On to a New Year With Renewed Hope

HAPPY New Year to all our readers! We hope that everyone had wonderful holidays and are back energised and inspired to kick start 2015. It is almost four years since we started publishing The Petri Dish amid skepticism whether or not a science newspaper can be sustained in Malaysia. The main reason behind its success is every one of you who have been giving us positive feedback and encouragement. The Petri Dish has grown in readership from 6,000 when we started in Feb 2011 to 18,000 today. It is subscribed by all the key biotechnology institutions in Malaysia and is available to cabinet members, chief ministers and to the general public. To start 2015 afresh, we have given a creative facelift to The Petri Dish. Hope you enjoy the new look. We are not stopping here. Wait for yet another announcement soon in our attempt to get the public interested in science and its phenomena. We are introducing a new section called “Biotech in Focus” which is reproduced with permission from University of Hawaii. Prof Ania who produces this is a good friend of mine and I am impressed on how she simplifies GM technology and dissects topics related to GM crops and agriculture. We hope this will help shed some light on the highly controversial issues surrounding GM crops. We take this opportunity to thank all our readers, subscribers and columnists for your support and trust we can continue to count on you to transform The Petri Dish into a mainstream media. It is also our hope and dream that more scientists will come forward to talk about their research and bring it to the wider world beyond scientific journals and conferences. Join us in this exciting world of science communication and enriching scientific knowledge of the public.

By Dr Mahaletchumy Arujanan

Spreading the Science-bug For the Making of a Science-literate Society

AS the year comes to an end, it is time for some reflection and stock taking. As for many, 2014 was an extremely busy and fruitful year for us at The Petri Dish. We became the official media for BiotechCorp to disseminate information on the Bioeconomy Transformation Programme. Through BiotechCorp, The Petri Dish now has readers at the corridors of power, reaching out to all cabinet members and chief ministers.

In order to promote public sector research and bring it out of the ivory towers, we introduced Research  Digest. We hope public universities and research institutes will continue to support by providing content for this section. It is time for home-grown research to be glorified.

This year, we covered a number of prominent events and provided on-site reports. BIO San Diego in the USA, BIO-IAP in New York, Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (MOP7) in South Korea and BioMalaysia 2014 in Kuala Lumpur were some of the events covered.
I can promise that 2015 is not going to be short of any breakthroughs for The Petri Dish. As a start we are increasing the number of pages from 16 to 20. The extra pages will complement the current Coffee Break section to include more easy-reading content for the general public and students. Our aim is to bring science closer to the society to create science literacy and  science culture among our society.

We are also exploring various avenues to place The Petri Dish in public space, besides Starbucks. Expect more announcements on this soon. In short, we expect 2015 to be an equally exciting year and we invite everyone to join us in our mission to spread the science-bug towards creating science literate society and promote bio-based economy and knowledge.
Happy New Year and Happy  Holidays!

Change of Mood at MOP7

The seventh meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties serving as Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP/MOP7) convened at the Alpensia Convention Centre in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, Republic of Korea.

The Cartagena Protocol on is an international agreement which aims to ensure the safe handling, transport and use of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health. It was adopted on 29 January 2000 and entered into force on 11 September 2003. Malaysia signed the Protocol in 2002 was ratified as a Party in 2003.

Socioeconomic considerations and  risk assessment and risk management took the centre stage in this year’s meeting. There was a change in the air with Parties such as Kenya, Ghana,  Paraguay, Philippines, Honduras, Iran, Brazil, and others were stronger than before in emphasizing the need for a balanced and science based approach.

As more countries have realised the impact of GM crops to their economy and farmers, the number of Parties in support of GM crops is in the increase. Brazil who was a strong opponent of GM crops eight years ago has emerged as a gigantic supporter with strong intervention towards science-based provisions. Paraguay was another Party with pro-GM interventions.

One could also sense the change in wind at side events organised by environmental activists where the majority of their audience were pro-GM who questioned the speakers on the validity of their facts and science.

However, there are still Parties who are still trying to keep away from GM crops such as  Liberia, Austria and Bolivia.

The guidance document developed by the Ad-Hoc Technical Expert Group was rejected by Parties who requested for a revision. The reasons given were that the document was not entirely useful and comprehendible to novice risk assessors. Parties also requested the secretariat to add more experts with working experience to the AHTEG.

There was also improvement to the socioeconomic consideration (SEC) document prepared at the previous MOP where Parties wanted a clear indication to spell out that “impact” of GM crops includes both the positive and negative impact. A majority of Parties also wanted the SEC AHTEG to develop the conceptual clarity of SEC before they proceed to develop the guidelines.

The delegates in the contact group which discussed the SEC went “wild’ when the Mauritanian delegate said the word “impact”  only meant negative effects. The entire room objected with an astounding and unanimous “NO”.

Both the negotiations on SEC and Risk Assessment and Management showed the upper hand of Parties who are in support of GM crops. Some observers indicated that future MOPs will see more Parties supporting GM crops as the number of countries adopting the crops increase.

By Dr Mahaletchumy Arujanan

A long road to transgenic animals

SEPTEMBER will be a hectic month for those involved in biotechnology and biosafety with two prominent international meetings – the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue (Beijing) and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety COP-MOP7 (Pyeongchang, South Korea). Important decisions on the regulations of GMOs will be taken here.

