25 Years
On behalf of the BIOTECanada Board of Directors we are proud to celebrate 25 years as an industry association.
Our theme ‘Remember when.
Imagine how’ will conjure nostalgia, recognizing how far the industry has come in a short period of
time. By engaging the “imagenenation” while setting inspirational targets for our community to rally behind.
As part of the 25th anniversary we
will promote the value of the association with our industry colleagues, and members.
In 2012 we will continue to promote innovation as our lifeblood unleashing an array of invented, developed and commercialized Canadian products for the world to covet. BIOTECanada remains focused on ensuring Canada’s opportunity to emerge as a defined global leader.
Let’s celebrate together.
Remember When
2009
Researchers at SickKids identify protein critical for memory and learning
Canadian scientists at Sick Children’s Hospital have connected a crucial brain protein, Neto1, with the ability to learn, raising the possibility that learning disabilities could be corrected with a drug. The finding, published in PloS Journal, indicate that Neto1 helps brain cells talk to one another, resulting in learning impairments when it is missing or malfunctions. Remarkably, the scientists have also found a medication, now being tested in Alzheimer’s patients, which may fix the problem.Imagine How
2012
Bioniche
Bioniche has taken the first step towards gaining access to the Australian cattle vaccine market with the granting of an import permit for its E. coli 0157 vaccine, Econiche, by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.
The vaccine will require regulatory review by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, for which Bioniche is preparing a regulatory dossier for submission in coming months. There are around 38 million cattle in Australia and New Zealand and the beef export market in Australia is estimated to be worth A$4.9 billion. Econiche has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of E. coli O157 shed into the environment by beef and dairy cattle. E. coli O157 does not cause illness in cattle, but cattle are the primary reservoir for it.
Vaccination of cattle with Econiche can help reduce the risk of food and waterborne contamination with E. coli O157. Bioniche has been actively exploring opportunities to introduce Econiche into markets outside of North America, where it has a full licence in Canada and a pending conditional licence in the U.S.
Following completion of validation and commissioning of the company’s Animal Health and Food Safety Vaccine Manufacturing Centre in Belleville, Ontario, Bioniche expects the first commercial batch of Econiche to be produced by mid-2012.
Okanagan Specialty Fruit: The Apple of Everyone's Eye
Okanagan Specialty Fruits, Summerland, BC
It’s
the darling of the fruit world. But the fruit touted for its ability
to keep away doctors is also the fruit that bears the shame of too-often
ending up half eaten and ignominiously tossed into the nearest
wastebasket. For all its deliciousness, the ubiquitous apple has a
problem – it turns brown within minutes of its delicate inner flesh
being exposed to air or handled too roughly.The technical name is enzymatic browning, and it can’t help itself. But Okanagan Specialty Fruits is a company saving the apple, along with other popular tree fruits using novel biotechnology to ensure the fruit remains wholesome, healthy, chemical free and non-browning.
The Summerland, B.C. company has developed a clever and non-chemical way to silence the enzyme that causes browning (polyphenol oxidase or PPO), which is the first sign of fruit spoilage. When this gene is rendered ineffective, the apple - as with most tree fruit - simply skips the discolouration stage. Apples that don’t scuff or turn brown when exposed to the air are a slice of heaven for consumers and fruit producers.
While consumers have seen non-browning apple slices for some time in fresh-cut prepared fruit trays and sliced bagged fruit, it was always though the use of expensive anti-oxidant dips or through breeding low browning varieties, which still turned brown within two to three hours. Okanagan Specialty Fruits’ approach using biotechnology yields a chemical-free improvement that amplifies or silences the gene activity that can deliver the trait changes desired such as non-browning.
Farmers and agricultural scientists are tinkerers by nature. The manipulation of plants by humans has been around for at least 9,000 years. Without cross breeding to create domesticated plants, it is doubtful that humans would have survived. Today, all of our principal food crops come from domesticated varieties, including the apples we eat; these are the result of crossbred existing tree fruit varieties to produce new varieties with certain desired traits.
But what used to take agricultural scientists decades to do because of the limits of conventional breeding is now speeded up and intensified by the development of precision breeding or gene therapy. Okanagan Specialty Fruits say their silencing of the browning gene is the equivalent of removing one railway crossing from a railroad track stretching all across North America and replacing it with another piece of the same track. The company has also spent close to a decade testing these apples and, prior to commercialization, they will have passed rigorous regulatory and safety standards. In the end, the apples remain apples in terms of natural decay time, but they just don’t exhibit the browning stage.
“The exciting thing about a non-browning apple is that this quality trait is well recognized by growers, fruit packers, the food service industry and consumers; everyone along the value-chain benefits from a non-browning apple,” says Neal Carter, president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits.
Of course, you won’t be able to buy an Okanagan Specialty Fruit apple as a never-before-heard-of variety, instead some of North America’s favorite apples will soon appear under the company’s brand name “Arctic” including Arctic Granny, Arctic Golden, Arctic Gala and Arctic Fuji. The same apples you know and love only now it won’t brown in five minutes, or five hours. How do you like them apples?
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