
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 30, 1993                   TAG: 9403100016
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BIO-PIG

FORGET ALL the jokes about Hokies and hayseeds that rely for their punchlines on the stereotype of farmers in general, and Virginia Tech students in particular, as unsophisticated rubes. In fact, some of the most exciting advances in science today are being made in the field of biotechnology, and some of these are being made, literally, in the field - the one out back of the dairy barn.

That farmer you see kicking manure off his boots just might be, or might one day be, in effect a pharmer, whose crops and livestock will be grown for pharmaceuticals. Or he might be producing something else that helps people, besides food.

It's already happening at Virginia Tech, where researchers induced Genie the Billion-Dollar Sow to produce milk containing Protein C, a human therapeutic protein that prevents blood from clotting.

Genie can do this because Tech scientists inserted human DNA into the nucleus when Genie was a single-cell embryo.

Tech researchers estimate that when all the potential uses of Protein C are explored, there will be a need for a billion dollars worth of it a year.

And then there is the project to get human proteins from tobacco.

And the research that is going on at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where a biotech center is being built that will focus on human medicine.

And the advances this new technology is making possible in fields other than medicine.

There is still the matter of farming to feed people, for example, and one researcher at Tech is working on altering turkey genes to yield more eggs. Another is using genetically altered micro-organisms to clean up environmental damage.

The possibilities for biotechnology are as wide-ranging as people's imaginations, and the potential for new industries just as apparent. The work taking place at Tech and VCU puts Virginia in a position to be a national leader in the field. Research, please understand, can pay dividends.

Individual projects tend to be risky, though, and researchers are having difficulty finding the venture capital needed to transform their academic advances into job-producing businesses in this state. Much of the research is purchased by big companies that use it to develop, manufacture and market products - in other states.

Biotechnology, in short, is an underappreciated egg in the state's basket of economic development assets. Attention needs to be given, both in the private and public sectors, to the potential it holds.

Virginia Tech, in its role as a land-grant college, and Western Virginia, with its strong agricultural base, are in an ideal position to help grow this new industry - and to grow with it.

by CNB