REPOST: A new opium pipe

Christina Smolke and her colleagues at Stanford University are working on a synthetic process for the cultivation of opium poppy, which is essential for the production of opiates. If their experiment proved successful and the production procession commercially viable, will become a non-protein medicine that can be made by biotechnology. Read more about their work in the following article from The Economist.

SYNTHETIC biology—the technique of moving genes from creature to creature not one at a time, but by the handful—promises much but has yet to deliver. Someone who believes it can, though, is Christina Smolke of Stanford University. And, as she and her colleagues write in Nature Chemical Biology, they think they now know one way that it might.

 Image Source: economist.com

Opiates, such as morphine, are widely used as painkillers. Some are extracted directly from opium poppies (paler, as the picture shows, than the sort familiar in Europe and North America), which grow well in places such as Afghanistan and Turkey. Others, such as oxycodone, are chemically derived from natural poppy-molecules. Many of these drugs, though, are also used for recreational purposes—particularly diamorphine, an acetylated version of the principal poppy extract that was branded “Heroin” by its manufacturer, Bayer, in the late 19th century. Since such recreational use is generally illegal, the authorities keep a strict eye on the opium trade, and would no doubt welcome the chance to make that eye even stricter by cutting poppies out of the loop and making diamorphine and its cousins from scratch in facilities they can watch. That, plus the possibility the drugs might be produced more cheaply, has encouraged Dr Smolke to use synthetic biology to see if she can create an alternative source for opiates.

To do so, her team added three crucial poppy genes to some yeast cells. When provided with the appropriate chemical precursor, the modified yeast cranked out morphine and another opiate, codeine. And when one of the poppy genes was itself replaced by two genes from Pseudomonas putida, a soil bacterium, the yeast made oxycodone and hydrocodone too. Though this prototype yeast was not particularly efficient, some further tweaking converted it into a veritable drug factory—capable of cooking up 131mg of opioids (the equivalent of about 26 medical doses of diamorphine) per litre of culture over a four-day manufacturing cycle.

Single spies v battalions

The idea of using genetically modified micro-organisms to make drugs is not new. Mostly, though, those drugs are “biologics”—in other words, proteins for which no standard chemical synthesis is possible. Such biologics include erythropoietin (which promotes the growth of red blood cells), human growth factor and insulin. The modification needed to create a biologic is the addition of but a single gene, namely the gene for the protein in question. The micro-organism’s natural protein-making machinery will then do the rest. Such single-gene transfers are not normally counted as synthetic biology.

Conversely, some drugs—penicillin, for example—are the natural products of unmodified micro-organisms. The pathways that make these non-protein molecules have many steps, sometimes dozens, each controlled by a particular enzyme. What Dr Smolke has done is to assemble appropriate pathways by transferring the genes for each of the enzymes involved.

The job is not yet finished. At the moment, her modified yeast has to be fed with a precursor chemical called thebaine, and this still has to be extracted from poppies. She is, therefore, now trying to coax some yeast into producing thebaine as well. She is nearly there. In previous work, published in 2008, she engineered yeast capable of synthesising a molecule that was two steps removed from thebaine.

If Dr Smolke succeeds, and the technology is commercialised, opiates will join an antimalarial drug called artemisinin as non-protein medicines that can be made by biotechnology. Natural artemisinin is extracted from a species of wormwood that grows in China. The synthetic sort is made by Sanofi, to a recipe devised by Jay Keasling, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and developed by Amyris, a firm he helped to found. And there may be a third drug in the pipeline.

Earlier this year a group led by Bradley Moore of the University of California, San Diego, transferred a cluster of bacterial genes which they suspected might encode the pathway for making an unknown antibiotic into another bacterium, Streptomyces coelicolor. They were right. Their discovery is called taromycin A. In a world crying out for new antibiotics, as bugs develop resistance to old ones, this may prove an important find. And if taromycin A does fulfil its promise then, thanks to Dr Moore, a biofactory that might be used to make it is already up and running.

Businesswoman and environmental advocate Janique Goff supports start-up businesses in the biotechnology industry. Read more related stories on biotechnology and pharma research here.

REPOST: 10 Ways to Go for the Green from Anthro

Going green does not only help the environment, it also helps save money which encourages a lot of companies to amp up their environmental agenda. Anthro is an example of one such company that focuses on its impact on the environment. Read more from this report.

Image Source: businesswire.com

TUALATIN, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--While most companies are more focused on staying out of the red than they are on being green, others try to balance both ecological and economic goals. One example: Anthro Corp., a technology-furniture firm based in Oregon that’s gaining attention for a 20-year-old program to try to produce zero landfill.

