P2269@com.qz.se ("ENG-LEONG FOO ", MIRCEN-STOCKHOLM) (06/22/89)
Notes and Report of some events (Part 1)
From: Eng-leong Foo (Stockholm)
I have personally enjoyed participating at the Symposium on
June 2nd and have found the panel discussions and some of
the presentations very interesting. As mentioned in the
earlier message on the Symposium program, these lectures are
not technical though they may have some reference to
bioconversion. The notes provided below will first provide
some background info on the key speakers and then on the
primary messages conveyed by them.
Prof. Harlan Cleveland made the first presentation on
"Social Innovations and the problem of International
Governance". He is a political scientist and a public
executive. Prof. Cleveland is Professor Emeritus and was the
founding Dean of the Hubert H Humphrey Institute of Public
Affairs at the University of Minnesota, President of the
University of Hawaii, amongst many other academic positions.
He has been the US ambassador to NATO, an Assistant
Secretary of State, a UN relief administrator and now co-
director of a global project on "Rethinking International
Governance".
Prof Cleveland conveyed a warning that if left to
take its commercialized path, biotechnology will have a
tendency to make the rich richer (and the poor poorer).
Biotechnology will further widen the gap between developed
and developing countries. How then can "it" be controlled,
organized and steered so that it would produced the best
beneficial effects - socially and internationally - in both
developed and developing countries. This key message also
served as the theme of the symposium for other presentations
of initiatives and examples of what various national and
international organizations have contributed, e.g. ICGEB,
IDEA, UNESCO, WAAS.
It was also a comfort to know that Prof. Harlan
Cleveland is an advocate of electronic messaging and
conferencing. He can be reached on EIES (a conferencing
system in the U.S.) as 481 or Harlan.
The next speaker was Prof. Alexander King and gave
his presentation on "Africa beyond famine - A global
challenge". Prof. King is the President of the Club of Rome
and currently coordinates several of its major international
activities. He was Director General for Science, Technology
and Education at OECD and chairman of the International
Federation of Institutes for Advanced Study (IFIAS).
Famines are man-made and so "Nature Pleads Not
Guilty" has been a fitting title of a report from an IFIAS
project on the Sahel Drought many years ago. But what can
science/biotechnology do and how have independent
initiatives of NGOs and responsive governments facilitated
recovery or introduced new ideas for development in Africa.
One example of a private initiative which also involved the
former US President Jimmy Carter; was the development of a
package for small farmers in Ghana, Zambia and Sudan. The
package included seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, extension
advice and loans as well as the commitment from governments
and NGOs. In Ghana, a 90 % repayment of loans showed the
success of the package program.
Immediate comment by E.L. Foo
-----------------------------
In the bioconversion field, there are several examples of
package technologies which uses microbes for food and
beverage production. For example, a few unique approaches
have been used for mushroom production by families in South-
east Asia, e.g. in Bangkok, straw-mushroom spawn is
commercially available in the city.
Question: How does a home mushroom grower gets its spawn in
other parts of the world ?
(more no Symposium to follow later).P2269@com.qz.se ("ENG-LEONG FOO ", MIRCEN-STOCKHOLM) (07/04/89)
Notes and Report of some events (Part 2)- Morning Session.
From: Eng-leong Foo (Stockholm)
The 3rd lecture on "Biotechnology - A Tool for Development"
was given by Prof. Irwin.C. Gunsalus who is director of the
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and
Biotechnology and stationed in Trieste, Italy. His Bitnet
address is GUNSALUS@UIUCSCS. He is Professor Emeritus from
the University of Illinois and has served in several panels
and committees. He has been the President of the American
Society of Biochemistry.
Prof. Gunsalus gave a general outline of what has
been done in biotechnology and what could be done in the
future with genetic engineering as the "equalizer". He also
stressed the problems of equipment and access to
information and journals faced by scientists in developing
countries.
