Embassy of the United States

Letters and Speeches

Remarks by U.S. Ambassador Robert Blake At Inauguration of the International Workshop on Molecular Biology, Histopathology and Stem Cell Research in Neurosciences

December 14, 2006, University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Dr. Ranil De Silva, Professor Jayawardene, Professor Warnasuriya, Professor Stadlin, Professor Dodd, Dr. Abeykoon, distinguished researchers, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honor for me to be here today as Chief Guest for the inauguration of the International Workshop on Molecular Biology, Histopathology, and Stem Cell research in Neurosciences. 

At the outset let me confess I am no scientist.  Indeed my colleagues from high school and university days would be aghast that I am the Chief Guest before such an august gathering of scientists when I was earlier distinguished only by my abject failure to understand hard science!

With that confession behind me, let me quickly add that I represent a government that boasts many of the world’s experts in your field so let me humbly speak on their behalf.  When Dr. De Silva asked me to address you today, I contacted Dr. Story C. Landis, the Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), at the National Institute of Health, since NIH already has provided considerable assistance to Sri Lanka in this important area.  Dr. De Silva informed me that thanks to equipment and advice provided by NIH, he plans to establish a Genetic Diagnostic and Counseling Facility, Sri Lanka’s first ever Brain Bank, and a  Research and Training Unit.    

Dr. Landis wrote back to me that NINDS is delighted to have been able to contribute to the training of future neuroscientists in Sri Lanka.  He asked me to tell all of you that if we are to find better ways to identify and treat neurological diseases, we will have to form partnerships with neuroscientists in other countries and engage them in our common mission of reducing the burden of diseases that affect the nervous system.  The workshop represents an important step toward this goal.

Dr. Landis also sent me information on possible training opportunities for Sri Lankan scientists that I have shared with Dr. De Silva.  I also brought a few copies with me.    
I wanted to use the balance of my time to discuss the importance of biotechnology, and the potential benefits Sri Lanka could derive if the Government of Sri Lanka can articulate a biotechnology policy. 

Biotechnology, if used appropriately, has the potential to provide more and healthier foods, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and offer more effective cures for diseases.  Enzymes that can break down plant material into biofuels such as ethanol will eventually lead to the more cost-effective production of sustainable bioenergy products.  This could be of great interest in a country like Sri Lanka that spends $2 billion a year to import oil and gas to meet its energy needs.  A new bioengineered form of rice bolstered with vitamin A may help reduce blindness stemming from vitamin deficiency in developing countries.
Governments and other organizations have a crucial role to play to help their countries realize the benefits of biotechnology.  They need to establish an overall policy and regulatory framework that will encourage investment in biotech research and development tailored toward products that can help developing countries and assist these nations in building the capacity to benefit from bio-innovation.

Everyone knows that biotechnology has taken off in areas of food and agriculture.  Cotton, soybeans, maize, and other crops have been engineered to contain proteins that protect them from insect pests. Biotech crops are grown widely in many countries.  The cultivation of Bt cotton in India and China has significantly reduced the use of chemical pesticides that are dangerous to human health, benefiting rural farmers.

Healthier and more nutritious foods are also being developed via biotechnology.  For example, more than 100 million people are affected by vitamin A deficiency, which is responsible for hundreds of thousands of cases of blindness annually.  Researchers have engineered a variety of rice to supply the metabolic precursor to vitamin A.  This "golden rice" is being bred with local varieties to enhance its properties for growth in developing countries.  Intellectual property hurdles have been overcome to distribute the rice for free to subsistence farmers—this is especially important because the cost of seed could otherwise be prohibitive. Researchers are developing other crops that have increased quantities of iron, vitamin E, essential amino acids, and healthier oils.

For the future, additional applications of biotechnology to food and agriculture could prove useful.  The United Nations Environment Program ranks freshwater shortages as the second greatest environmental problem, behind climate change, for the 21st century.  Despite the abundant rains recently in Sri Lanka, your country has experienced chronic water shortages in parts of Sri Lanka.   Such technologies could therefore be of great benefit.  Drought- and salinity-tolerant crops tailored to developing countries can greatly enhance food security in areas where a combination of natural disasters and marginal land are sure to lead to famine in a given year. Through genomics and modern biotechnology, we are getting closer to understanding, identifying, and engineering the many traits that control water use and salt utilization in plants.

Medical applications of biotechnology are better known in the public's eye. Stem cells and cloning have gained unusual prominence in national and international politics.  They have successfully replaced or repaired damaged tissue in animal models, and they hold great promise for treating human diseases such as Alzheimer's and diabetes.   These methods hold great promise.  However, the ethical, cultural, and policy issues associated with them will continue to occupy scientists and politicians in the foreseeable future.

A fundamental application of biotechnology to medicine is in drug discovery.  Humans have discovered drugs from natural sources by trial and error since the beginning of history.  Now genomics and its companion field for proteins—proteomics—have allowed us to discover drugs more systematically.  The automation of biochemical binding assays in small chips called microarrays enables scientists to screen thousands of chemical compounds for their effectiveness against disease-causing proteins in a very short time.  This high-throughput screening, as it is called, would not have been possible without years of serious investment in basic biotechnology research.

