Chartres cathedral 1194-1260
Jan 15, 2016
Chartres cathedral 1194-1260
Biotechnology: Industry expectations andTechnological Evolution
Implications for the well-educated student.
• Part 1: Industry context in Australia and industry requirements
• Part 2: An evolutionary/generational definition of biotechnology that captures technological change
Part 1
Australia: Industry context 2001
• 190 core biotech companies
• 460 non-core/support companies
• 5,700 employees
• +46% fulltime equiv. employees 1999 to 2001
Source: E &Y, 2001
Australia: Industry context 2006
• 427 core biotech companies • 625 medical device companies• Biotech employment doubled 2005 to 2006• Now > 12,100 people• Operating in diverse fields
– Therapeutics, bioprospecting, livestock genetics, molecular biology, biosensors, diagnostics, plant biotechnology, process technology, vaccines
Source:Hopper & Thorburn Innovation Dynamics, 2007
• Trans-disciplinary• Rapidly evolving and emerging fields
– Nanotech, proteomics, genomics, bioinformatics, PTGS
• A very diverse industry • A large number of small companies
Key features of biotechnology
• How should we deliver our teaching, for what seems to be a moving target?– Content?
– Teaching methods?
Implications for teaching
• Are we delivering what industry needs?– Core content knowledge
– Generic skills
A Review of Biotechnology Education & Industry Needs
in Australia:
Funded by AUTC/DEST and Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
What did we ask?
Asked of industry
• What 3 attributes / abilities do you look for in graduates when they commence employment with your company?
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Responses
Scientific and technical skillEnthusiasm/willingness to learn
Prob solving/crit thinking/creativity
Interpersonal skills/teamwork
Miscellaneous
Communication skillsExperience/track record
Academic resultsIndependence
Honesty
Attributes
Attributes looked for in graduates
* **
Asked of industry
• What 3 areas of technical knowledge do you see as most important amongst your scientists?
Technical Knowledge
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Responses
Molecular biologyOther chemistry
Protein chemistry
Other
Immunology
Cell and tissue culture
BioinformaticsMicrobiology
ProteomicsRegulatory/QA
Area of Technical Knowledge
Tech. Knowledge Important in Scientists
* **
Asked of industry
• List skills requirements most affected by these technological developments in your company.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Responses
Protein chem/chem.Molecular biology
Bioinformatics
Other
Computer/ITRegulatory/QA
Ferment'n/eng./process dev.Multiskilled/x-discipline flex'ty
Tissue culture/cell biologyDrug dev./pharma. devel.
Monoclonal antibody/immun'y
Sales/marketing/comm'n
Nanotechnology
Environmental BiotechDiagnostics/mol/ pathDevelopmental biologyAutomation/robotics/HTS
Mass spectrometry
Skills
Skills Requirements most Affected by Tech. Devts.
*
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Mean Response
Problem Solving
Team Work
Oral Communication Written Communication
Info retrieval/ Analysis Information Technology Research Methodology
IP in Biotech
Bus. Issues in Biotech Reg's on manuf. & use
Skills
Demand for generic and technical skills
2002
2003
2002
2004
* * ** *
Ranking of key skills by Universities & Industry
U n ive rs it y In d u s t ryM o le c u la r b io lo g y 1 1O t h e r c h e m is t ry 2 2P ro t e in c h e m is t ry 3 3Im m u n o lo g y 1 1 4C e ll a n d t is s u e c u lt u re 7 5M ic ro b io lo g y 5 6P ro t e o m ic s 3 7R e g u la t o ry / Q A 1 5 8
*
**
Discordances marked with asterisks
Recommendations
• Do not dilute the chemistry
Recommendations• Strong industry demand for certain
‘generic attributes’:
– Problem solving
– Teamwork
– Communication
– Creativity
– Enthusiasm
Recommendations• Implications for pedagogy
– More problem based learning ??• Core knowledge?
– More team based activities ?– More hands-on, task based application of
core knowledge?
The future
• Students paying more• Changing student expectations (customers)• Changing course preferences
• Will there be sufficient numbers of science grads to fuel the new economy? – 23% decline in science enrolments 1989-2002
• Will there be sufficient investment to sustain innovation in Australia?
