures. With improved understanding of cellular and genetic processes, scientists have opened exciting new avenues of research into treatments for devastating diseases—like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart disease, AIDS, and cancer—that affect millions of Americans. ”

“ The state encourages biotechnology innovation, strengthens construction of biosecurity infrastructure and training of biotechnology talents, supports development of bioindustry, and improves biotechnology by innovative drive,so as to enhance the capacities for guaranteeing biosecurity. ”

“ In the battle against disease, our ever-increasing knowledge of cellular and genetic processes continues to improve the quality of our health care. Biotechnology has contributed to the development of vaccines, antibiotics, and other drugs that have saved or prolonged the lives of millions of people. ”

“ Remarkable as its achievements have been, the biotechnology enterprise is still in its infancy. We will reap even greater benefits as long as we sustain the intellectual partnership and public confidence that have moved biotechnology forward thus far. We must strengthen our efforts to improve science education for all Americans and preserve and promote the freedom of scientific inquiry. ”

“ The environmental benefits of biotechnology can be realized through the increased ability of manufacturers to produce their products with less energy, pollution, and waste. In addition, the development of new biotechnology promises to improve our ability to clean up toxic substances from soil and water and improve waste management techniques. ”

“ The impact of biotechnology is far-reaching. Bioremediation technologies are cleaning our environment by removing toxic substances from contaminated soils and ground water. Agricultural biotechnology reduces our dependence on pesticides. Manufacturing processes based on biotechnology make it possible to produce paper and chemicals with less energy, less pollution, and less waste. ”

“ Guidelines related to a comprehensive fostering plan and efficient utilization of human resources required for the research in biotechnology; and Plans and guidelines on the researches in biotechnology and international exchange of industrial technology manpower related thereto, and on the utilization of overseas scientists and engineers. ”

“ The materials and technical know-how needed to make a bio-weapon that could infect hundreds of thousands of people are already widely distributed around the planet, and the number of people who possess the expertise needed to create bioweapons is rapidly growing as biotechnology and pharmaceutical research and production expand into developing countries. ”

“ They also contribute to energy and resource conservation, as in general they require less energy to manufacture and, being lighter, contain less matter than conventional materials.
42. Biotechnology will have major implications for the environment. The products of genetic engineering could dramatically improve human and animal health. Researchers are finding new drugs. new therapies. and new ways of controlling disease vectors. Energy derived from plants could increasingly substitute for non.-renewable fossil fuels. ”

“ Israel is uniquely poised to seize the promise of the 21st century. Israel is a world leader in science and technology, in cyber, software, water, agriculture, medicine, biotechnology and so many other fields that are being revolutionized by Israeli ingenuity and Israeli innovation. Israel is the innovation nation. ”

“ The inventor has discovered that for an efficient bate a pure culture of bacteria is insufficient, and that no single organism hitherto isolated will give results equal to dung. He has also discovered that the production of these enzymes depends more upon the composition of the nutrient medium in which the bacteria are cultivated than upon the kind of bacteria, although these latter must be capable of producing the required enzymes, the production of which appears to be due to a symbiotic growth of bacteria, at present little understood. ”

“ By purely empirical means mankind has learned methods of encouraging the development of some of these products, and is to-day making practical use of this power, possessed by bacteria, of furnishing desired chemical compounds. Industries involving the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars are founded upon the products of bacterial life, and they have a far more important relation to our everyday life than is commonly imagined. ”

“ If a gene is repressed, nothing happens; it remains inactive, presumably until something removes the repressing factor. But an active gene sets in motion a train of events that results in activation of one of the processes of life: The gene’s DNA directs the manufacture of RNA, which in turn brings about the synthesis of a specific protein to carry out a specific metabolic process. In other words, all the activities of the cell are dictated by active genes (the DNA molecules) through the mediation of RNA and are executed by proteins. ”

“ Are we to suppose that all these varied products are manufactured from the same cell protoplasm, from a common stock, that each one owes its origin to some particular force controlled by extra-cellular influences, each group of cells' being made to manufacture a given product out of the same mother substance? Or, on the other hand, are we to assume that each group of cells, as it is developed, has as a birthright the quality of producing from its particular protoplasm a certain line of products, simply because of the peculiar chemical nature or constitution of that protoplasm? ”

