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Montana BioScience Alliance Newsletter |  |
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Welcome to the second edition of the Montana BioScience Alliance Newsletter! This month we're taking a look at agricultural applications of biotechnology, inspired by a fact of the week from the Progressive Policy Institute: Across the globe, 222 million acres of land are planted with biotech crops, with the US accounting for over half of biotech crop acreage - about 125 million acres. We are also very pleased to announce that the Montana Bioscience Alliance has partnered with BIO to offer services in BIO's Business Solutions program. For a complete listing of benefits, go to And last but not least, please welcome the Montana BioScience Alliance’s first intern, Keegan Rogers. Keegan is from Butte and is a student in Biology at Montana State University-Billings. He works in the afternoons and can be reached at karogers@msubillings.edu.
Executive Director Sharon Peterson had a busy Fall representing the Montana BioScience Alliance. In November, Sharon traveled to BioWest in Denver and the Council of State BioScience Associations (sponsored by BIO) in Phoenix to tell audiences about the high level of the biotechnology activity in Montana. The Montana BioScience Alliance held two meetings. Our November meeting was in Butte and we were graciously hosted by Larry Farrar of Resodyn, Inc. Founded in 1995, Resodyn is a technology development and manufacturing firm with headquarters in Uptown Butte. Their main biotech application is bioreactors and they are in the process of developing an advanced mixing system for growing cells that are used in the production of pharmaceuticals. Following the presentation, the group toured the Resodyn facility. In February, the BioScience Alliance met at the Kalispell Regional Medical Center where we learned of the clinical trials and work the Center currently has underway. In addition, Dr. Brad Roy, the Director, Community Center for Health Promotion and Fitness, presented his study on exercise and heart health. A special thanks to Jim Oliverson, for making the arrangements for KRMC to host this event and to Liz Marchi for arranging the speakers. The meeting also featured Trent Williams, a Principal of Regional Technology Strategies, discussing the preliminary results of a survey of Alliance members. Networking and identifying/ facilitating collaboration and partnering opportunities were the issues identified, followed by information, education and training and access to capital. In the coming weeks we will be continuing our survey, so you may be getting an email or phone call from us. The day before the meeting, Sharon, Trent, and David Garloff were met by Great Falls members Bruce Davidson (Civic Design) and David Crum (McLaughlin Institute) for a meeting and tour of the new Sletten Cancer Institute in Great Falls. Kathie Avis, Executive Director of the Institute, was a gracious hostess and dazzled us all with the wonderful work they are doing at this state of the art facility. The Alliance’s next meeting will be in April, with time and place to be announced.
Central and eastern Montana will get a boost from a $15m US Department of Labor WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development) grant, which will support the area's growing biolubricant and bioproduct clusters. The WIRED initiative is a three-year program focusing on labor market areas affected by global trade or natural disasters, or that are reliant on a single industry. Funding will be used to support innovative approaches to education and workforce development beyond traditional strategies to prepare workers to compete and succeed locally and globally. The Montana Board of Research and Commercialization Technology encourages economic development through investment in research and commercialization projects. The board has about $2.6 million available to grant or loan in fiscal year 2007 (7/1/06 – 6/30/07) for such projects. The emphasis of the program is on projects that lead to marketable products or processes. Projects must be matched with non-Montana state government funds at an amount equal to at least 25% of the total project cost. Eligible applicants are Montana-based research and commercialization centers. Research and commercialization centers are statutorily defined as the campuses of the University of Montana or Montana State University, tribal colleges, colleges of technology, community colleges, agricultural research centers or private laboratories or research centers. The submission deadline is March 1, 2006, 5:00 p.m. at the Helena office. Funding decisions are anticipated for July 2006. The next application deadline is expected to be on or around March 1, 2007 The request for proposals can be found on the Montana Board of Research and Commercialization website.