"Our motto is: 'The less in our garbage cans, the better for the earth—and our bottom line,'” says Cathy Filgas, co-founder of Anthro Corp., Technology Furniture®. “You can make a big dent with just the small stuff—office paper, mail, cardboard, and plastics. We save over $300 a month by making double-sided copies and print-outs. That's a chunk of change right there, and every little bit adds up."

Anthro’s corporate principles include a commitment to sustainability, so they’ve challenged themselves with an audacious goal, one that forces them to constantly think about what they can do to inch toward that moment.

Are they close to zero? No, but they recycle an impressive 70% of their manufacturing waste and source recovered materials over less expensive—and less sustainable—options.

Using their experience as a guide (they’ve been named to the “100 Best Green Companies to Work For in Oregon” list multiple times, in 2014 ranking #9), they suggest a few simple and practical tips for how employees at any organization can implement an environmental program at work:

1. Start with a passion, and send co-workers an invitation to join a committee to guide sustainable efforts. Often, concern about the environment is widely shared—but people feel they lack the time to learn exactly what can be recycled or where it should be put.

2. Meet your local hauler. Find out what they do with the recycling and what they can do for you. Your hauling fees will be reduced if your trash bins are empty and your recycling tubs are full. And the hauler might actually pay you for some of your recycled materials (cardboard, plastic, metal, etc.).

3. Put recycling tubs everywhere. Make it easy for employees to recycle.

4. Start a compost pile. Why throw away good mulching material for gardens?

5. Reuse paper. Keep trays in employee cubes so they can put aside paper that is only used on one side. Re-use it in copiers and printers.

6. Don’t break the circle. Flex your purchasing power by choosing environmentally-friendly supplies, components, and packaging. Ask vendors: Is it non-hazardous, recycled, reusable or recyclable, long-lasting, and energy-efficient?

7. Pass it on. Offer hard-to-recycle items to employees, vendors, or local business and community groups. One company's trash may be another's treasure.

8. Walk, bike, or carpool. Encourage employees to leave their cars at home. Your H.R. department could issue stipends to staff members who use an eco-friendly means of getting to work, such as driving a hybrid vehicle.

9. Green. Greener. Greenest. Keep looking for new sustainable practices, even if it means revisiting the same topics. Example: restroom hand-dryers or paper towels—which one is kinder to the environment?

10. Get support from the top. Employees who see their bosses reducing, reusing, and recycling are much more likely to join in themselves. The more upper management enthusiastically supports a green program, the more successful it will be.

It may be difficult and time-consuming to launch an environmental program, and certainly to keep one going year after year, but Anthro has found that the results are worth the effort.

Anthro Corporation, founded in 1984, designs and manufactures furniture for technology, including standing desks, radiology furniture, and all sizes of mobile carts.


Janique Goff knows the importance of protecting the environment which is why she helps promote green initiatives. Find out more about the projects she supports here.

REPOST: 10 Ways to Go for the Green from Anthro

Going green does not only help the environment, it also helps save money which encourages a lot of companies to amp up their environmental agenda. Anthro is an example of one such company that focuses on its impact on the environment. Read more from this report.

Image Source: businesswire.com

TUALATIN, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--While most companies are more focused on staying out of the red than they are on being green, others try to balance both ecological and economic goals. One example: Anthro Corp., a technology-furniture firm based in Oregon that’s gaining attention for a 20-year-old program to try to produce zero landfill.

"Our motto is: 'The less in our garbage cans, the better for the earth—and our bottom line,'” says Cathy Filgas, co-founder of Anthro Corp., Technology Furniture®. “You can make a big dent with just the small stuff—office paper, mail, cardboard, and plastics. We save over $300 a month by making double-sided copies and print-outs. That's a chunk of change right there, and every little bit adds up."

Anthro’s corporate principles include a commitment to sustainability, so they’ve challenged themselves with an audacious goal, one that forces them to constantly think about what they can do to inch toward that moment.

Are they close to zero? No, but they recycle an impressive 70% of their manufacturing waste and source recovered materials over less expensive—and less sustainable—options.

Using their experience as a guide (they’ve been named to the “100 Best Green Companies to Work For in Oregon” list multiple times, in 2014 ranking #9), they suggest a few simple and practical tips for how employees at any organization can implement an environmental program at work:

1. Start with a passion, and send co-workers an invitation to join a committee to guide sustainable efforts. Often, concern about the environment is widely shared—but people feel they lack the time to learn exactly what can be recycled or where it should be put.

2. Meet your local hauler. Find out what they do with the recycling and what they can do for you. Your hauling fees will be reduced if your trash bins are empty and your recycling tubs are full. And the hauler might actually pay you for some of your recycled materials (cardboard, plastic, metal, etc.).

