Delegates at Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Summit Catch the Future

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Participants at a Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network summit managed to catch the future, if only briefly, as speakers described the mega-changes in life sciences that are disrupting the global economy.

Attendees at the Hamilton summit heard that future reality will be a world where:

-the genomic code — the most powerful information-processing system —
topples the reign of the computer-based digital code;
-embryonic stem cells will be used to cure or control cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, or repair damaged heart walls;
-energy will flow from something as mundane as algae in the sea.

The coming life sciences revolution will reinvent health care, cause some national economies to boom and others to shrivel, and even change how factories look and operate, said keynote speaker Juan Enriquez, founding director of Harvard Business School’s (Boston, MA) Life Sciences Project.

“The world is going genomic. If you don’t see the possibilities in this shift, if you say no instead of yes, you will be left in the past,” Enriquez told approximately 150 delegates on the June 13, all-day summit titled “Local Innovation for the Global Economy” that took place at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON).

The scientist, businessman and author — one of his bestsellers is titled As The Future Catches You — has a front row seat to the changes. Scientists are now rewriting genetic code, not merely reading it, Enriquez said. They know that changing only two or three letters in the code changes life forms and purposes. GTC Biotherapeutics Inc. (Framingham, MA) is producing life-saving proteins from the milk of genetically engineered goats — a factory on the hoof. Plants are being programmed to find gold or uranium. New computers may merge DNA and silicon.

Enriquez captivated his audience with tales of an ocean voyage to collect water samples in the Sargasso Sea with friend and fellow scientist Craig Venter, PhD, who is often credited as the man who cracked the human genetic code. The trip turned up 1,800 new life forms and more than one million new genes. It also led to the formation of a company that hopes to produce future fuels, such as hydrogen and ethanol, from new synthetic chromosomes.
Other speakers at the summit outlined the amazing progress being made in cancer and nutraceutical research — such as the work being conducted on the antioxidant resveratrol, which is found in the skins of red grapes — and even in the auto industry, where components are being made from bio-agriproducts.

North America’s fascination with diet and disease prevention, as well as its aging population, are prime factors behind the growth in biosciences. The prevalence of degenerative eye diseases is part of the reality of aging. At McMaster’s school of bioengineering, Heather Sheardown, PhD has worked for a decade on new materials to provide therapies for vision loss.
Her newest technology deals with drug delivery to the back of the eye to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Normally, AMD treatment requires intravitreal injections every six weeks. Sheardown is looking at alginate-based materials that can release drugs slowly, which would stretch out the period between injections.

The new life sciences frontiers are informed with new methodologies, as seen in the trend toward interdisciplinary research. McMaster’s collaborative health initiatives on West Nile virus and HIV/AIDS are examples, said Susan Denburg, PhD associate dean of health sciences. The multi-faculty approach — involving science, bio-engineering, social and health sciences, as well as other areas — leads to cluster “themes” of common interests.

Industry is taking this same tack. Toyota Motor Corp. (Aichi Perfecture, Japan) has a biotech division, Gord Surgeoner, PhD, president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies said, “Because cars are going to be totally recyclable,” as substances such as soybean oil polyols are used to make foam in car seats. The objective, he said, is to have 100 kilograms of agricultural product in each vehicle.
Innovation at Canadian biosciences companies has led to growing sales overseas and to new ventures with global partners. For example, Casco Inc. (Etobicoke, ON), Canada’s largest industrial corn processor, has partnered with Jungbunzlauer Canada Inc. (Port Colborne, ON). Jungbunzlauer uses the dextrose made by Casco as a raw material to manufacture citric acid for use in food, beverage, personal care and other industries.

Going global was a message repeated by members of a panel, who urged researchers and companies to shop their first-class science and products outside Canada. “You’ve got to go there, you’ve got to meet people. (They) trust the people first and then the science second,” said Dave Howlett, vice-president of Corporate Development, Life Sciences, with specialty insurance brokerage, the Magnes Group Inc. (Oakville, ON).

Darlene Homonko, PhD is the executive
director of the Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network.