Genetic engineering is being done with more than just food crops. It's affecting every facet of life.

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Transgenic Tobacco. Carole L. Cramer --Virginia Tech

Transgenic plants show significant promise in addressing key issues such as cost, safety, biocomparability, supply, and time to market, that limit commercialization of complex recombinant human protein therapeutics. This presentation describes a novel post-harvest transgene expression system designed for efficient bioproduction of human proteins within the strict regulatory environment of the pharmaceutical market. An inducible promoter, MeGATM, is used to drive high-level de novo production of human proteins in harvested tobacco leaves. The transgene product is recovered 24 hours after induction. This system has been used successfully for production of human lysosomal enzymes, the plasminogen activator urokinase, and other proteins. These tobacco-synthesized human proteins are trafficked through the endomembrane systems, secreted, and show full enzymatic activity, indicating appropriate folding and post-translational processing. Biomass production, product characterization, process scale-up, and regulatory issues will be discussed.

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Translation: They are inserting human and other genes into plants, in this case, tobacco, to force the plant to produce products that can be used as medicine.

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Mark Adams, Genzyme Transgenics Corporation

Considering the issues facing medicine today: aging populations, increasing medical demands, antibiotic resistance, economic globalization and world-wide travel, transgenic expression and production could provide the enablement to address many of the demands now placed on biopharmaceutical development. Transgenic dairy animals provide a cost-effective route to the large-scale manufacture of biotherapeutics expressed in milk. This technology has enabled the secretion of complex proteins that remain a significant challenge for cell culture as well as the expression of proteins not normally secreted from cells. The development strategies for the commercial production of these transgenically produced therapeutic proteins and their promise for the future will be discussed.

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Translation: They are going to use cows who will excrete medicinal components in their milk.

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Molecular farming in organ transplantation. Robert Zhong*, M.D., London Health Sciences Centre

Since 1954, when the first successful kidney transplant was performed, more than a half million patients have had their lives saved by organ transplantation. However after over four decades of clinical and basic research in organ transplantation, two obstacles still limit the full application and success of this therapeutic alternative. The most pressing and immediate problem is the shortage of organs. The second major problem is related to the shortcomings and disadvantages of chronic immunosuppression - drugs that cannot prevent chronic rejection and cause serous side effects (infection, cancer). Historically, transplantation research using animal models has always been at the interface of clinical need, basic research in immunobiology and the development of new products by industries. The Experimental Transplant Program at UWO/LHSC/RRI has become an effective "bridge" between transplantation biology, clinical transplantation and industrial development. Since 1984, more than 6,000 experimental transplants have been performed in mice, rats, pigs and primates. Molecular farming technology including transgenic animals and plants has been a valuable tool in our research. We are currently testing genetically altered pigs, which will be potential human donors in preclinical primate kidney/liver transplant models. A variety of knock-out mice are currently being used to develop a new strategy to induce "tolerance", a status allowing permanent acceptance of transplanted organs without the chronic use of toxic anti-rejection drugs.

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Translation: They are genetically altering pigs to grow human compatible organs to be used for transplanting into human beings.

transgenic: having chromosomes into which one or more heterologous genes have been incorporated either artificially or naturally.

recombinant
1 : relating to or exhibiting genetic recombination <~ progeny>
2 : relating to or containing recombinant DNA; also : produced by recombinant DNA technology _ recombinant n

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Even so come, Lord Jesus
Linda

The following article gives a wide range of areas where genetic engineering is being used and in some cases causing problems. It will also help shed some light on the first post.

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Reprinted with permission from the November 1998 issue of Alive: Canadian Journal of Health and Nutrition, 7436 Fraser Park Drive, Burnaby, BC V5J 5B9

BIOTECH NEWS
by Richard Wolfson, Ph.D., Health Advisor to the Natural Law Party of Canada

* UK Parliament Bans Biotech Foods

The UK government banned genetically engineered foods from restaurants and bars in the House of Commons. The Parliament has been accused of double standards, as these biotech foods are still allowed in the public food system.

According to Hugh Warwick of the Genetics Forum : "This shows hypocrisy at the heart of government. MPs have decided they want nothing to do with genetically modified food while ministers are denying the public this choice. "

* Biotech Crops Producing Superweeds

American and Danish scientists produced new evidence that herbicide resistance genes from genetically engineered crops can spread to wild relatives, producing herbicide resistant superweeds.

