Category Archives: BioEngineering

University of Queensland (UQ) research into improving livestock feed has received a boost from two Australian government-funded industry engagement schemes.

The Consulting and Research Division of UQ's main commercialisation company, UniQuest, helped an interdisciplinary team leverage an Enterprise Connect Researcher in Business (RiB) grant to secure an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant for working with Bioproton Pty Ltd.

The team was led by Professor Kirill Alexandrov from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) and Associate Professor Stephen Mahler from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN).

The discovery and development of improved enzymes for feedstock supplements, and their subsequent nutritional and environmental impacts, is a key outcome of the funded research.

Associate Professor Mahler said the project had both environmental and commercial benefits.

?Growth in global food demand is placing enormous pressure on the global agricultural sector to deliver safe, efficient and environmentally sustainable food to meet demands of current and future generations," Associate Professor Mahler said.

"These grants have allowed us to investigate new approaches to accelerate the production and analysis of new generation enzymes.

?With enzyme-based supplements, farm animals excrete less phosphorus.

"A high phytate burden in soil causes eutrophication of surrounding ponds and waterways on industrial farming sites, leading to algae blooms and destruction of marine life.

?By developing livestock feed enzymes with superior characteristics that can be added economically to animal food, we can help farmers achieve more productive and environmentally sustainable farming.?

Associate Professor Mahler said that the experience of working with an industry client on a global challenge was particularly rewarding.

?As a researcher, the opportunity to move from fully funded industry research, to subsidised research through the RiB grant, and then attract an ARC Linkage project has been a valuable professional development exercise," he said.

"It has also allowed the AIBN to achieve one of its key objectives, which is to work closely with industry to bring commercial reality to scientific endeavours.?

The partnership has also achieved goals for Bioproton, a company established in Brisbane 18 years ago to manufacture and market pharmaceuticals and agribiochemicals.

?Working with the University to establish an all-in-vitro platform for protein synthesis and analysis means we can resolve a major bottleneck in protein engineering,? Bioproton director Henrik Von Hellens said.

?The world-class scientific infrastructure at The University of Queensland and close proximity to rapidly growing Asia-Pacific markets were key considerations for relocating our company's head-office, product development and manufacturing operations to Brisbane in 1993.

?This approach will deliver a novel tool for rapid engineering and biophysical analysis of proteins with much higher throughput and lower cost than presently possible.

"While this represents a competitive edge for Bioproton, there are wider implications.

?Accelerating the speed and precision with which recombinant proteins can be engineered could transform the biotechnology, ?green' chemistry and food industries.

"Developing new and novel enzymes with applications in fields other than animal nutrition is also important to our research plans.?

UniQuest Managing Director David Henderson said the project highlighted the value of an interdisciplinary approach to addressing key issues facing particular industries.

?It's another example of how university research is having a positive impact on the industries which are contributing to Australia's strong economy," he said.

"We are proud to have played a connective role in optimising the outcomes of publicly-funded scientific research and industry R&D.?

Animal nutrition has an estimated worldwide market size of US$551 million.

Although the current market is driven by protein pharmaceuticals that account for over US$160 billion in sales annually, use of recombinant proteins in the food and chemical industry is growing rapidly.

It is projected to reach market volume of $130 billion by 2012 and account for 10 per cent of sales within the chemical industry.

Media enquiries: Leanne Wyvill +61 7 3365 4037, 0409 767 199 or l.wyvill@uniquest.com.au

About UniQuest Pty Limited http://www.uniquest.com.au
Established by The University of Queensland in 1984, UniQuest is widely recognised as one of Australia's largest and most successful university commercialisation groups, benchmarking in the top tier of technology transfer worldwide. From an intellectual property portfolio of 1,500+ patents it has created over 60 companies, and since 2000 UniQuest and its start-ups have raised more than $400 million to take university technologies to market. Annual sales of products using UQ technology and licensed by UniQuest are running at $3 billion. UniQuest now commercialises innovations developed at The University of Queensland and its commercialisation partner institutions: the University of Wollongong, University of Technology Sydney, James Cook University, University of Tasmania, Mater Medical Research Institute, and Queensland Health. UniQuest also provides access to an expansive and exclusive network of independent academics to tailor a consulting or project R&D solution to meet the diverse needs of industry and government, facilitating some 500 consulting, expert opinion, testing, and contract research services each year. UniQuest is also a leading Australasian provider of international development assistance recognised for excellence in technical leadership, management and research. Working with agencies such as AusAID, NZAID, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, UniQuest has developed and implemented more than 400 projects in 60+ countries throughout the Pacific, South-East Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Africa.