• Will there be investment in core training in fundamentals like chemistry?
Part 2
Evolutionary/generational definition of biotechnology.
Part 2
• A static definition:– Application of biological knowledge for
generation of products that are or will be valued by society
– Value is contestable and changes over time
Part 2
• Value is contestable and changes over time– Stage of development of the society– Risks to which it is exposed
• people give you different definitions
Part 2
• Don’t know what biotechnology is.– Narrow definition
• They take a lot for granted.– health/longevity
• They don’t know he details of how their food is produced– Supermarket mentality/urbanisation
Taking a lot for granted
A Question
• What was average life expectancy at birth in Western Europe in 1750?
Answer
• 33 years
Why?
• No vaccines
• No antisepsis
• No antibiotics
• No analgaesia
• No knowledge of germ theory
The Plague Doctor, Venice, 17th CenturyCourtesy Omnia, Lido de Venezia
Year ??
Year 1796
Definition of biotechnology
• An evolutionary/generational definition is best.
First generation
• Plant breeding• Collection of herbs for medicine• Animal breeding• Bread making• Wine, beer, sake (Saccaromyces cerevisieae; Actinomyces,
Leuconostoc)• Fermented food products
– Yoghurt– Cheese – Soy– Chocolate (!)
First generation
Microorganisms in fermentation and flavour formation of cocoa to make chocolate
BacillusHanseniaspora Pichia membranifasciens
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
First generation
Microorganisms per gram during fermentation of cocoa to make chocolate
First generation
Yeast cells (dividing) Amarna 1550-1070 BCCourtesy Delwen Samuel, King’s College, London
Pitted Starch granules, evidence of malting. Tomb, Deir el Medina
Courtesy Delwen Samuel, King’s College, London
Historical facts:Humans have always guided evolution of crops!
•A very small sample of wild plants were chosen and domesticated
•More than 10,000 years of genetic selection
Historical facts …..cont
• Crops strains and genes have moved around the globe for centuries
• All crops we grow today were once wild plants but no crop would survive in the wild anymore (without human support)
• They bear little physical resemblance to their wild ancestors
Fig.1 Wild varieties of potato from the Americas
Improving on crop plants
• Hybridization • Disease resistance• Increased yield
• Crosses with wild relations– Some do not breed true so it is
necessary for farmers to repurchase seeds
Development of modern varieties
– how was it done?
The products of these methods have led to crop characteristics (phenotypes) as different as Great Danes and Chihuahuas.
Fig. 3 Selected chili variety Fig.2 Wild chili variety
Modern methods of crop improvement:
•Are relatively more precise and predictable
•Transfer a few genes into crop plants in contrast to random shuffling of older approaches
•Can determine exactly where the genes have been inserted (Polymerase chain reaction)
•Can measure the effect on all proteins in the plant
•Mass spectrometry
•HPLC
• Decreased pesticide usage• Decreased fuel consumption• Decreased crop losses to pests and disease
– Papaya anecdote (Hawaii)• Increased nutrient efficiency
– nitrogen fixing cereals– Vitamins
• Increased crop yields.
Benefits
• GM crops
• 220 million acres under GM crops in 2005
• 1/3 in developing countries
• In India and Australia , 70% reduction in organochlorine and organophosphorous pesticides
Medical biotechnology
• Massive reduction in disease burden since 1945• Eradication of smallpox• Eradication of polio in developed nations• Whooping cough• Diptheria• Tetanus• Cholera • Perinatal morality
Medical biotechnology
• Vaccines
• Clean water
Milestones
Ancient to modern biotechnology
Jenner (1796)
• Smallpox vaccination
Semmelweis (1847)
• Recognised cause of puerperal fever and post-natal death in maternity wards
• Did not yet know about “germ” origin of disease
John Snow (1854)• Showed the connection
between contaminated water and cholera
• Used a Voronoi diagram to pinpoint the culprit water pump– Application of maths to
biology
• The importance of a clean water supply
Miescher (1871)• Isolated DNA from the
nucleus of thymus cells
Miescher (1871)• Isolated DNA from the
nucleus of thymus cells
• Died of tuberculosis,
Aged 51
(possibly from unpasteurised milk)
Koch (1878)
• In 1878 Koch discovered that microbes cause wounds to go septic
• Big breakthrough came when he decided to stain microbes with dye, enabling him to photograph them under a microscope.