3. Put recycling tubs everywhere. Make it easy for employees to recycle.

4. Start a compost pile. Why throw away good mulching material for gardens?

5. Reuse paper. Keep trays in employee cubes so they can put aside paper that is only used on one side. Re-use it in copiers and printers.

6. Don’t break the circle. Flex your purchasing power by choosing environmentally-friendly supplies, components, and packaging. Ask vendors: Is it non-hazardous, recycled, reusable or recyclable, long-lasting, and energy-efficient?

7. Pass it on. Offer hard-to-recycle items to employees, vendors, or local business and community groups. One company's trash may be another's treasure.

8. Walk, bike, or carpool. Encourage employees to leave their cars at home. Your H.R. department could issue stipends to staff members who use an eco-friendly means of getting to work, such as driving a hybrid vehicle.

9. Green. Greener. Greenest. Keep looking for new sustainable practices, even if it means revisiting the same topics. Example: restroom hand-dryers or paper towels—which one is kinder to the environment?

10. Get support from the top. Employees who see their bosses reducing, reusing, and recycling are much more likely to join in themselves. The more upper management enthusiastically supports a green program, the more successful it will be.

Image Source: businesswire.com

It may be difficult and time-consuming to launch an environmental program, and certainly to keep one going year after year, but Anthro has found that the results are worth the effort.

Anthro Corporation, founded in 1984, designs and manufactures furniture for technology, including standing desks, radiology furniture, and all sizes of mobile carts.

Janique Goff knows the importance of protecting the environment which is why she helps promote green initiatives. Find out more about the projects she supports here.

REPOST: 13 Unexpected Sources of Energy that Could Save the World

The future of renewable energy may come from an unconventional place. Annelie Newitz lists down some of these wayside sources of power.

If humans are going to keep living in the style to which we're accustomed, we need to find alternatives for fossil fuels. Partly that's because we need to reduce pollution — and partly because those fossil fuels are going to run out. But alternative forms of energy may look a lot weirder than you think.

Image source: io9.com

1. Tobacco Leaves

Most people have heard about turning corn into biofuel. But corn is actually a terrible biofuel source for a number of reasons, which is why many scientists are looking to other plants for future fuel — including tobacco. Genetically modified tobacco, that is. The main building blocks for biofuel in plants are starch and sugar, so naturally, increasing the amount of starches and sugars in a plant will improve fuel production. An agricultural engineer recently found that she could tweak a gene in tobacco to boost starch production by 700%, which translated to an increased sugar yield (a step in biofuel production) of 500%. As a bonus, this technique could be used on food crops to increase starch and sugar production.

2. Sugar Batteries

Current battery technology relies on toxic metals, which are difficult to mine, have limited lifespans, and create recycling and disposal issues. Sugar, on the other hand, has none of those problems. Recently, a group of bioengineers built a prototype of an "enzymatic fuel cell" that imitates the behavior of biological systems (like plants) that convert glucose to energy. The resulting battery creates more energy than a lithium-ion battery, is biodegradable, and refillable.

Image source: io9.com

3. Jatropha curcas

This plant produces oil-rich seeds which are excellent for biodiesel, and it is able to thrive in dry, sandy lands that aren't good for food production. That means the plant could be grown in areas that aren't required for food crops. Unfortunately, the plant's seeds don't thrive as easily as the plants do in poor soil. Now, scientists are working on ways to genetically modify this crop in a number of ways make it more suitable for biodiesel production. The result could be a hardy crop that can live almost anywhere, and produce incredible amounts of fuel.

4. Algae Machines

Unlike Jatropha curcas, which is a plant that might one day be a source of fuel, microalgae are pretty much fuel-ready. They grow in the ocean, and thus don't compete with food crops. Plus, they produce more starch and sugar than the blue-green algae known as cyanobacteria, which are also being explored as a source of alternative energy. The problem? It's hard to get a giant crop of microalgae. Currently, researchers are looking at ways to genetically modify this microalgae to make it a more robust fuel source.

If that isn't futuristic enough for you, researchers are also integrating genetic "circuits" into bacteria and algae in order to produce biofuels from photosynthesis. Essentially, they'd add new molecular machinery to bacteria and algae that don't already have them. There are even proposals to engineer the actual light-absorbing antennae in these organisms to increase efficiency and biofuel output. This would mean genetically altering the systems that these microorganisms use to absorb light — we wouldn't actually be adding tiny metal antennae to them, though that would be cool.