About Bioproton Pty Ltd http://www.bioproton.com.au
Bioproton is an Australian based biotechnology company with core business in developing; manufacturing and marketing high quality feed enzyme supplements. The company was founded in 1984 in Finland. Bioproton has a global marketing and distribution network covering Africa, Asia, Europe, Russia, Middle East, North and South America. Customers can be supplied from facilities in Brisbane, Australia or Atlanta, USA.

About the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology http://www.aibn.uq.edu.au
The University of Queensland's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) is an integrated multi-disciplinary research institute bringing together the skills of world-class researchers in the areas of bioengineering and nanotechnology. It is home to 19 research groups working at the interface of the biological, chemical and physical science to alleviate current problems in human health and environmental issues. The institute has three key areas that collectively distinguish it from other institutes in the country, namely AIBN's: research excellence; industry focus; and dynamic research environment. These characteristics focus AIBN research efforts on developing new products, processes and devices for improving human health and quality of life. In this way the institute goes beyond basic research to promote and develop the growth of innovative industries, which will benefit the Queensland and Australian economies. The AIBN proudly acknowledges the financial support of Atlantic Philanthropies, the Queensland State Government and the University of Queensland toward the construction of the A$75 million AIBN research facility.

About the Institute for Molecular Bioscience http://www.imb.uq.edu.au
The University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) is recognised nationally and internationally as one of Australia's leading research institutes. It was established in 2000 and houses around 400 research staff and research students with an annual budget in the order of around A$90 million. IMB researchers work on a wide range of human diseases, from early childhood developmental disorders to infectious diseases, diabetes and kidney disease. Its labs are engaged in basic or discovery-level research aimed at understanding the normal function of genes, molecules and cells in our bodies and identifying what goes wrong in disease. IMB scientists also carry out very directed research aimed at finding, testing and developing new drugs to treat human diseases. The Institute has major research programs in pain, cancer and infection.

Here is the original post:
Industry linkage beefs up livestock nutrition

SHANGHAI (Feb 7): Shareholders of Chongqing Brewery voted on Tuesday to hire independent auditors to increase transparency at the Chinese beermaker after its shares plummeted more than 60 percent recently, wiping out nearly 30 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) in value.

Shareholders, however, rejected a motion to oust the chairman of China's third-biggest brewer by market capitalisation for mismanagement that led to the sharp fall in shares in December, a company official said, confirming earlier media reports.

The move to hire the auditors was proposed by Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S, which owns nearly 30 percent of the brewer.

The free-fall was triggered by a Dec. 7 statement from the company that was interpreted by the market as suggesting a new hepatitis B vaccine failed in trials conducted by its biotech arm, Chongqing Jiachen Bioengineering. The company has not made it clear subsequently if the drug did in fact fail the trials.

Dacheng Fund Management Co, which holds about 9 percent in Chongqing Brewery, called for the shareholder meeting to consider its proposal to oust the chairman, Huang Minggui, for mismanaging the disclosure of information on its drug development.

Many retail investors should be disappointed at the outcome of the ouster vote "because the chairman is widely seen as responsible for the price tumble," said Wang Yin, an analyst at Guodu Securities Co in Beijing. "The share price had been inflated by speculation, so if the drug development fails, which is likely, there's still big room for the price to fall further."

Shareholders present at Tuesday's meeting voted 97.4 percent to keep the chairman, according to an earlier report on the website of Caijing magazine.

Chongqing Brewery said last month that Carlsberg had submitted a separate proposal to hire independent accountants to audit the Chinese brewer, although it did not give a reason for the motion.

SPECULATION OVER VACCINE

Trading in Chongqing Brewery shares has been suspended pending a company announcement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Analysts say the slump in the share price was more an uncoiling of the hype over the hepatitis drug that had built up over the past decade as well as a reflection of deep-rooted problems in China's stock-trading culture.

Chongqing Brewery acquired pharmaceutical firm Chongqing Jiachen Bioengineering in 1998, a year after the brewer's initial public offering in Shanghai, as part of a plan to develop a hepatitis B drug.

The business was attractive to investors as more than 100 million people in China are reported to be suffering from the illness and the deal pushed up Chongqing Brewery's share prices to exorbitant levels.

The company's stock traded above 100 times earnings before the slump, representing an exaggerated premium to its main rivals such as Tsingtao Brewery Co , which traded at 20 times in Shanghai. Despite the fall, Chongqing Brewery shares are still trading at a PE ratio of around 50 times.

