newsdigest
January
In this section, biotechnologie.de has summarised a number of recent and relevant biotech news from the past month:
Roche to build 57 million-euro Herceptin factory in Mannheim +++ BASF and KWS Saat cultivate new sugar beet +++ RNA fragments directly turn off genes +++ Bill Gates and Schavan agree on infectious diseases collaboration +++ Photosensitive gene sets zebrafish biological clock
Roche to build 57 million-euro Herceptin factory in Mannheim
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche is to build a new production plant in Mannheim for its breast cancer drug Herceptin. From 2013, a new type of syringe that allows patients to administer the drug themselves will be packaged at the site, announced Roche on 20 January. Herceptin is based on the antibody trastuzumab, which is produced biotechnologically in Penzberg in Upper Bavaria. A spokesperson could not provide details on the number of jobs that would be created as a result of the investment. There were almost 7,500 employees working for Roche in Mannheim at the end of 2009. A production plant for so-called parenterals is currently under construction in the city. Starting in 2011, injection solutions and ready-to-use syringes will be manufactured under sterile conditions at the site. The total investment for this project is 73 million euros. Roche invested a total of 251 million euros in Mannheim last year. Herceptin is one of Roche's most successful medicaments. In the first three quarters of 2009, the Basel Group achieved a global turnover of almost 2.7 billion euros, an increase of nine percent on the same period last year. Only two other medicines from the corporation have a larger business volume: Mabthera and Avastin. Both, like Herceptin, are monoclonal antibodies used in cancer therapy. The new application form for Herceptin to be produced in Mannheim is currently in the final stages of clinical development. To date, the drug must be administered in hospitals with an infusion that typically takes one hour. With the new application, patients at home can inject the drug under the skin in just five minutes. This approach could also help create hospital capacity and reduce costs, says Roche.
BASF and KWS Saat cultivate new sugar beet
The seeds company KWS and the agricultural arm of the chemicals corporation BASF want to jointly develop a sugar beet that will achieve higher yields and cope better with drought. Both companies made an announcement on the plan on 20 January. The new varieties should be available to buy from 2020; the company promises farmers surpluses of 15 percent. Both the BASF Ludwigshafen site as well as the KWS Saat AG site in Einbeck is likely to benefit greatly from this development alliance. While BASF can contribute its yield genes and expertise in plant biotechnology, KWS can bring long experience in the cultivation of sugar beet with conventional and biotechnological methods, and can transmit the selected genes into the best varieties. KWS already sells genetically enhanced herbicide-resistant sugar beet varieties in North America, and according to their own information achieved a market share of 70 percent in 2009. “As a result, peak yields of 20 tonnes of sugar per hectare will no longer be a rare event,” promised Peter Hofmann, Head of the Sugar Beet division at KWS. The financial details of the agreement have not been made public. BASF is hoping to underpin its commitment to plant biotechnology with this step into the field of sugar beet breeding. The agricultural sector is the smallest of the six divisions of the BASF chemicals group. Hopes are definitely high; together with the North American agricultural megacorporation Monsanto, BASF is aiming to generate 2.5 billion dollars annually by 2020 with genetically modified crops. Worldwide, BASF is expecting turnover in plant genetic engineering of at least 50 billion dollars in 2025.
