Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990 TAG: 9003290485
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: CHARLES HITE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Without new laboratories to conduct such research, Tech and other universities will be hindered in enhancing crop production and farm animals, Tech President James McComas told a congressional committee Wednesday.
"Most observers agree that the first large-scale applications of biotechnology will be in agriculture," McComas told a House Appropriations subcommittee.
"Our traditional plant and animal breeders, using cross-breeding and hybrid selection have, over the last 40 years, made the United States the world leader in agricultural productivity," McComas said.
"Today, the problem is that traditional breeders are not trained in the methods of biotechnology, and the biotechnologists know very little about crop plants and farm animals."
Tech wants to bring together the two disciplines in an "AgrioBioTech Center" that would be attached to research departments at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.
Tech already has invested "several million dollars" on remodeling older laboratories to make them useful for biotechnology, McComas said. More than 60 faculty members and 150 graduate students work in biotechnology. Tech has hired a director for the center who will bring together teams of faculty from across college and department boundaries, he added.
During the past two years, Tech has received nearly $300,000 in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to plan and design the proposed facility.
The state legislature turned down a request this year for $4.5 million to fund half of the proposed center. Tech officials say they will ask for the funds again at next year's General Assembly.
Biotechnology allows scientists to remove a piece of genetic information from one organism and insert it into the genetic machinery of another. In this way organisms can be "engineered" with desirable traits that they never have had before, McComas said.
The technology has resulted in the creation of bacteria that produce human insulin, human growth hormone and vaccines. It has allowed creation of bacteria that can degrade crude oil, pesticides and other environmental contaminants.
In addition, biotechnology has created farm animals with accelerated growth rates and animals that can produce rare and expensive proteins in their milk. There now are genetically manipulated plants resistant to herbicides and others that produce an insecticide in their leaves.
"These laboratory examples serve to illustrate the widespread applicability of the technology," McComas said. "The task now is to engineer crop plants and farm animals with desirable traits and move them into agricultural application."
by CNB