Carlsberg inherited its initial stake in Chongqing Brewery through its takeover of British brewer Scottish and Newcastle and boosted its stake in the Chinese company in 2010 to become its biggest shareholder. - Reuters

Originally posted here:
Carlsberg-invested Chongqing Brewery to hire independent auditors

Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry discussed UQ's suite of biofuels research with the US Navy's Director for Operational Energy, Chris Tindal, and the AIBN director, Professor Peter Gray (right).

THE United States Navy's Director for Operational Energy today visited The University of Queensland for discussions on UQ's world-leading biofuels research.

As the US Department of Defense actively pursues ambitious targets and new ?green? fuel sources for its energy requirements, the US Navy's Chris Tindal met biofuels researchers and industry leaders at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at UQ in Brisbane.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry welcomed Mr Tindal, saying his visit to UQ was a credit to UQ researchers who are making advances in areas including new-generation ?drop-in? biofuels.

?Drop-in biofuels are physically or chemically identical to traditional fossil fuels, and suit existing distribution networks and engines,? she said. ?Much of our leading-edge research and development is focused in this area.

?Teams of scientists, engineers and economists at UQ are expanding knowledge and technology in biofuels that are based on a range of feedstocks, including sugar cane, algae, eucalypts and the oily seeds of a tree known as pongamia.

?Their work is enhanced by links with international and Australian partners and collaborators, including leaders in aviation, air travel and energy; innovative biofuels manufacturers; feedstock producers; and renowned research institutions.?

Both the Queensland and Australian governments have provided funding to foster UQ biofuels research, and UQ is establishing a multidisciplinary UQ Biofuels Initiative aimed at accelerating biofuels production in Australia

Professor Chris Greig, director of UQ's Energy Initiative, said the Queensland Sustainable Aviation Fuel Initiative was a key part of the UQ Biofuels Initiative. With significant backing from the Queensland Smart State program, this research was being undertaken at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at UQ.

?This program is a collaboration between the AIBN, the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, the Queensland Alliance for Agricultural and Food Innovation, the Centre for Integrative Legume Research, James Cook University, Boeing, Virgin Australia, IOR Energy, Amyris and Mackay Sugar,? Professor Greig said.

AIBN Systems and Synthetic Biology Group business manager Dr Robert Speight said the aviation fuel research had a clear focus on ?delivering real benefits to Queensland?.

?Microbial fermentation is used to turn sucrose from sugarcane into advanced biofuel,? Dr Speight said. ?AIBN researchers are applying systems and synthetic biology to improve the microbes as well as assessing the technical and economic potential of applying the technology in Queensland.

?The overall aim of this multi-stage program is to enable commercial manufacture of biofuel from Queensland sugarcane, supply the aviation fuel market in Australasia and help seed a strong and sustainable domestic advanced biofuel industry.?

The next step for the initiative is to evaluate commercial viability and continue to enhance the fermentation process, Dr Speight said.

The Royal Australian Navy's Environment Manager, Commander Steve Cole, accompanied Mr Tindal on his visit to UQ today.

The US Navy has made a commitment that by 2020, at least half of all Navy energy, afloat and ashore, will come from renewable sources.

In his State of the Union address two weeks ago, President Barack Obama outlined the Navy's energy security goals, including its commitment to consume one gigawatt of new, renewable energy on its naval installations.

"I'm proud to announce that the Department of Defense, the world's largest consumer of energy, will make one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history - with the Navy purchasing enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year," the President said.

Media:
Dr Rob Speight, AIBN, ph 0451 181 664
Erik de Wit, AIBN Communications, ph 07 3346 3962
Fiona Cameron, UQ Office of Marketing and Communications, ph 07 3846 7086
Jan King, UQ Office of Marketing and Communications, ph 0413 601 248

Read the original here:
US Navy here to talk biofuels

For freshman Jeff To, the heavy workload he will take as a biology major pays off with job security later on.

To, a pre-dentistry student, will have gone to school for more than two decades before he enters the job market. However, given the continuing need for dentists, his education will guarantee a stable career after graduation.

Like many UW students, To chose a major not based on his passion but based on the needs of today’s job market.

“Security definitely plays a big piece in my major choice and also just peace of mind,” he said. “I don’t mind putting in a bunch of effort and working really hard now so later on my future family can benefit.”

With UW students now paying for 69 percent of their education, as opposed to 58 percent in 2009, Patsy Wosepka, director of Undergraduate Academic Affairs Advising, said looming debt forces some undergraduates to worry about the practicality of their majors in the job market.