RNA fragments directly turn off genes
Freiburg-based molecular biologists have discovered that tiny genetic molecules, microRNAs, are capable of switching off genes more directly than was previously assumed. Researchers headed by Wolfgang Frank and Ralf Reski at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg uncovered this mechanism during studies on genetically modified moss plants. They suspect that this genetic control mechanism can be found not only mosses, but also in humans. The plant biotechnologists have reported their findings in the journal Cell (January 8th, Ed. 140, p. 111). RNA molecules are the mobile messengers of genes. They carry information on the production of proteins from the DNA to the ribosomes. In addition to these messenger RNAs, all living beings produce RNA molecules, so-called microRNAs, which can dock to messenger RNAs and thereby block the production of proteins. To date, researchers have generally assumed that the so-called microRNAs primarily affect translation, i.e. the second stage in protein production. The MicroRNA function in the cell is important for fine-tuning the balance between switched-on and switched-off genes in a variety of organs. When this balance is disturbed, abnormalities and diseases such as cancer can result. However, it appears that microRNAs are able to intervene earlier in the molecular course of events: Together with researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, the Freiburg biologists have discovered that microRNAs not only indirectly influence the obstruction of messenger RNAs, but can also directly switch off the reading off of genes, and can thus influence the first stage of protein production. Specific DNA sections are chemically switched off through the addition of methyl groups to DNA. The researchers detected these epigenetic changes in their favourite model organism: the moss Physcomitrella patens. When the biologists from Freiburg crippled individual genes in the so-called knockout mosses, the effect was surprising, even contradicting all previous expectations. The plant researchers now suspect that the uncovered mechanism for gene regulation is found not only in moss, but also in many other organisms, including humans.
Bill Gates and Schavan agree on infectious diseases collaboration
During a visit to Berlin, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Federal Minister for Research Annette Schavan agreed to expand the German contribution to research into poverty and neglected infectious diseases.
Through their own foundation, Gates and his wife Melinda have been engaged for some years in the area of development aid. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world, and funds a broad range of projects, including accommodation for AIDS patients, as well as extensive vaccination programs for children. At the meeting on 26 January, Schavan and Gates agreed to hold a workshop for German and American researchers with the aim of promoting dialogue. In February, a German delegation flew to the United States to concretise plans for a new G8 initiative called “Health Innovation Centres”. A further example of successful international cooperation in this area is an initiative known as EDCTP, which is involved in the implementation of clinical trials in Africa. 16 European and 48 sub–Saharan countries are participating in the initiative. Schavan stressed that the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), in cooperation with the German Research Foundation, spends around 20 million euros annually for research into neglected diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. “It is particularly important for me that the clinical trials in Africa promote the creation not only of research skills and structures, but that they directly improve health care locally,” said the Minister. Together with his wife, Microsoft founder Bill Gates will donate ten billion dollars for vaccines through his foundation over the next ten years. In addition to development projects, a large portion of the funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is flowing into the area of vaccines. Furthermore, the Foundation supports the development of the malaria vaccine RTS.S, which is currently in clinical trials. Bill Gates is hoping that this could possibly find practical application as early as 2014. The Microsoft founder is also supporting the manufacturing in genetically modified microbes of the anti-malarial agent artemisinin.
Photosensitive gene sets zebrafish biological clock
Developmental biologists in Karlsruhe have discovered a light-sensitive gene region in zebrafish that helps the animals adjust their internal clock. As the researchers from the Institute of Toxicology and Genetics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have reported in the journal PLOS Biology (online), through the light-controlled switching on and off of genes, the fish can set their internal clock to adapt to the transitions of day and night. Almost all living organisms, from unicellular organisms to mammals, have these forms of 24-hour clocks; they are genetically determined, but can be influenced by external factors. Indeed, most species use light as a signal for their “circadian rhythms” - approximately 24-hour rhythms - to adapt to day-night changes in their environment. The exact function in the zebrafish model organism has been the subject of investigations by scientists headed by Nicholas S. Foulkes at the Institute of Toxicology and Genetics of the KIT. Tissue cells from the zebrafish were exposed to light for the study. This causes the cells to synchronise their internal clocks until they all beat all in the same rhythm. Light switches the expression of genes on in most cell types in the zebrafish, among them specific clock genes. In order to shed some light on the key process, Foulkes’ group concentrated on the clock gene in the zebrafish known as “period2”. Inside the control region of the gene, otherwise known as the promoter, the researchers identified a photosensitive module (LRM – light responsive modules) that alone is required for light-controlled gene expression. Interestingly, this module is also found in high quantities in the period2 genes of other vertebrates, which have limited available light-sensitive tissue. Moreover, the human LRM can replace the zebrafish LRM, and take over its function. The findings from Foulkes’ researchers will broaden the understanding of light-controlled synchronization of internal clocks and the development of light-controlled expression of clock genes in vertebrate evolution.