5. Super Yeast

Conversion of plant material to fuel isn't always efficient, especially because that plant material is often waste left over from forestry and agriculture. However, biologist Na Wei and colleagues have discovered that they can genetically modify a form of yeast to digest the tough, fibrous xylose in plants. Normally this part of the plant goes unused, as it creates a toxic, acidic environment for the microbes that would normally break it down into those much-needed sugars. But the enhanced yeast are able to digest xylose into the chemical components that could make biofuel. This super-yeast could help us convert plant waste into valuable energy.

6. Corny Switchgrass

Switchgrass is a controversial biofuel crop. It is fast growing, produces a lot of material for fuel production, but is also invasive, taking over new lands where it is introduced. Still, it might one day prove very useful — especially if we add a few extremely useful genes to its repertoire. A group of biologists found that by genetically modifying switchgrass with a gene from corn, they could boost the amount of starch and digestibility of the switchgrass (making it easier and more productive to convert to fuel), and completely shut down the flowering of the plant, potentially preventing invasion.

Image source: io9.com

7. Artificial Photosynthesis

Researchers at Caltech and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab are researching what they call "artificial photosynthesis." Their goal is to produce a synthetic version of the molecular machinery that plants use to make energy from light and water. The result would be something that looks like a solar panel inside a plastic chassis — it's made of thin membrane sheets comprised of semiconductor materials. By pumping water through the device, and bombarding it with light, we could produce liquid hydrogen or hydrocarbons. This solves the typical problem with solar energy, which is storage. Because this solar fuel would be liquid, we could use our current fuel storage infrastructure to hold and distribute it the same way we do with oil and gas.

Read the rest of the list on io9.

Janique Goff, a business development manager, specializes in providing marketing and developmental assistance to biotechnology startups. Get updates on biotechnology and the environment on this blog.

REPOST: Kia Soul EV joins electric car ranks

Electric cars are getting more attention every passing year. Joining BMW, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Ford in the quest to promote environment-friendly vehicles is Korean car manufacturer Kia, which just recently launched its first ever electric car, the Soul EV.

Kia converts its Soul model to an electric.
Image Source: news.cnet.com

Kia chose the Chicago Auto Show, beginning this week, as the debut venue for the Soul EV, the electric version of Kia's boxy little hatchback SUV thing. The standard Soul model received a major update for the 2014 model year. The Soul EV will be Kia's first electric car.

As one of Kia's more distinctive models, the Soul seems a good choice on which to base an electric vehicle. It will go up against cars such as the Chevy Spark EV, Fiat 500e, and the veteran Nissan Leaf.

In that crucial measure of EV performance, range, the Soul EV offers no surprises. Kia cites figures of 80 to 100 miles on a full battery, fairly standard in the current market.

Two charging ports hide under the front of the Soul EV.
Image Source: news.cnet.com

The Soul EV's charging ports live under a place at the front of the car, similar to the Nissan Leaf. Using its J1772 standard charging port, Kia notes that it will take 5 hours to charge the battery from a 240 volt source. For fast charging, the Soul EV also sports a CHAdeMo standard port, requiring only 33 minutes to bring the battery up to 80 percent charge.

The inclusion of the CHAdeMo port marks another win for this largely Asian-supported fast-charging standard.

Kia packaged the Soul EV's 27 kilowatt-hour battery pack under the floor, helping maintain proper weight balance between front and rear wheels and lowering the car's center of gravity versus the gasoline version. The battery pack consists of 96 lithium-ion polymer cells using air cooling and ceramic separators to guard against heat overrun.

The inclusion of the battery pack diminishes rear seat legroom by 3 inches, according to Kia.
The battery pack powers an 81.4 kilowatt electric motor driving the front wheels, which takes about 12 seconds to bring the Soul EV from zero to 60 mph.

Drivers can set the car to standard or Eco modes, the latter enhancing braking regeneration and reducing climate control energy usage. In addition, a motor braking setting on the shifter increases braking regeneration over the standard Drive mode. To maximize climate control energy saving, Kia includes a driver-only setting, which shuts off vent flow to all but the driver seat area.

As with other electric cars on the market, the Soul EV comes connected, and will let owners control charging and other functions from a smartphone app.
 
Kia will begin sales of the Soul EV later this year in California, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. Pricing has not yet been announced.

Business development manager Janique Goff promotes awareness on issues such as energy, water, and wildlife preservation. Subscribe to this blog for more information on her advocacy.

REPOST: Why Driverless Cars Won't Save The Environment

Driverless cars reduce carbon emissions and are safe to drive with their vehicle automation feature. Their increased usage, however, may add to heavy vehicle traffic and more energy consumption, which could only do more harm than good to the environment. Bradley Derman tackles these issues in ReadWrite.

