Knight Ridder

Various Firms Are Beginning To Utilize Biotechnology

There's another biotech revolution going on.

For most of its 20-year history, biotechnology has focused on the workings of genes and proteins to cure and treat diseases. But the same tools used to slice and dice DNA in the search for new drugs are being adopted by all sorts of industries.

Agricultural companies have turned to biotech to develop heartier crops. Food companies are experimenting with it to increase the nutritional content of rice. Chemical companies are exploring ways to make plastic out of corn.

The possibilities seem endless: cotton that is genetically engineered to grow in an array of colors, plants that could be converted into fuel, an apple that could double as a vaccine, computers modeled after biological processes that could function as self-organizing systems.

It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, and the new applications have already drawn criticism from opponents of genetic engineering. But some of the largest companies are placing their bets, and their futures, on biotechnology .

Old-economy giants like Dow Chemical Co., Monsanto Inc., and DuPont are investing heavily in biotech, striking up partnerships with biotech companies and others, spinning out private biotech enterprises, and designating divisions for research and product development in food and agriculture, manufacturing and chemicals.

High-tech giants like IBM Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., and Motorola Inc. are also investing millions as they compete to design systems that can meet the biotech industry's burgeoning demand for ever more powerful computers.

As a potential customer and source of innovation, industry leaders say, biotech has simply become too important to ignore. The unlocking of life's code promises to reshape vast sectors of the economy, they say, blurring lines between once-distinct businesses and opening up a world of commercial possibilities.

Disparate industries -- from agriculture and chemicals to health care and pharmaceuticals to energy and computing -- will blur, leading some industry watchers to boldly declare that biotech will be this century's most dhead of the life science practice at the Boston office of Ernst & Young LLP. "I think in five or 10 years people will be saying that biotech is the most significant change they've seen in their lifetime."

The blurring of the distinction between biotechnology and other industries was the theme of this year's Ernst & Young report on the biotech industry. As evidence of the "convergence," the report points to nonbiotech's growing interest in biotech.

IBM is spending $100 million to build "Blue Gene," a supercomputer that will operate 500 times faster than today's fastest computer, to capitalize on biotech's burgeoning demand for high-performance computing. Compaq, in addition to developing faster systems, is investing $100 million in early-stage biotech companies.

"I would say that biotech and information technology have always been closely aligned," said Jesse Lipcon, a Compaq vice president. "But in the future, you're not going to be able to separate the two."

As the science of genes and proteins advances at an ever-increasing pace, biotech companies are demanding systems that can crunch, store, and manage volumes upon volumes of data at unprecedented speeds. Lipcon said biotech is the fastest-growing market for information technology companies like Compaq.

As biotech pushes companies like Compaq to build faster systems, other industries also benefit. The auto industry is using the computing power to simulate crashes, Lipcon said, and forecasters are using it to model weather systems.

Eventually, biotechnology could also be the basis for building even faster computer technologies. The Ernst & Young report states that for computers and electronics to continue to get faster and smaller, they will have to be "self-organizing" and "self-assembling" systems, modeled after proteins, enzymes, and small molecules and controlled by some inner logic.

"The goal of biotechnology is to understand living systems," said Janice Bourque, president and chief executive of the Masschusetts Biotechnology Council. "You can take that understanding from the cellular level to organs to the living person to the environment to the ecosystem level. Through that understanding, we can produce products and solve problems for so many industries."

Monsanto , Dow Chemical, and DuPont are investing heavily in biotechnology because the companies believe it holds the answer to the environmental, industrial, and agricultural problems facing their businesses.

As the world's population grows, said Ted McKinney, spokesman for Dow AgroSciences, society will have to find better ways to grow crops and add nutritional value to food.

By engineering plants to withstand insects, fungus, or extreme weather, he said, companies could feed more people at reduced costs and use fewer chemical pesticides. Certain crops such as rice could also be modified to provide protein or other nutrients to malnourished populations.

The same technologies could be used to insert vaccines in food. Trees could be modified so fewer chemicals are needed to make paper products.

By using renewable resources like corn to make plastics or fuel products, companies could help to preserve natural resources and protect the environment. By using enzymes in detergents and other cleaning products, companies can avoid using chemicals that harm the environment.

"There are limited natural resources, so companies are looking for economical ways to make those products in 10 to 15 years, and they are turning to biotech as a way to do that," said Peter Lanciano, founder and chief executive of Altus Biologics Inc., a private Cambridge company that owns a technology with applications for drug discovery as well as for industrial processes, chemicals, and consumer goods.

The sequencing of the human genome has lead to an explosion of products and research in all types of industries that Lanciano believes will continue for a long time. But he cautions that there is still a lot of research to be done before today's ideas become products. And many industries can't afford to spend as much on research as do drug companies.

Pharmaceutical and biotech companies spend billions on research and development because they can recoup the investments with life-changing or life-saving drugs. But companies making paper, plastics, detergents, or foods, for example, can only charge so much for their products.

They must also proceed cautiously, McKinney said, addressing public concerns about genetic engineering if the science is to fulfill its potential of transforming medicine, nutrition, industry, and the environment.

Genetically modified foods have met with sharp criticism, especially in Europe. While opposition in the United States has been quieter, some groups are voicing concerns that altered crops and foods could cause unintended long-term consequences, harming people and the environment.

Such opposition could pose a significant challenge to industries interested in using biotechnology . Companies must address the concerns, educate the public, and help set guidelines that assure safety while allowing science to move ahead, McKinney said.

"The effect biotech can have is profound," Lanciano said. "In many cases, it's a little more subtle than finding the next great drug to treat cancer. But over time, it can have an equally profound impact on our lives."

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