The University of Montana's Division of Biological Sciences Bee Alert! team has been extensively studying the ability of honeybees to detect chemicals. Through "active monitoring," the team has been able to determine what bees can find by odor. Their tests have shown that bees are able to detect DNT at levels below 20 ppb, as well as trace heavy metals, volatile organic materials and radioactive substances. To assist their tests, they have built a vapor-sampling tube and an electronic "smart" hive. Their research has also spawned Bee Alert Technology, Inc., which has already received federal SBIR grant funding. Since securing this SBIR grant for pilot work, Bee Alert Technology, Inc. has now secured another SBIR grant which the defense department hopes will enable the company to make its proprietary (and patented) technology a commercially viable product. This work has itself spawned new and innovative research, which has led to Bee Alert Technology now holding a patent pending on a process that allows them to know what a bee has found outside the hive. Bee Alert Technology continues to partner with Montanan companies and Montanan research institutions to develop the art and science of using bees to find things. In addition, the company has developed a strong relationship with the School of Business Administration at The University of Montana, and this relationship has brought a solid business perspective to complement the exciting science that the five UM researchers, Colin Henderson, Robert Seccomb, Jerry Bromenshenk, Steve Rice and Ted Etter deliver on a daily basis. With the School of Business Administration, undergraduate business students are working on feasibility studies addressing how to actually market the ability of bees to find landmines, as well as how to use bees to selectively pollinate crops.
The Billings Clinic Research Center has received a grant from the Montana Board for Research and Commercialization Technology to explore the health applications of biopolymers that are present in sugar beet pulp. Currently, sugar beet pulp has very low commercial value and its traditional use as cattle feed is declining because of the increased energy costs to dry out the pulp. Two biopolymers present in sugar beet pulp in significant amounts include sugar beet fiber and sugar beet pectin. While the fiber has a fairly typical beta-glucan structure in some ways, because it is derived from a root, it has structural differences that give it a fairly high percentage of soluble fiber, a high affinity to absorb water, and other potentially useful properties. There have been a number of observations that sugar beet fiber in the diet will lower plasma cholesterol, but the studies that have been done in Europe have been small and ones in the United States were confounded by being done with a combination of sugar beet fiber with oat bran, which is well known to lower cholesterol by itself. To establish a commercial rationale for producing high quality sugar beet fiber, the Center is conducting a study in 60 subjects to determine both the degree of cholesterol lowering as well as the mechanism of this effect in human volunteers. They also will be doing several pilot studies to determine whether adding sugar beet fiber to traditional cholesterol lowering medications would provide an additional decrease. By doing this, one can use lower doses of the medications and avoid the side effects seen at high doses. Sugar beet pectin is very rich in an antioxidant compound called ferulic acid. This compound is used as a sunscreen in Europe because it absorbs ultraviolet light and is also known to absorb mediators released by inflammatory cells. Because of its structure, sugar beet pectin is very slowly degraded by the bacteria in the colon. This suggests that, rather than being very quickly fermented as soon as it reaches the colon, antioxidant components could be spread throughout the colon as the pectin is slowly degraded in patients with inflammatory diseases. Thus, studies are in the works to determine whether sugar beet pectin might be useful in ulcerative colitis and also whether it might prevent damage to the colon from radiation for prostate cancer. Although health applications of two sugar beet polymers are currently under investigation, the Billings Clinic Research Center is also studying several other “nutraceutical” applications for Montana agricultural products that are currently under-utilized, and they hope that this general approach will lead to commercial developments in these areas in the future.
In each issue of the newsletter, we'd like to include articles written by one of our members about issues impacting their company in particular and the bioscience industry in general. This issue, Michael King of Dupont writes about the role that agricultural biotechnology has to play in Montana’s economic future.
Agriculture is still the number one industry in Montana, with $2.6 billion of economic activity and sixty-three percent of Montana land in farms and ranches. We need to make full use of these land resources and even more importantly, full use of our people resources. I know of no other technology than agricultural biotechnology that has the potential to rejuvenate our rural areas and provide a diversified and prosperous rural economy. Ag biotechnology fits our state well: our geography, our isolation and land area are all assets! We can keep our biotech crops and traits separate from conventional crops and wild relatives better than almost any other area in the United States. If an ag biotech company needs an irrigated field of corn or barley five miles away from all other corn or barley, we can find it in Montana. We could probably even grow a wheat crop five miles away from any other wheat. Our cold winters and semi-arid climate give us low plant disease pressure and our climate also keeps insect problems to a minimum.
