Environmental Protection Agency--Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology presents potential opportunities to create better materials and products. 
Already, nanomaterial-containing products are available in U.S. markets including coatings,
computers, clothing, cosmetics, sports equipment and medical devices.  A survey by EmTech
Research of companies working in the field of nanotechnology has identified approximately 80
consumer products, and over 600 raw materials, intermediate components and industrial
equipment items that are used by manufacturers (Small Times Media, 2005).  A second survey
by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars lists over 300 consumer products (http://www.nanotechproject.org/index.php?id=44 or
http://www.nanotechproject.org/consumerproducts). Our economy will be increasingly affected
by nanotechnology as more products containing nanomaterials move from research and
development into production and commerce.

Nanotechnology also has the potential to improve the environment, both through direct
applications of nanomaterials to detect, prevent, and remove pollutants, as well as indirectly by
using nanotechnology to design cleaner industrial processes and create environmentally
responsible products. However, there are unanswered questions about the impacts of
nanomaterials and nanoproducts on human health and the environment, and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or “the Agency”) has the obligation to ensure that
potential risks are adequately understood to protect human health and the environment.  As
products made from nanomaterials become more numerous and therefore more prevalent in the
environment, EPA is thus considering how to best leverage advances in nanotechnology to
enhance environmental protection, as well as how the introduction of nanomaterials into the
environment will impact the Agency’s environmental programs, policies, research needs, and
approaches to decision making.

Medicine in Society Collection

The Medicine in Society collection consists of some 3000 objects that reflect aspects of the changes in Victorian medical practice and research over the last 120 years.
This diverse collection is of national significance, telling many important Victorian and Australian stories of medicine, medical research and public health. It takes in items such as dental and surgical instruments, food models, prostheses, pharmacy furniture, medicinal herbs and psychiatric items.

Significant items

• General medical and surgical equipment used by Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop after the Second World War.
• Research equipment and medicinal samples from the internationally significant Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) (1918–84).
• A 19th-century wooden medicine chest with compartments containing a range of pharmaceuticals.
• Prostheses and body parts from the early 20th century to the present, many designed and manufactured in Australia.
• 19th-century medical equipment, including a blood-letting instrument, pill-making slabs and rollers, a powder stretcher and straightjackets.
• Equipment from the Polack dental surgery in Melbourne (1930–85), including teeth-cleaning powders, samples of false teeth, anaesthesia equipment and various dental instruments.
• Equipment from the Whitehead medical practice in Melbourne (1935–86), including a circumcision clamp, mouth gags and catheters, as well as a variety of gynaecological devices.
• Preventative Medicine Exhibition models from the museum (1930s–1960s), including a mosquito model for the malaria exhibit (1949).
• Cochlear implant (bionic ear) developed by Graeme Clark.
• Examples of some of the first lithium-powered pacemakers in the world, developed by Australian scientists at Teletronics and Medtronic.
• Objects demonstrating contemporary uses of biotechnology in medicine.
• The first DNA sequencer used in Australia, the ABI 370.
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Distribution of biotechnology activities

Distribution of biotechnology activities, excluding genetic modification, (genetic diversity characterization; mapping, marker-assisted selection and genomics [MMG]; and micropropagation) by number of tree genera

Figure 2.1.4. Distribution of molecular markers used in forest biotechnology activities, excluding genetic modification

Figure 2.1.5. Distribution of reported forest biotechnology activities, excluding genetic modification, by category and applications (laboratory studies, field trials and commercial deployments)¹

¹MMG: mapping, marker-assisted selection and genomics.

THE STATE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE FORESTRY SECTOR, EXCLUDING GENETIC MODIFICATION.