With microarray analysis, the activity of thousands of genes can be quickly measured. Many researchers are harnessing this tool to determine early gene activity when humans are infected with pathogens.  Rapid, noninvasive screens are envisioned for the future, and they will be especially important for infections that require immediate treatment in order to reduce spread and save lives, such as infections resulting from a bioterrorist attack. Nanosensors are being developed from particles that are about 50,000 times smaller than the diameter of human hair to detect protein and gene expression in individual cells in the body, thus allowing the assessment of the health of cells at early stages of disease.  The U.S. government is spending millions of dollars on nanosensors that can be placed in the blood of astronauts to monitor continuously for space radiation exposure.

Gene therapy, in which genes are delivered to specific diseased organs or tissues in the body to overcome metabolic deficiencies or other disease, is another area of great promise.  The use of viruses to deliver genes has shown risks to human health, making trials with these viruses controversial.  The convergence of nanotechnology with biotechnology will allow for safer gene delivery methods that are not based on viruses.  Chemically synthesized nanoparticles that carry genes or therapeutics specifically to diseased cells are currently being tested in animals.

Biotechnology also plays an important role in preventing disease.  Vaccines produced by recombinant DNA methods are generally safer than traditional vaccines because they contain isolated viral or bacterial proteins, as opposed to killed or weakened disease-causing agents.  However, many citizens in developing nations do not have access to any vaccines, let alone ones derived from biotechnology.  Currently, most vaccines require cold storage and professional administration through injection.  Therefore, researchers are working on genetically engineered plants to deliver vaccines through food.  The cost of plant-derived, orally administered hepatitis B vaccine is estimated to be one-sixth that of current hepatitis B vaccines.  Enough antigen to immunize all babies in the world each year could be grown on approximately 80 hectares of land.  However, as with Bt crops, there are general concerns about pharmaceutical crops because they may cross-pollinate with food crops in the field.  It will be especially important to develop biosafety regimes that either use crops that do not cross-pollinate (for example, male sterile) or isolate the pharmaceutical crops (for example, in greenhouses).

THE CHALLENGES

It is striking that a number of the above examples relate to the Millennium Declaration, an agreement reached in 2000 by more than 170 countries to address poverty, economic development, and environmental preservation.  Yet science and technology are seldom integrated with international programs focused on social and economic development.  

There has been significant progress in meeting some of the goals of the Millennium Declaration, such as reducing poverty, increasing primary education and gender equality, and lowering child mortality.  However, less progress has been made in fighting global disease and improving environmental sustainability.  These are challenges in which biotechnology can play a role.

Investments in science and technology by any nation will eventually bear economic fruit. However, investments to address the social, political, cultural, and ethical issues surrounding applications of biotechnology are equally important.  There are good ways to foster open dialogue on such issues.  We may never agree on some applications of biotechnology, such as therapeutic cloning, but dialogue leads to better understanding of each other's views and respect for our differences.

We should not minimize the potential health and environmental risks of biotechnology.  We need to fund studies of these effects by independent organizations.  Regulatory systems should be streamlined to be effective, efficient, and transparent.  Currently, there are few incentives for the independent study of regulatory systems and policy.

Finally, we need to invest in technologies that are tailored toward helping developing countries and building capacity in their communities, for example, through education, training, and assistance with intellectual property issues.  Biotechnology investments have primarily been made in developed countries and on products that will offer financial returns.  This focus is natural for the private sector, but a broader agenda is needed. Governments and other organizations should step in and invest in research and development in developing countries and in products that can benefit those countries.  Through increased awareness of the social context of biotechnology and commitments to resolve existing issues, one can envision a future in which biotechnology is harnessed responsibly to help all nations and all people.

I am happy to inform you that our Embassy is assisting this week in a collaboration between Michigan State University (MSU) and the Department of Agriculture by organizing a workshop in Kandy on new approaches and technologies with special focus on biotechnology for sustainable agricultural development in Kandy.  I am told that the Secretary of Agriculture stated in his opening remarks at the workshop that Sri Lanka is in favor of biotechnology when used to achieve prosperity for its rural population, and hopes to see profound developments through the partnership between MSU and local scientists.  I trust that our governments and universities will continue working together to achieve such useful goals. 

The Indian Example

The booming Indian biotechnology sector can provide a useful example for Sri Lanka to emulate.  Having spent the last three years as Deputy US Ambassador in India, I can personally testify to the benefits India derived from biotechnology.  India’s first step was to create a Department of Biotechnology within the Ministry of Science and Technology.  The Biotechnology Department then developed a National Science and Technology Policy and Development Strategy.

As a result of these steps, India’s biotechnology industry comprises over 280 companies with six of them generating over US$ 22.7 million.  Total biotechnology revenues in 2005-06 were approximately US$ 1.5 billion with an impressive growth rate of 36.5%.  Biotech exports from India stood at US$ 750 million.  

Sri Lanka has the potential to develop its own biotechnology industry, albeit on a smaller scale than India or the United States.  From my experience in India and elsewhere, I suggest the most effective way for Sri Lanka to pursue private investments and public-private partnerships in biotech research and development would be by engaging eminent scientists and businesses to further develop Sri Lanka’s overall biotechnology policy and regulatory framework.  The United States stands ready to advise and assist you to the extent our resources permit.

In closing let me commend Dr. De Silva for arranging this program.  My government and I look forward to continued collaboration with you and your government on these important matters. 

Thank you.