Because these weeds are immune to herbicides, they would be very difficult to control and would wreak ecological havoc. Dr. Allison Snow of Ohio State University explained that by spraying with herbicides, the only weeds to survive would be the herbicide resistant varieties, which would cause them to then spread even faster.

* Monsanto Ad Blitz

In August, the US based biotech giant Monsanto began a multi-billion dollar media campaign in Europe to promote genetic engineered foods. Monsanto's ads, entitled "Let the Harvest Begin," presented biotechnology to protect the environment and feed the starving. A few African leaders are being used by Monsanto to promote their campaign.

However, other leading African politicians, scientists and agriculturists stated, "We strongly object that the image of the poor and hungry from our countries is being used by giant multinational corporations to push a technology that is neither safe, environmentally friendly, nor economically beneficial to us." They added "Its [Monsanto's] major focus is not to protect the environment, but to develop crops that can resist higher doses of its best-selling chemical weed killer "Roundup."

Monsanto is gaining increasing control of every stage of food production, from the farmer to the market place. In addition to Roundup and related products, recent acquisitions of Monsanto include American Home Products, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical and healthcare product companies, Dekalb Genetics Corp., a major corn-seed producer, Cargill, the giant grain trader and food processor, and the crop-breeding unit of Unilever.

* Monsanto Found Libel

The Mississippi Seed Arbitration Council recently ruled that Monsanto has to pay nearly $2 million to three cotton farmers who suffered severe losses, due to the failure of Monsanto's Roundup Ready cotton. Cotton bolls were deformed and fell off the plants prematurely, causing millions of dollars of damage.

Last fall, 54 cotton growers filed for arbitration with the Council over failure of the biotech cotton. Monsanto had begun settling directly with farmers--reportedly paying out millions of dollars. The $2 million ruling affects three growers who refused the company's offers and argued for higher compensation. The Roundup Ready cotton failure is an example of the unpredicted side-effects of genetic engineering.

* British University Accused of Biopiracy

British scientists working for the Thai Government accused Portsmouth University (UK) of breaking wildlife rules enshrined at the Rio Convention on Biodiversity, by refusing to return up to 200 strains of marine fungi collected in Thailand.

Genes isolated from the fungi could be used to create pharmaceuticals for treating everything from AIDS to cancer and be worth millions of pounds. Under agreements signed by John Major and other world leaders at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, taking wild plants, animals and other life forms without permission is forbidden.

* GE Pig Organs Could Carry Deadly Virus

Pigs are being genetically engineered with human genes to provide organs for human transplants. However, according the UK medical journal, Lancet, organs from pigs could infect humans with porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV), a new, possibly deadly virus.

* Potatoes that Produce Human Milk

Scientists in Loma Linda, CA, USA have successfully inserted human genes that code for human milk into potatoes. The researchers are seeking to create potatoes that generate human milk. Patenting of this process, if successful, could lead to huge financial gain. The potential side effects of the milk are clearly unknown at this stage.

* Limited Mandatory Labelling in EU

Beginning Sept 1, 1998, genetically engineered whole foods in Europe need to be labelled. However, the mandatory labelling does not apply to derivatives of biotech foods that do not themselves contain measurable amounts of genetically modified protein or DNA. For instance, while genetically engineered soy beans need to be labelled, soy oil and lecithin derived from these beans do not require labelling.

Environmentalists and consumer groups are very concerned because the majority of genetically engineered foods may only contain genetically modified derivatives that do not require labelling.

* BGH Hazards Uncovered

Genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH), which is injected into cows to increase milk production, was approved in the US on the basis of studies on rats.

However, studies recently uncovered though access to information channels found that rats injected with BGH showed cysts of the thyroid, elevated antibody levels, and inflammation of the prostate&endash; all strong warning signals. The Health Canada report that includes these findings was suppressed, clearly due to pressure from industry .

At recent grievance hearings in Ottawa, Health Canada scientists say they are being pressured to approve BGH and other products of questionable safety. More details will be reported in the next Biotech News column.

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[This message has been edited by Linda Sutton (edited November 19, 2000).]

I just wanted you to know that I read this information. I agree that this is something we must watch out for.

An elder in a church I used to pastor was very interested in this subject and he alerted me to the issues.

Thank you, Linda, for collecting concrete material on this subject.