“ The proteins are the most important group of organic components of plants. They constitute the active material of protoplasm, in which all of the chemical changes which go to make up the vital phenomena take place. Combined with the nucleic acids, they comprise the nucleus of the cell, which is the seat of the power of cell-division and, hence, of the growth of the organism. Germ-cells are composed almost exclusively of protein material. Hence, it is not an over-statement to say that proteins furnish the material in which the vital powers of growth and repair and of reproduction are located. ”

“ A cultivation which comprises the progeny of a single cell is termed a "pure culture"; one which contains representatives of two or more species of bacteria is spoken of as an "impure," or "mixed" "cultivation," and it now becomes necessary to indicate the chief methods by which one or more organisms may be isolated in a state of purity from a mixture; whether that mixture exists as an impure laboratory cultivation, or is contained in pus and other morbid exudations, infected tissues, or water or food-stuffs. ”

“ Recombinant DNA technology has been limited primarily to small organisms, usually bacteria. This production of new bacteria through altering genetic material has been confined to the laboratory; organisms with recombinant DNA have never been released into the general environment. ”

“ On the one hand we have been able to construct artificially such complex organic molecules as sugar and protein. On the other hand, it has been found possible to produce in siliceous and metallic solutions mimic cells which grow, move, put forth pseudopodia, select their food, propagate by fission, and assume many of the characteristic forms of vegetable and animal life. In more than one laboratory experiments in the generation of life are still being hopefully carried on, and an announcement of their success at any time would not amaze biologists in general. ”

“ We have mentioned previously that there are two main types of nucleic acids: DNA, the genetic material itself, and RNA, the molecule that translates the genetic message from DNA into terms the cell can use as “instructions” for making protein. Cells differ from each other on the basis of kinds of proteins they contain, and, since differences among cells determine differences among organisms, it follows that differences in the composition of DNA serve to explain the variety in living organisms populating the world. ”

“ FIG. 178.
For the study of bacteria they are propagated artificially in a test tube—i. e., a substance called a “culture” is prepared from some organic material which, like the substances of the human body, is favorable to their propagation. Such culture media are found in beef blood, gelatine, beef extracts, meat broth, milk, etc. An ordinary test-tube is supplied with some of the culture medium, and is then sterilized over the fire to destroy all interfering germs. ”

“ Specialized expertise, teamwork, large infrastructures, complicated machinery, advanced technology, trouble-shooting, and organizational factors continue to be required when a design and engineering approach develops. Thus, even though the engineering approach of synthetic biology aims to make processes more systematic and more reproducible, this will not make it easier for anybody to engineer biology. ”

“ I turn to the experimental side to see what evidence we have there. To enable us to say that we know anything about the experimental origination of organisation and life, the investigator ought to be able to take inorganic matters, such as carbonic acid, ammonia, water, and salines, in any sort of inorganic combination, and be able to build them up into protein matter, and then that protein matter ought to begin to live in an organic form. ”

“ And so it is with the cell, the living machine. A very small portion of the food introduced will be assimilated in the living substance. By far the greater part of it is destined to be worked up by the protoplasm and placed in reserve under the form of glycogen, albumen, and fat, etc.—i.e., compounds which are not the really living substance, the hereditary protoplasm, but the products of its industry, just as they are or may be the products of the industry of the chemist working in his laboratory. ”

“ Further development of this field of research, by the use of the greatest variety of substrates from all kinds of substances, is required, in order to give an answer to the question of the peculiarities of certain kinds of cells in many directions. It will be possible in future to recognize certain cells by the manner in which they reduce substrates, the synthesis of which, as a matter of course, must be previously fully known to us. ”

“ So long as purely chemical research is unable to answer questions concerning the finer structure of the cell elements, we are bound to resort to indirect methods. The latter have, in a relatively short time, opened up a vast field, and discovered views of the widest interest in regard to every kind of cellular process. It is the duty of the future to follow up with exact methods all the observations that have been made, and to replace with known quantities the many unknowns with which our present-day methods have still to reckon. ”