It’s logical to think that highly connected and networked cars—talking to each other and the roadway—will naturally mean revolutionary improvements in vehicle efficiency and reduced emissions. Too bad that increased use of driverless cars may well cancel out those gains.

Assumptions of reduced environmental impact are based on the idea that computers, and digital networks, can do a much better job than humans at optimizing routes, sharing resources, and wringing out the best mileage possible. A lot of those efficiency improvements are likely to result from improved safety. 

Image Source: www.readwrite.com

“If cars aren’t going to crash, then you can make them a lot lighter,” said John DeCicco, research professor at the University of Michigan Energy Institute. “You can get rid of all the things we’ve piled on to cars to make them safe.”

Don MacKenzie, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington, agrees. “Improved crash avoidance means reduced crash worthiness requirements potential.” MacKenzie, who received his PhD in engineering systems from MIT and has researched fuel and powertrain efficiencies for more than a decade, estimates that removal of safety equipment and downsizing could mean efficiency gains of as much as 20 percent.

Roads Full of Super-Efficient Electric Mobility Bots

Vehicle automation also opens the possibility for greater deployment of smaller, less expensive special purpose vehicles—like the stereotypical futuristic mobility pods that usually come to mind.  And because they are networked, many of these cars can easily be shared.  Cars owned and operated by fleet companies—something like Uber with self-driving vehicles—but accessed on an as-needed basis, are also more likely to be configured for energy and cost-saving compared to today’s private cars souped up for fun and style.

DeCicco, a pioneer in rigorous evaluations of the environmental ratings of cars and trucks, believes that automated vehicles can increasingly be powered by electricity. That means even more gains in efficiency.

At the end of a drive, EV owners could simply send a car off for a few blocks, or miles, to find its own recharging stations. This allows people who live in multi-family dwellings to easily charge, whereas today electric car ownership and charging is easier for those with access to a garage. “It liberates the whole energy refill problem by totally automating it,” said DeCicco.

Then there is vehicle platooning, in which cars link up in train-like configurations for common legs of their respective journeys. MacKenzie pegs the benefit at as much as a 20 percent gain in efficiency, with perhaps another 20 percent benefit from eco-routing.

 “Sometimes you see some big times from optimal simulation, said DeCicco. “But even those numbers are not a doubling of efficiency.” And of course, drivers would have to opt into driving in a slower and steadier fashion, rather than deciding to get to a destination faster.

Wait, Not So Fast

So far, so good for the efficiency of vehicle automation. “But there’s the other side of the story,” said DeCicco. “Automation could allow more driving.”

In other words, the ease of taking a ride in an automated vehicle could make us much more likely and frequently to jump in the car. “You take the driver out of the loop, and people will be much more willing to sit in their vehicles,” said MacKenzie. He suggested that the first 90 minutes at work is spent mostly answering emails. Why not decide to get a bigger, nicer and cheaper house 90 minutes away from your job, and answer your emails during the commute in your self-driving car? The result: more suburban sprawl and all the environmental damage it represents.

Increases in networked car sharing could add to vehicle traffic by those who might otherwise walk, bike or take public transit. “I don’t have to drive,” said DeCicco. “I can live even further away, and have my automated Barcalounger on wheels.” He envisioned a time when an exercise bike or rowing machine, as well as a big screen television, could become desirable vehicle features.

Matter of Human Priorities

MacKenzie, who has analyzed various automated driving pathways with colleagues from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Lab and U.K.’s University of Leeds, believes that all of these factors could lead to as much as 160% more travel—eclipsing the efficiency benefits of automated systems.

The increase in vehicle use (and related emissions) includes new trips by young, elderly and disabled travelers who previously lacked mobility. He also mentioned that vehicle efficiency on highways could go down, if speed limits are increased as high as 100 miles per hour, due to improved safety.

“If you’ve provided mobility to a new group of users, and you're saving lives, that’s great,” said MacKenzie.  “But it’s premature to say we know how it’s going to affect energy consumption.” For MacKenzie, it’s two forces fighting against one another—a technology that can improve efficiency, and improved vehicle access and safety that will mean more travel. “It’s a question of which force will dominate,” he said.

That, ultimately, is more about social will than technology innovation. “Automated cars are not going to free us from our own faulty human desire for more and more,” said DeCicco.  He said technology can make our lives better, but also bring new and potentially bigger problems. “That’s the story of the automobile over the last 150 years,” he said. “It doesn’t save us from ourselves.”

Environment advocate Janique Goff promotes eco-friendly alternatives for consumer products. Follow her Twitter account to keep updated on the latest environment issues.