The sensibleness of bioengineering is what drew junior Krisla Nguyen toward the major. As a freshman at the UW, she said she didn’t know what she wanted to major in.

“I knew I wanted to go to med school, but I didn’t know the path to take,” Nguyen said. “So when I found bioengineering, I picked that because it was practical.”

Outside the classroom

With only about 150 people in the major, bioengineering offers many opportunities for hands-on experience, something that Wosepka said is vital when looking for a job.

“People are getting more concerned about what the practical application of the degree [is],” she said. “But I think also, in this tough economic time, it is more necessary to get that internship experience — that experience actually out there doing what it is you want to do.”

Wosepka said she would argue that major is becoming less important to the job market while the need for experience is growing constantly.

“Experiences outside the classroom are as important, maybe more important, than the actual major,” Wosepka said. “Having the skills you need to hit the ground running when you start a job is going to become more and more important.”

As a freshman, To is getting a head start on his experience. This summer, he has an internship set up with his family dentist.

“It’s about the baby steps,” he said.

Nguyen plans on going to medical school after college, so she said she takes advantage of opportunities that will put her ahead of the competition.

Her work in a research lab on campus gives her that edge. Beginning as a volunteer during her sophomore year, she now gets paid for her research and plans on using the lab in her senior capstone project.

If medical school doesn’t work out, Nguyen said that bioengineering offers more practical careers in the job market “instead of just regular biology.”

“It’s a good major because it will prepare you for the industry and prepare you for research as well as preparing you for medical school,” she said. “It’s a budding field, and I know that a lot of people have been really successful in those areas.”

Passion or practicality

For Nguyen, bioengineering is more than just a job guarantee; it’s something she is passionate about. Such passion will allow students to succeed both in school and careers, Wosepka said.

“It’s interesting looking at a student’s transcript because you see where they’re just beating their head against the wall, but then you look and there’s 4.0s in other classes because that’s just what they love to learn,” she said. “It would be a mistake for that student to continue in the wrong direction.”

To, however, takes a different approach looking at his major.

“Everyone always tells you to find a job you’re going to love and stick to it,” he said, “but I’ve always been the type of guy that, whenever I get into something, I just have tunnel vision, and I don’t want to do that with my job. I feel like dentistry is a job that I could just do. It’s not something I will be incredibly passionate about, but it’s not something I’ll hate.”

In the 2009-10 graduation survey, the UW Career Center found dentistry is one of the high-paying jobs, with an average salary of over $100,000. Also on the higher end were careers in nursing, engineering, and computer science.

Other majors, especially social science–based ones, have a wider range of salaries and offer less job security to graduates. However, it is important not to discount those majors, said Wosepka. Such majors offer skill sets applicable to the job market.

“Being able to communicate well, being able to work in teams and being able to find answers long after you leave here are all things employers look at,” she said.

Advisers at the Undergraduate Academic Affairs Advising agree that the major itself is not necessarily as important as the skills you learn while at the UW.

“Your college education prepares you for multiple opportunities,” adviser Donna Sharpe said. “You don’t necessarily have to major in something you want to work in.”

Because most majors aren’t career-specific, Sharpe emphasized that a student’s major doesn’t always equate to his or her future career. In the average lifetime, she said, a graduate will have five to seven careers which usually don’t relate directly to their major.

Despite this, many undergraduate students still worry about the practicality of their major beyond college.

“Students really intensely need to know they are going to be able to support themselves with that degree,” Wosepka said. “They are coming in feeling that need to know more quickly and to be able to get settled into something.”

The ability to settle down is especially important to To, whose parents are immigrants to the United States. As a first-generation student, he said his life was often unstable and that is what motivated him to pursue dentistry. He looks at his biology major as a path to this career.

“I moved around a lot, but my parents always emphasized that this wouldn’t have to happen if we made more money, so that really was a driving factor,” he said. “If I can decently support my family and be able to spend a lot of time with my kids, I feel like that would be more than enough to make me happy.”

Reach reporter Jillian Stampher at news@dailyuw.com.

Excerpt from:
A marketable major

This was an interesting, albeit expensive tidbit I saw today...India is apparently getting a  90 crore hospital, dedicated solely to stem cell treatments. At the outset, it appears to be a cool idea. The plans call for the Government to spend all of the money required to build the hospital, with an initial investment of   30 crores in the first year.

The partner, is Giostar, or Global Institute of Stem-cell Therapy and Research, based in San Diego. Not much information is available, but it appears that quite a number of the founders are of Indian origin.