• Using this method he was able to prove that every disease was caused by a different germ. He identified the microbes that caused tuberculosis in 1882 and cholera in 1883.
Pasteur (1885)
• Rhabies vaccine• Pasteurisation
Joseph Meister came to Pasteur after being bitten by a rabid dog.Pasteur treated him with a rabies vaccine,The rabies virus would not be identified for another half a century.
Ehrlich (1891)
• Paul Ehrlich proposes that antibodies are responsible for immunity. He shows that antibodies form against the plant toxins ricin and abrin. With Metchnikoff, Ehrlich is jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1908.
Fleming (1928), Florey, Chain, Heatley (1940s)
Everyone knows that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by accident in 1928.
Penicillium notatum
It was largely due to the technical ingenuity of one man that enough penicillin was produced for the first hospital tests. That man was Norman Heatley
Do students know who this is?
Watson, Crick, Franklin & Wilkins, 1953
Salk and Sabin,1955
http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/tutorials/polio/ilung.mov
Køhler and Milstein (1975)
• Monoclonal antibody technology
• Immortal cells producing a single antibody of defined specificity in unlimited amounts
First monoclonal antibodies for diagnostics, 1982
Cohen and Boyer, 1973
• First recombinant DNA experiments
Recombinant human insulin, 1982
• Human insulin produced in E.coli
• Previously had been purified from pig pancreas
Recombinant therapeutics since 1982
• Many since 1982– Protropin (human growth hormone) 1985– Combivax (Hep B vaccine) 1986– Pulmozyme (CF treatment) 1993
– Rituximab 1997
– Herceptin 1998
• Several hundred in clinical trial
Polymerase chain reaction (1983)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqgFyPdVc4YKari Mullis
• The combination of monoclonal antibody technology with human genome project
• A new therapeutic drug discovery paradigm
New drug development paradigm made possible by the Human GenomeProject, for development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.
Humanized Antibodies
The biological age for therapeutics and diagnostics
““Magic Bullets”Magic Bullets”
•1980’s – much excitement and money invested•But, clinical trials failed (except for orthoclone)– much money lost
•Because the MAbs were mouse-derived – immunogenic
(Human Anti-Mouse Antibodies)-Eliminates therapeutic antibody from system-Effector functions less effective(eg. complement activation).
•Genetically engineer to make the MAbs appear more human (humanisation)
•B-lymphocytes express antibody (Each cell specific)•Foreign antigen enters body (eg Bacteria or Virus)•Binds to specific B-cell, prompting maturation•B-cell produces large quantities of antibody•Antigen-Antibody binding triggers other components of immune system•Subsequent infection – faster clearance (immunity)
The Immune SystemThe Immune System
eg Cancer Cells
Producing Monoclonal AntibodiesProducing Monoclonal Antibodies
A mouse will recognise a human protein as foreign.
Injecting human antigen will stimulate increased production of B-cells producing antibody against the antigen.
B-cells can be immortalised by fusion with a myeloma cell and the specific hybridoma cell purified.
Limitless supply of specific antibody !
Murine(0% Human)
Chimeric(67% Human)
Humanised(90% Human)
Fully Human (100% Human)
Chimeric AntibodiesChimeric Antibodies
V C V C
Mouse Antibody Gene Human Antibody Gene
V
V
C
C
Express
Clone mouseVariable region
Clone humanConstant region
Ligate
Allows specificityAllows effector functionsDecreases HAMAbut can get HACA
Humanised AntibodiesHumanised Antibodies
Allows specificityAllows effector functionsLess immunogenic
Fully Human AntibodiesFully Human Antibodies
•Xenomouse (Abgenix) – entire Ab-gene repertoire in mousereplaced with the human equivalent
•Mouse produces antibodies which are 100% human•Specificity easily achieved•Effector functions active•Not immunogenic•Fast and easy production
PRODUCT DEVELOPER/MARKETER
APPROVAL DATE
TYPE TARGET DISORDER
Orthoclone OKT3 (muromonab-CD3)
Ortho Biotech / Johnson & Johnson
1986 Murine CD3 antigen on T lymphocytes
Acute transplantrejection
ReoPro (abciximab) Centocor/Eli Lilly & Co.