The information compiled in the data set of biotechnology activities excluding genetic modification represents 2 196 references (or 81 percent of all activities reported). Activities were reported in 76 countries, broken down by regions as follows: 39 percent of the activities were reported in Europe, 24 percent in Asia, 23 percent in North America, 6 percent in Oceania, 5 percent in South America, 3 percent in Africa and less than one percent in the Near East (Figure 2.1.1A). Both developed countries (24 countries, representing 68 percent of biotechnology activities) and developing countries and countries in transition (52 countries, or 32 percent of activities) were represented (Figure 2.1.1B). Developing countries and countries in transition were mainly represented by India (27 percent of these countries’ activities), China (17 percent), Brazil (7 percent), South Africa (5 percent) and Malaysia
(4 percent). Three countries (India, China and Brazil) accounted for 52 percent of all biotechnology work reported in developing countries and countries in transition.
Species surveyed belonged to 142 botanical genera. Sixty-two percent of the information collected in the database regarded research carried out on less than six genera including Pinus (20 percent of biotechnology activities excluding genetic modification), Eucalyptus
(11 percent), Picea (9 percent), Populus (9 percent), Quercus (7 percent) and Acacia
(6 percent) (Figure 2.1.2). Just four genera (Pinus, Eucalyptus, Picea and Populus) account for almost half of the compiled biotechnology activities excluding genetic modification.
Work was found to be relatively evenly spread between the three main categories of biotechnology categories apart from genetic modification: characterization of tree species genetic diversity represented 32 percent of biotechnology activities, MMG 26 percent, and micropropagation 42 percent (Figure 2.1.3A). Differences were more marked when tree genera were considered (Figure 2.1.3B). The forestry sector appears to have rapidly adopted markers developed for agricultural crops (Figure 2.1.4). Isozymes and random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs) have been widely used for genetic diversity description although the present trend seems to favour microsatellites (nuclear and chloroplast) and amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs). Driven by research on genomics, expressed genome banks (ESTs [expressed sequence tags]) are being widely developed.
The majority of the work reported is still mainly at the experimental stage in the laboratory. Genetic diversity characterization has less than one percent of its reported activities in the field, MMG 2.5 percent and micropropagation 5 percent (Figure 2.1.5). Field tests are still mainly geared to supporting laboratory research. These results possibly reflect the origin of the information in the data set. While research activities in the public sector are relatively easy to collect, especially through international research storage databases, information on commercial applications is generally restricted and incomplete.
Commercial applications of micropropagation are, however, generating increasing interest. The potential is huge although, up to now, only several thousand hectares seem to have been established globally using micropropagated materials.
In South America, particularly in Brazil, some companies are reported to be integrating micropropagation into the clonal propagation process: micropropagation is used to ‘store’ clones in mother blocks (gene banks) in the laboratory as potential sources of responsive nursery stock plants for large-scale mass propagation. The use of rooted cuttings has allowed the propagation costs to be lowered significantly.
Great expectations have been raised about the possible contribution of biotechnology to tree selection and breeding, and its commercial applications. Genomics and proteomics should greatly help breeders in tree selection, in particular in the identification of traits of interests. However, it remains difficult to predict when new forest tree varieties selected with biotechnology tools will become available on the market. Although genetic diversity characterization started some 30 years ago, very limited large-scale commercial application has yet been reported in forest tree genetic resources conservation and management.

Figure 2.1.1A. Distribution of reported forest biotechnology activities (excluding genetic modification) by world region

Figure 2.1.1B. Distribution of reported forest biotechnology activities (percent of activities in the data set, excluding genetic modification) by country (for the 15 countries most represented, making up 77 percent of the data set of entries excluding genetic modification)

Figure 2.1.2. Distribution of reported forestry biotechnology activities, excluding genetic modification, by genus

Figure 2.1.3A. Distribution of biotechnology activities, excluding genetic modification, by broad category (genetic diversity characterization; mapping, marker-assisted selection and genomics [MMG]; and micropropagation)

Biotechnology in the forestry sector

Biotechnology provides important tools for the sustainable development of agriculture, fisheries and forestry and can be of significant help in meeting the food needs of a growing and increasingly urbanized population,” reads an FAO press release dated 15 March 2000. The field of modern biotechnology is indeed often considered as one of the fields of scientific research in which the most rapid advances have been made in recent years.
Several elements can explain the growing interest of forest scientists, conservationists and tree growers in modern biotechnologies. They include the unique roles and functions that trees, major structural constituents of forest ecosystems have, their special biological characteristics, and their importance in the provision of environmental, social and economic goods and services. Special features of interest to scientists and geneticists include the low level of domestication of forest trees and their rich genetic diversity; their long life cycles, long generation times and late sexual maturity; their spatial requirements; the multiplicity of species and the low degree of heritability of traits of interest, linked to weak juvenile–adult correlations and the importance of genotype–environment interactions. Application of biotechnologies in forests has been seen as a unique opportunity for obtaining new information on the extent, patterns and functioning of tree genetic diversity; and for providing new tree varieties and reproductive materials adapted to changing environmental, social and economic environments (Fenning and Gershenzon 2002).