How do we bring a bio-based economy to reality in Montana? We need to continually educate our non-ag citizens on the importance of agriculture to our state. We will need state wide teamwork and sacrifice. We will need to use our resources wisely, concentrate them on projects that will succeed. Make one project succeed in one community with this teamwork, then move on to the next good opportunity in another community. We will need financial resources from all sources, private and public. We especially need a well- funded, strong, leading-edge University system. And most of all we need visionary, committed leadership.
MSU is planning a new cluster of very unique labs. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Murdock Charitable Trust, the university will build the "Subzero Research Facility," a one-of-a-kind group of eight cold- research laboratories. Scientists across the globe have rallied in support of the project. Researchers will be able to precisely control humidity, light and temperature, and the coldest room of the group will drop to minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The labs will also have storage space, a refrigerated class 100 clean room, a cold observation lab, a structural lab and a wet lab. MSU's College of Engineering will host the Facility, which should be functional within one year.
Several Montana companies are participating in a survey launched by San Diego's biotech industry association that will study how effectively biotechnology companies and the FDA work with each other. The survey, distributed by the Council of State Biotechnology Associations, hopes to find ways to make the development and approval process for new products more efficient without compromising patient safety. If you are interested in participating, please contact Katie Hansen at khansen@biocom.org or 858-455-0300. Preliminary results of the survey will be released at BIO 2006, with complete results available at CalBio in May.
Founding MBA member Bruce Davidson and his partners at CIVIC design, LLC, in Great Falls are the architects of the LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals, Inc. building in Bozeman, featured in the last newsletter. CIVIC also designed a small science center for the University of Montana’s Helena College of Technology and a new Environmental Chemistry Facility for the Montana Department of Health and Human Services. Luther Talbert, a wheat breeder at Montana State University in Bozeman, is co-principal investigator of a $5 million federal project to identify important wheat genes. The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is expected to advance development of drought-resistant wheat, improve wheat yields and produce environmental benefits. MSU will receive $403,000 of the $5 million grant. In December, the Sletten Cancer Institute and McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls and the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah announced their affiliation. The affiliation relationship will include cancer research, clinical oncology services and programs; cancer genetic counseling and research; cancer learning, a resource center, as well as screening, educational programs and Tele- Oncology. Sustainable Systems has purchased the oilseed crush and refining plant formerly owned and operated by Montola Growers Inc. They have also established a new division, Montola, which will focus on the expansion of the regional production of oilseed crops for processing into higher value biofuels, lubricants and culinary oils. Rocky Mountain Laboratories recently opened its new visitor center in the Hamilton lab. The center features a short video about RML's history and other interactive displays. Displays will change periodically to feature different areas of RML's work. New startup Rocky Mountain Biologicals Inc. has had a number of recent successes, including the opening of its new Missoula manufacturing facility and the raising of about $3m in capital through loans and a private stock sale. The company will develop, manufacture and market specialized blood products. MSU and Hamilton College (NY) professors have unveiled a hydrogen production reactor, which would use organic acids or ethanol and water along with either the naturally occurring protein or a synthetic equivalent to create hydrogen. Companies interested in licensing the technology should respond by March 3 to the MSU Technology Transfer Office at (406) 994-7868 or by sending an e-mail to nzelver@montana.edu. Northwest Research and Education Institute, a joint venture of St. Vincent Healthcare and Rocky Mountain Health Network, has been authorized by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to host continuing medical education classes. Billings Clinic has been selected as one of 22 United States sites exploring the benefits of Viprinex, a new anti-coagulant drug derived from the venom of the Malayan pit viper. Dr. Daniel Rodriguez will head up the study at the Clinic. Bacterin International completed its first sale of the Via Wound Drain, the first medical device available with the Bacterin name brand. The Elutia Wound Drain series - the second generation - will be available to market later in 2006. NutraCea will expand their Dillon, Montana plant to increase production capacity to meet growing market demand for its products made from stabilized rice bran derivatives. The expansion is expected to be complete during the second quarter of 2006, and should result in more than a 50% increase in production capability.
March 10 at 7:00 pm March 14-15 March 17-18 March 21-22 March 21-22 April 8-12 June 16 July 18-19 July 20-21
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