THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 16, 1995 TAG: 9510130028
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Promising research by a Virginia Tech professor may lead to new uses for the tobacco crop that is an important part of the Virginia and North Carolina economies.
Tobacco plants are well-adapted to genetic manipulation. This has prompted a vision of tobacco plants serving as natural factories for the manufacture of proteins useful as drugs and food additives.
In the latest research, tobacco plants have been used to produce the enzyme glucocerebrosidase which is used in the treatment of a genetic disorder, Gaucher disease. Existing methods of production are laborious and result in an annual cost per patient of $150,000 or more.
If the tobacco-derived version of the enzyme proves its efficacy in human trials, the cost could come down dramatically. Clinical trials will take at least 18 months and the new technology is years from commercial production or profits.
Nevertheless, it's this kind of innovative research that may offer tobacco farmers hope of continuing prosperity. And it is also a reminder that money devoted to higher education in Virginia is well-spent. Far from representing an expense, the state's schools are an investment in Virginia's future and its human capital that can be expected to pay dividends.
The Tech research comes out of the kind of public-private partnership that's becoming increasingly common. Professor Carole Cramer is a plant physiologist at Virginia Tech but wears a second hat as vice president of the bio-engineering firm of CropTech, also in Blacksburg.
CropTech is developing the tobacco-generated enzyme and will profit from it if it comes to market, but the company has farmed out some of the research to the university, which not only gets revenue out of it but gets to give its students hands-on experience with a commercial research project. A private, for-profit business, a public institution and the state of Virginia all stand to gain from the cross-fertilization.
More such arrangements should be encouraged by generous funding of research and of the institutions that support it. State support for education can prepare the soil and provide the climate in which industries grow and flourish. Conversely, growing businesses choose to locate in states that provide the best environment for their endeavors. In recent years, Virginia has done too little to make its state schools competitive. It's got to do better with help from the private sector. by CNB