1994 Chimeric Clotting receptor Blood clots in cardiac procedures
Rituxan (rituximab) DEC Pharmaceuticals/Genentech/Roche
1997 Chimeric CD20 receptor on B lymphocytes
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
Zenapax (daclizumab) Protein Design Labs/Roche 1997 Humanized Interleukin-2 receptor on activated T-cells
Acute rejection of transplanted kidneys
Herceptin (trastuzumab) Genentech/Roche 1998 Humanized HER2 growth factor receptor
Breast cancers
Remicade (inflixibmab) Centocor/Schering-Plough 1998 Chimeric Tumor necrosis factor
Rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease
Simulect (basiliximab) Novartis 1998 Chimeric Interleukin-2 receptor on activated T-cells
Acute rejection of transplanted kidneys
Synagis (palivizumab) Medlmmune 1998 Humanized F protein of respiratory syncytial virus
RSV infection in children
Mylotarg (gemtuzumab) Celltech/Wyeth-Ayerst
2000 Humanized CD33 antigen on leukemia cells
myeloid leukemia
Campath (alemtuzumab)
Millennium Pharmaceuticals/Schering AG
2001 Humanized CD52 antigen on B and T lymphocytes
B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Monoclonal Antibody based therapeutics
Success stories
• Rituxan (Chimeric Mab)– Effective against refractory non- Hodgkin’s
lymphoma– Well tolerated (few side effects)
• Herceptin– Genotype dependant– metastatic breast cancer (Her-2 positive)
Infectious disease therapeutics
• Infantile RSV (respiratory syncitial virus)– Humanized MAb (Medi-493)
• Medimmune
• Hepatitis B– Human Mab (Ostavir)
• Novartis/Protein Design Lab
• HIV– Humanized Mab (Pro 542)
• Progenics/Genzyme
Infectious disease diagnostics
• Shortage of positive control sera limits our ability to produce diagnostic tests– Particularly difficult to source early post-
infection sera (IgM)
• Need for reliable supply of control reagents for diagnostic tests
Infectious disease diagnostics
• Serum positive controls are difficult to source for:– Diseases of children
– Bordatella pertussus (whooping cough)
– Rare diseases– Rocky mountain spotted fever
– Dangerous diseases– Dengue fever
– West Nile fever
– Q fever
Infectious disease diagnostics
• With humanized or chimeric antibodies it will be possible to have a reliable source of positive control reagents for these diseases.
• Longer term therapeutic reagents for these diseases.
Infectious disease diagnostics
• Comparison of engineered antibody versus serum for Srub typhus test– Jones & Barnard, 2007 (in press)
Cancer therapeutic
• Characteristic surface antigens– CMRF 44
– CD 83
• Make humanised antibodies that bind to these
Cancer therapeutic
• Graft versus host disease– Haemopoietic stem cell graft– Aim: depletion of dendritic cells
• Prostate cancer therapy– Purification of dendritic cells– Use the cells to treat prostate cancer
Antibody formatsnatural and engineered
Antibody formatsnatural and engineered
• Shark single chain antibodies
Chartres cathedral 1194-1260
• A transdisciplinary synthesis of – mathematical
– technical
– artistic skill
• Renaissance grew out of a transdisciplinary synthesis of – mathematical
– technical
– artistic skill
– for a social purpose
Biotechnology is transdisciplinary
• Need graduates who can:– have core technical skills
• chemistry• mathematical skills
– problem solving skills– can mediate a dialogue between disciplines and
value systems to build a structure with a social purpose.
• Paradoxically consistent with expressed demands of industry
Thankyou