2.1.1.1 Background and methodology

Specific developments in biotechnology in the forestry sector have been addressed in a large number of conferences, meetings, publications, electronic fora and Internet web pages¹³. Owing to this abundant literature, this report, commissioned from CIRAD-Forêt by FAO in December 2003, will not describe the types and classifications of forest biotechnology in detail. It aims instead to fill a gap in global data and statistics on research in and applications of biotechnology for forest trees. Given the scientific and technical potential created by an increasingly accurate knowledge of forest tree species genomic structure, it is important to have an overall picture of the current status of forest biotechnology developments, together with trends and future prospects. The objective of this document is thus to review and summarize research, and the suitability and practical use of biotechnology in the forestry sector, and to provide tentative global analyses.
For the purpose of the study, a simple data set has been developed. The data set gathers major biotechnology activity (i.e. a given technology developed or used in a given country, on a given tree species or variety, by a given laboratory team, for a given purpose [Appendix 2.7.1]).
Data originated from (i) systematic searches in CAB Abstracts and associated global scientific databases, (ii) searches on the Internet (including sites of private companies, governmental and non-governmental institutions and linked references, and (iii) personal enquiries, observations and communications. Most significant publications, including those produced by major laboratories and teams, have been included in the data set. The study was mainly conducted between February and September 2004.
The data set included basic fields such as country, type of biotechnology, information source, reference or Internet site, stage of development, species or genera involved and, whenever available, year when the activity was conducted. These fields were considered to be a minimum set of requirements for entering a biotechnology activity in the database. The reference period covers approximately the last 10 years, although more than 75 percent of the data were from between 2000 and 2004. Internet references, however, could not always be dated.
The data set is in no way comprehensive, and some of its limitations reflect the difficulties of such information gathering. The study revealed language limitations (international databases cover only a fraction of the literature in Chinese and Russian, for example). International databases also tend to reflect past research activities, and only a small share of on-going research work. An additional flaw of the data set is related to private (corporate) research and commercial applications, for which public-domain information is generally scarce. Despite its drawbacks, the data set provides a sample (of unknown global representativeness) of materials available in the public domain. No attempt has been made to gather classified information. In total, data on 2 716 activities were collected, and their analysis supports the present report. Data, statistics and conclusions presented in this report should therefore be considered with caution and as general indicators.

Building a Biotechnology Program

NEEDS & CONSIDERATIONS
Student School District Community
Will this be a part of a CTAE
Program?
What are the goals of this
course/ program?
How many Biotech firms are
located in your area?
Is this course intended
specifically to fulfill the 4th
Science requirement?
What curriculum materials
will be used to support
instruction?
Are there local
postsecondary Biotech
programs in the area?
What are the postsecondary
destinations of your
students?
What is the annual budget
available for Biotechnology?
What support is available
from community partners?
What are the students’ career
and job aspirations?
How will Biotech help our
students on the Georgia High
School Graduation Exam?
What are the needs of the
biotech employers in your
area?
What was the student’s
favorite science class?
What is the target student
population?
Who will be teaching the
course?
Who will facilitate the
community and district
collaborations?
What are the initial expenses?

BIOTECHNOLOOGY INDUSTRY FACTS

BIOTECHNOLOOGY INDUSTRY FACTS
 The biotechnology industry emerged in the 1970s, based largely on new
recombinant DNA technology.
 Biotechnology has created more than 200 new therapies and vaccines, including
products to treat cancer, diabetes, HIV/ AIDS and autoimmune disorders.
 There are hundreds of biotech drug products and vaccines currently in clinical trials
targeting more than 200 diseases, including various cancers, Alzheimer’s disease,
heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and arthritis.
 Biotechnology is responsible for hundreds of medical diagnostic tests that keep the
blood supply safe from HIV and detect other conditions early enough to be
successfully treated. Home pregnancy tests are also biotechnology diagnostic
products.
 Agricultural biotechnology benefits farmers, consumers and the environment—by
increasing yields and farm income, decreasing pesticide applications and improving
soil and water quality, and providing healthful foods for consumers.
 Environmental biotech products make it possible to clean up hazardous waste more
efficiently by harnessing pollution eating microbes.
 Industrial biotech applications have led to cleaner processes that produce less waste
and use less energy and water.
 DNA fingerprinting, a biotech process, has dramatically improved criminal
investigation and forensic medicine. It has also led to significant advances in
anthropology and wildlife management.
 The biotech industry is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture
(USDA).
 In 1982, recombinant human insulin became the first biotech therapy to earn FDA
approval. The product was developed by Genentech and Eli Lilly and Co.