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As the Happy Moments Roll,

Pastor Andrew

North Farm Cooperative natural foods distributor featured an article about genetic engineering in the December issue of their newsletter. I will share portions of the article here as I have time. In the meantime, the following book was reviewed and recommended by them as a helpful resource for those concerned with this issue.

Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers

Authors: Ronnie Cummins is the national director of OCA, the Organic Consumers Association… and the editor of BioDemocracy News, a monthly online newsletter devoted to genetic engineering, factory farming and organics. Ben Lilliston is a writer on health and the environment and is the communications coordinator for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis.

Reviewer Norma Woods states:

"This book is definitely 'biased', even 'alarmist'. It frequently refers to genetically altered foods as 'Frankenfoods', an allusion to Frankenstein. The authors have stated two primary objectives in writing the book: 'to help you to clearly understand why you should be concerned about purchasing or consuming genetically engineered foods' and to 'alert you to the risks genetically engineered crops are posing to the environment.'

I think the book is an excellent overview of the real and potential dangers of genetically engineered food and other products of biotechnology which we are consuming with increasing frequency. It is chock-full of facts and presents a coherent statement against the propaganda of the biotech industry."

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The Lord is the strength of my life and my portion forever.

Cathy, would put a copy of your post in the Healthy Diet and Recipes/Frankenfood topic also? As the saying goes, let's cover all the bases.

Since I don't know if people are reading both forums, I have the topic in both. The one in Healthy Diet deals more with food, but since food is only one of the things being altered I added the topic here as well. I believe that people need to understand what is happening, and I will do what I can to alert them. I appreciate the information that others supply here as well. No matter where we turn, plants, animals, humans are being genetically altered and experimented on.

I was going to add something about cloning not being a problem with our food supply, but when I stopped for a moment and thought, I remember that some plant growers and breeders are indeed cloning plants. Food animals are also being cloned, so cloning does affect the food people consume whether they are vegetarians or not.

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Even so come, Lord Jesus
Linda

[This message has been edited by Linda Sutton (edited November 20, 2000).]

Britain is in the front with the USA in the fields of cloning and genetic manipulation.

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Women will be asked to donate their eggs for 'humanitarian' medical research when Parliament gives the go-ahead for experiments on embryos this week. Ministers foresee a surge of women volunteering to help those with incurable diseases, by providing the raw material to grow cells which may hold the key to cures.

The embryos created would initially be used for research. But eventually they could provide a human 'spare parts' kit, supplying stem cells, which are the building blocks for all specialised body cells. These could, theoretically, be grown into skin tissue for grafts, brain cells to replace those damaged by Alzheimer's or even organs for transplant. It could also provide treatments for Parkinson's disease, heart disease and leukaemia.

An alternative to a mass egg donation programme would be to grow eggs from follicles from the ovaries of aborted foetuses. However, it is expected that so many women will come forward this would not be necessary.

Professor Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, said: 'Women are already being asked to donate eggs for infertile couples - but that's not the same as asking someone to donate an egg for someone dying of cancer. There would be a surge of humanitarian interest and many women would give eggs.'

MPs are expected to give the go-ahead to stem cell research in a vote in the Commons next Tuesday, despite impassioned objections from the Roman Catholic Church and pro-life groups.

Under present law, research on embryos is only allowed for developing fert-ility treatments. But Donald-son wants a partial lifting of the ban to enable research on serious diseases. Cloning to reproduce humans would remain banned.

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This argument came a couple of monthe after a "panel of experts urged the government to allow human cloning for scientific study of transplants, a recommendation that, if approved, would make Britain the first country in the world to authorize human cloning for any purpose."

According the article, the government accepted the experts recommendation and would seek legislation to implement it as quickly as possible. What the Brits want to do is:

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Scientists would create a clone of a sick person by taking one of the patient's cells. When the embryo is a few days old, they then would extract the stem cells, which would be genetically identical to the patient's and therefore theoretically overcome problems of transplant rejection.

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Now in the USA, with George W. Bush about to take the office of president, there could be changes in the rules that have recently been enacted permitting the use of government funds for similar research on embryos. Bush has stated that he is opposed to the use of federal funds for this purpose as are a number of religious groups and pro-like groups. At this time, it is unknown if he will seek to stop the use of federal monies for this research.

Man is fooling around with things he doesn't fully understand. I haven't seen the Jurassic Park movies or read the books, but the more I find about this subject, the less science-fictional that story becomes. The days of Noah are being repeated.

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Even so come, Lord Jesus
Linda

[This message has been edited by Linda Sutton (edited January 07, 2001).]