A panel discussion on "Networking in the context of
non-governmental and governmental operations" followed
after the morning session lectures. The panelists were -
Dr. Mark C Chona (Chairman of Sumika Investments Ltd and
former special assistant to President Kenneth Kaunda of
Zambia), Prof. Geoffrey Hamer (Secretary of the UNEP/UNESCO
/ICRO Panel on Microbiology and Biotechnology), Dr Bo
Bengtsson, Director of SAREC (Swedish Agency for Research
and Cooperation). Each member had 5 minutes to talk about
the organizations they represent in the context of the
panel discussion. The main items raised were - the need for
cooperation ( & networking) between NGOs and the GO(s); the
promotion of social & technological development in LDC and
the need to provide means on how to coordinate existing &
new initiatives. Weaknesses were also identified, e.g. many
NGOs are weak in scientific spheres; that the direction of
need specifications should be from end-users to scientists
and NGOs/GOs; granting agencies should consider funding
long term projects (10 years).
(more on Afternoon Session follows)P2269@com.qz.se ("ENG-LEONG FOO ", MIRCEN-STOCKHOLM) (07/04/89)
Afternoon Session (Part 3)
From: Eng-leong Foo (Stockholm)
The afternoon session was held at the Karolinska Institute
with 3 lectures and posters and an exhibit.
Sten Joste gave his lecture on "Targeting for Inventions".
He is the chairman of the International Federation of
Inventors Association (IFIA) and executive director of IDEA
(Innovations for Development Association). Mr. Sten Joste
also provides management consultations for structural
development of communities and companies in the Third
World.
Dr. Edgar Da Silva is coordinator for UNESCO's (
Division for Scientific Research and Higher Education)
Program in Microbiology and Biotechnology. He is also a
member of several interagency task forces and organizer of
numerous training courses and international conferences.
His lecture "International Co-operation in Applied
Microbology" summaried, as unique examples, background and
history of both the GIAM (Global Impact of Applied
Microbiology) Conferences and the MIRCEN program. Both have
facilitated the creation and a network of a world-wide
infrastructure of specialized research institutes and
laboratories over the past 3 decades.
The 3rd lecture for the afternoon session was
"Towards professional ethics in biotechnology" by Prof.
Carl-Goran Heden who is the president of the World Academy
of Arts and Science. He was the former director of the
Stockholm MIRCEN (1976-1988). His lecture dealt with the
significance of professional ethics, the social impacts of
biotechnology and codes-of-conduct as well as a summary of
his contributions in his 40 years of carreer as a
bioengineer in his retirement speech from the Karlinska
Institute. He ends his lecture by highlighting the
challenge of bioresource management and management of
biotechnology by the networking of institutes and
corporations to bear with the problems in the Third Worlds.
In addition to those mentioned earlier by other speakers,
Heden outlined activities of the U.S. based Resource
Development Foundation, a British company called Rural
Investment Overseas Ltd as well as the Biological Resource
Development Foundation (BDRF) and Biological Resource
Development Corporation (BDRC).
There were 10 posters and one exhibit; 7 were about the
medical microbiology activities at the Dept of
Bacteriology, Karolinska Inst and the others were :
E.L.Foo, Computer Communication - A Tool for international
networking and cooperation; Hans Rosling, KONZO - a new
nutritional disease in Africa; Bengt Thoren, The crude oil
engine; Bengt Thoren, A solar stove; Kent Vedefors, The LNC
-combi processing machine for leaf juice extract and pulp
production. Because of requests asking me to elaborate my
poster presentation, I will send in a separate message
about my poster. KONZO is caused by consuming inadequately
pretreated cassava. The breakdown of cyanide derivatives
which is found in such incompletely processed cassava,
after human consumption, is thought to be the cause of the
disease which affects the human nervous system. The
LNC-combi processing machine is an interesting machine
which allows the user to extract juice and pulp from fresh
leaves. Such machines have been used in nutritional
programs in developing countries for the complete use of
fresh leaves in food recipes. During the exhibition a cake
recipe using pulped wheat leaves/juice and banana was made
for tasting. Extracted juices could be used for the
production of various end-products, e.g. pharmaceuticals.
(more on evening session follows).P2269@com.qz.se ("ENG-LEONG FOO ", MIRCEN-STOCKHOLM) (07/06/89)
Evening Session (Part 4)
From: Eng-leong Foo (Stockholm)
The evening session was dedicated to the launching of the
"Biological Resource Development Corporation" (BRDC), its
presentation and a panel discussion along with a video
presentation of the international Hunger Program and a slide
show of a planned tourist city by the Red Sea in Egypt.