IMO, the plan itself seems to capitalize on the difference between the dollar and the rupee, the growth in India, its large population with a variety of disease presentations (which yours truly discovered by doing some ear to the ground empirical research in 2006) and of course, looser regulatory infrastructure on the part of the Government. Mind you, this is just my guess work.

However you look at it, this appears to be a good idea and a win-win situation for everyone involved. Of course, given the obscurity of Giostar (at least in my run of the mill attempt at learning more about them), the Government is taking a bigger risk right now. Should it pay off though, Surat and consequentially India will become quite the stem cell research hub though.

The Regulatory Atmosphere: For a young India, unable to grasp its own might, and lacking the leadership, this just might be the break. After all, India has fallen behind and stayed behind China in almost every way. However, unlike China, hopefully the regulatory environment will mature faster than the various "stem cell" hospitals that are about to proliferate.

Unless you have been hiding in some biotech cave, China recently started clawing back on all the fake and ineffective stem cell studies that have showed up there. As of now, most countries have a reactionary philosophy towards regulations. The recent deaths due to contaminated drugs in Pakistan can only serve as a grim reminder!

References:

1. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-30/surat/31005286_1_cell-technology-sickle-cell-new-civil-hospital-campus

2. http://www.giostar.net/

3. http://wpclipart.com/

4. http://www.freeusandworldmaps.com/html/Countries/Asia%20Countries/IndiaPrint.html

Source:
http://chaaraka.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) — Stem cells derived from fat have a surprising trick up their sleeves: Encouraged to develop on a stiff surface, they undergo a remarkable transformation toward becoming mature muscle cells. The new research appears in the journal Biomaterials. The new cells remain intact and fused together even when transferred to an extremely stiff, bone-like surface, which has University of California, San Diego bioengineering professor Adam Engler and colleagues intrigued. These cells, they suggest, could hint at new therapeutic possibilities for muscular dystrophy.

In diseases like muscular dystrophy or a heart attack, “muscle begins to die and undergoes its normal wounding processes,” said Engler, a bioengineering professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. “This damaged tissue is fundamentally different from a mechanical perspective” than healthy tissue.

Transplanted stem cells might be able to replace and repair diseased muscle, but up to this point the transplants haven’t been very successful in muscular dystrophy patients, he noted. The cells tend to clump into hard nodules as they struggle to adapt to their new environment of thickened and damaged tissue.

Engler, postdoctoral scholar Yu Suk Choi and the rest of the team think their fat-derived stem cells might have a better chance for this kind of therapy, since the cells seem to thrive on a stiff and unyielding surface that mimics the damaged tissue found in people with MD.

In their study in the journal Biomaterials, the researchers compared the development of bone marrow stem cells and fat-derived stem cells grown on surfaces of varying stiffness, ranging from the softness of brain tissue to the hardness of bone.

Cells from the fat lineage were 40 to 50 times better than their bone marrow counterparts at displaying the proper proteins involved in becoming muscle. These proteins are also more likely to “turn on” in the correct sequence in the fat-derived cells, Engler said.

Subtle differences in how these two types of cells interact with their environment are critical to their development, the scientists suggest. The fat-derived cells seem to sense their “niche” on the surfaces more completely and quickly than marrow-derived cells. “They are actively feeling their environment soon, which allows them to interpret the signals from the interaction of cell and environment that guide development,” Choi explained.

Perhaps most surprisingly, muscle cells grown from the fat stem cells fused together, forming myotubes to a degree never previously observed. Myotubes are a critical step in muscle development, and it’s a step forward that Engler and colleagues hadn’t seen before in the lab.

The fused cells stayed fused when they were transferred to a very stiff surface. “These programmed cells are mature enough so that they don’t respond the environmental cues” in the new environment that might cause them to split apart, Engler says.

Engler and colleagues will now test how these new fused cells perform in mice with a version of muscular dystrophy. The cells survive in an environment of stiff tissue, but Engler cautions that there are other aspects of diseased tissue such as its shape and chemical composition to consider. “From the perspective of translating this into a clinically viable therapy, we want to know what components of the environment provide the most important cues for these cells,” he said.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego.

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Journal Reference:

Jennifer L. Young, Adam J. Engler. Hydrogels with time-dependent material properties enhance cardiomyocyte differentiation in vitro. Biomaterials, 2011; 32 (4): 1002 DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2010.10.020

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Excerpt from:
Need muscle for a tough spot? Turn to fat stem cells