In fact, I attended a workshop on animal biotechnology in Brasilia last month and realised that commercialising transgenic animals is a bigger challenge than putting GM crops on the table. There is much more regulatory hurdles for introducing transgenic animals than GM crops, in spite of the fact that animals can be reared in confined environment and the “gene flow” cannot happen randomly, whereby biodiversity can be threatened.

                                            Dr Mahaletchumy Arujanan presenting on communication strategies at the Animal Biotechnology Workshop in Brasilia

  

A professor from UC Davis who is working on transgenic goat that can produce lactoferrin to treat diarrhoea in infants has been waiting for approval for more than 15 years. If this gets into the market, it will have a huge socioeconomic benefits to developing countries where Global deaths from diarrhoea of children aged less than 5 years were estimated at 1.87 million,  approximately 19% of total child deaths. 78% of this happens in Africa and South East Asia regions.

 Another case in point is the Enviropig which was genetically modified to produce the enzyme phytase to digest phytate in the feed. When phytate is digested, the phosphorus released in the manure is reduced by 50-75% which otherwise will contaminate the land and waterways. Farmers also will not have to supplement the feed with mineral phosphate or commercial phytate.

The AquAdvantage Salmon is a genetically modified Atlantic Salmon that can grow twice as fast as the wild Salmon and FDA is yet to give its green light.

There are a number of companies in the USA that are working on cloning better livestock lines but the approvals for these are not anywhere in the horizon. All these initiatives are still snagged in the workbench without regulatory approval.

I feel the USA should show some leadership in this area as the risk assessment and management is well studied and transgenic animals are so much easier to handle than crops.

By Dr Mahaletchumy Arujanan

Jolting July

WHAT  an eventful month July turned out to be. After an exciting month for football fans all over the world in June, there was a series of  shocking airplane tragedies in July – the worst being the loss of our own airplane – MH17 which was downed by a surface-to-air missile.

Just too many innocent, aspiring and promising lives were lost in a blink of an eye over the Ukrainian airspace. While we lost big number of IT engineers in the MH370 tragedy in March, this time around the world lost a number prominent AIDS scientists and a spokesperson. Another potential scientist is Malaysian Mohd Ali Salim, future lecturer in the field of Neuropsychopathology Development. But no life is above another. The Petri Dish and MABIC team is saddened by every single life that perished in this disaster. We hope the families and the loved ones of the victims will stay strong.

On a lighter note – some takes from the World Cup. I am not a big football fan and would not like to sacrifice much of my sleep to watch the game, but every World Cup I do catch glimpses of important matches. Germany vs Argentina was a must and I made sure to set my alarm clock. While our Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak urges Malaysians to emulate the teamwork among Germany players, I saw something else which is equally worth of emulating – an investment and hard work of 10 years. Joachim Loew says the victory was the culmination of a project they started 10 years ago.  It simply goes to say that we cannot achieve anything with flip flop policies and direction, be it in education or research. This is something we really need in Malaysia. I have said this many times and I will repeat myself here – advancement in science and technology does not come overnight. We need to set our research priorities and follow it through till we achieve the desired results. This may take decades but perseverance is the key to success in research, development and commercialisation.

This month I am very happy to announce that the Petri Dish now has an on line version, where the content is partially available. Please visit: www.thepetridish.jimdo.com. We are hoping this will increase the newspaper’s visibility and add value to our partners who are supporting by taking up space, e.g. BiotechCorp, University of Malaya, MARDI and Monash University. I also trust this will help public research to really go public through the centerspread ResearchDigest.

Incidentally, last month we received two opinion pieces from two of our scientist readers – Dr Subhash Bhore from AIMST University and Prof Kalai Mathee, a Malaysian at Florida International University;  on antibiotic resistance. Their articles are published on page 5 & 9 respectively.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue. Your comments are most welcome as usual.


By Dr Mahaletchumy Arujanan

From the San Diego circuit

I HAD a great time at the recent BIO International Convention in San Diego as part of the BiotechCorp delegation, representing the media. I must say I was elated by the spirit shown by the Malaysian delegation from various agencies in embracing Bioeconomy initiatives. While I was skeptical about the biotechnology/bioeconomy initiatives nine years ago when the National Biotechnology Policy was launched, today I see the fruits of the policy, slowly ripening into maturity.

All Economic Corridors are in top gear and already has tangible results to show in terms of foreign investments and employment opportunities. See reports on page 2-3.

BiotechCorp must be commended for their tireless efforts in courting foreign companies and getting them to set up operations in Malaysia. What is more appealing is that these companies are spread well across the country and not centred in one state. This approach will support biotechnology development and urbanisation throughout the country and provide job opportunities to all Malaysians, not just urbanites. This will also reduce rural-to-urban migration.

The Malaysian delegation was treated with a visit to The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla and needless to mention the level of research at this institute. Fundamental research is the core activity here.

Here is my observation – while FDI is increasing with the entrance of foreign companies into our biotechnology space, commercial value of our local research is seriously lacking. Translational research is not our cup of tea yet. We are still looking for lower hanging fruits – I read about discovery of antioxidants, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, etc in our local herbs all the time. We are so obsessed with our natural resources and perhaps we think that is the only ingredient for biotech research.

      

 Maha talking to the Deputy Chief Minister of Sarawak in San Diego

As we started the ResearchDigest section in The Petri Dish, I am still waiting to report breakthrough research. We at The Petri Dish are hungry for research news from local institutes.

If only our research activities could be elevated to the next level, the country will be able to complement BiotechCorp’s initiatives in making Malaysia a hub not only for bioeconomy but also biotech research.