BRDC will be owned by the Biological Resources
Development Foundation and will serve as a commercial
company to provide financial, technical and commercial
advisory services on the development of local enterprises
that can apply and exploit biotechnology. BRDC will focus on
identification and development of biotechnology business
opportunities in less-developed countries, particularly
those that can contribute significant to local economic
development. An important start-up activity for BRDC is the
setting up of a database of resources and expertise.
Electronic networking and messaging will be the primary
means of its communication. Its operating principles,
principal activities and funding will be worked out by the
end of the year.
More information available from: Prof Carl-Goran
Heden, 11 Solna Kyrkavagen, 17164 Solna, Sweden.
The panel discussion underlined the obvious need for
such a Foundation/Corporation but it also stressed the need
for the Corporation to set-up task forces of experts for
carefully identified commercial technologies.P2269@com.qz.se ("ENG-LEONG FOO ", MIRCEN-STOCKHOLM) (07/06/89)
From: Eng-leong Foo, UNEP/UNESCO/ICRO Microbiological
Resources Center (MIRCEN)
One of the people who asked me to elaborate on my
poster presentation was Enzo Puliatti (@CDP: enzop). (S)he (
?) is the regional officer for UNDP's Latin American Bureau,
Division for the Regional Programme and is interested in
networking among NGOs and academic organizations, non-
commercial data-communications and alternative, low-cost
solution for networking in latin
american countries.
The poster session on June 2nd was an informal one,
i.e. it permitted informal interactions with interested
persons at the display site. So I am unable to send you (
Enzo) the abstract. In brief, the poster display had 3
sections, the tool, applications and our experiences. The
Tool informed people of the basic equipment a user needs as
well as how the networking of computer mainframes can
facilitate electronic messaging and particularly useful for
a group of geographically dispersed people who need to
communicate regularly. The "Applications" part includes -
private messaging, bulletin boards, task forces, computer
seminars, computer workshops, electronic extensions and
distant education.
MIRCEN has 6 years of experience in all these
applications except for the last item; so the 3rd and major
section of the poster elaborated our experiences.
Noteworthly and as it is not done elsewhere by others (yet),
is our experience in organizing electronic extensions of
face-to-face symposia. This allows a participant to
communicate and interact with the face-to-face participants
who are gathered at a symposium site. The online
participants will have access to the program and abstracts.
This application is particularly relevant (to developing
countries) as it permits greater participation by scientists
and junior researchers, for a unit cost; and especially when
travel funds are more difficult to obtain nowadays. MIRCEN
has arranged 8 such electronic extensions in the field of
bioconversion, biogas and AIDS.
From Latin America, Chile participated via BITNET
during the 1st AIDS Computer Conference last year while
Brazil, Guyana and Argentina participated in one of the 6
Biogas Computer Conferences organized between 1984 and 1987.
Amongst many others, IDRC, NAS (National Academy of Science,
U.S.) participated in 1983 International Computer Conference
on the Bioconversion of Lignocellulosics to Food, Fodder and
Fuel.
Biological nitrogen fixation is now an area of
interest for electronic networking too. A joint proposal for
Rhizobium came out from the MIRCEN Directors Meeting last
year in Hong Kong and I am now trying to get funding to
establish BNFnet for this 5-year project. (Any suggestions ?
)
10 of the 22 MIRCENs in Brazil, Argentina, U.S.,
Japan, Eqypt, Kenya, Senegal, deal with bnf. In Latin
America, there are 3 MIRCEN centers (Guatemala, Tucuman,
Porto Alegro) and a MIRCEN in the Caribbean. The Brazilian
MIRCEN e.g. is a Rhizobium center and plays an important and
a key role in BNF networking for Brazil and Latin America.
BNFnet intends to have a bboard for info exchange and
interactions with all Rhizobium MIRCENs as well as any
interest institutes, NGOs or commercial establishments that
deal with bnf. "Bioconversion" and "Anaerobic Digestion
MIRCEN" have in fact the same intentions and operating
workplan for networking and communication.