Britain has now opened wide the door to begin the cloning of human embryos.

The House of Lords has approved a proposed change to government regulations that makes Britain the first country to effectively legalize the creation of cloned human embryos.

The measure is aimed at allowing research on so-called stem cells — the un-programmed master cells found in early-stage embryos that can turn into nearly every cell type in the body. Like all other embryos used in research, the clones created under the new regulations would have to be destroyed after 14 days, and the creation of babies by cloning would remain outlawed.

They described the procedure:

An embryo is essentially a ball of stem cells that evolves into a fetus when the stem cells start specializing to create a nervous system, spine and other features at about 14 days. Scientists hope that by extracting the stem cells from the embryo when it is three or four days old, their growth can be directed in a lab to become any desired cell or tissue type for transplant.

The hope is that one day it will be possible to grow neurons to replace nerve cells in a brain killed by Parkinson's disease, skin to repair burns and pancreatic cells to produce insulin for diabetics.

Scientists would create a clone of a sick patient by removing the nucleus of a donor egg and replacing it with that of a cell from the patient. The egg would be induced to divide and start growing into an embryo. The cloned cells would be genetically identical to the patient's and therefore theoretically overcome problems of transplant rejection, which happens because the immune system fights foreign tissue.

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Even so come, Lord Jesus
Linda

Yet another disturbing story about genetic engineering. In attemping to develope a mouse contraceptive, scientists developed a deadly virus instead. It is said to be dangerous for mice only, not humans. But it has caused fear.

They made the virus deadly for breeds of laboratory mice normally resistant to its effects. They also found it made vaccines for mice against mousepox less effective, said Dr. Bob Seamark, director of the Cooperative Research Center for the Biological Control of Pest Animals.

Humans have a similar immune system gene, and it was not clear if the same process could create a pathogen deadly to people. Scientists say the mouse virus itself poses no danger to humans.

Seamark said last week the world should be warned of the potential abuses of the discovery if similar manipulation is done with human viruses.

"It was a concern that this same modification could be made to human viruses and this would enhance their virulence or at least (strengthen) their ability to kill people," he said.

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Even so come, Lord Jesus
Linda

The process of cloning is shown in these graphics.

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Even so come, Lord Jesus
Linda

Saturday February 24 9:51 AM ET

Scientists Craft Mouse with Human Brain Cells

By Andrew Quinn

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have produced laboratory mice with human brain cells, marking a potential step toward developing treatments for human brain disease like Alzheimer's but promising to fuel fresh debate over the evolving ethics of bioengineering.

The research at California biotechnology company StemCells Inc . breaks new ground by demonstrating that human brain stem cells can be induced to grow within a mouse's skull, scientists said on Friday.

"We are not recreating a human brain. We're really just trying to understand how these stem cells can function, and how they can be used in the treatment of specific diseases," said Ann Tsukamoto, vice president of scientific operations at StemCells Inc.

Irving Weissman, a Stanford university professor involved in the two-year research project, said the next step could be to produce mice with brains made up almost entirely of human cells -- although he said there would have to be a thorough ethical review before this step is taken.

"You would want to ask the ethicist what percentage of the brain would be human cells before you start worrying, and if you start worrying, what would you start worrying about," Weissman said.

The California study involved isolating human stem cells in the laboratory and then introducing them into mice. As the mice matured, the human stem cells -- "master cells" that can develop into any other type of cell -- grew into a full range of specialized cells throughout each mouse brain.

"It looks like human cells can follow the developmental instructions put in by the mouse brain. They are making human components in what is clearly a mouse brain," Weissman said.

The researchers believe that these mice could be used to test treatments for human brain diseases such as Parkinsons and Alzheimer's, although these tests have not yet been undertaken.

Tsukamoto added that the experiment also demonstrated that StemCell Inc's process for isolating and developing human stem cells was viable, and that cell banks could be established for future transplantation into humans.

"We're of course moving this into the development phase, and looking at which disease indications these cells would be best used for in preclinical trials," she said.

Both scientists stressed that their research, while marking a new breakthrough in the controversial world of stem cell research, was in no way aimed at blurring the lines between human and animal.

But Weissman added that he had already requested a review panel to look at the research to determine if there may be ethical problems in taking the work further.

"It is not the objective to go make mice with human brains," Weissman said. "(But) it is in the domain of the ethicists, not the experimenters, to figure out what our limits are."