PUBLIC LECTURE: 2003 Selby Lecture

You are invited to the 2003 Selby Lecture by Professor Charles J. Arntzen, Arizona State University in Tempe, and 2003 Selby Fellow, Australian Academy of Science

Using Crop Biotechnology to Reduce the Impact of Infectious Diseases in the Developing World

Charles J. Arntzen was appointed to the Florence Ely Nelson Presidential Endowed Chair at Arizona State University in Tempe in 2000. He served as the Founding Director of the Arizona Biodesign Institute until May, 2003, and currently serves as the Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology of that Institute. In 2001 he was appointed as a member of President George W. Bush’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology in the Office of Science and Technology Policy where he participated on the task force on bioterrorism threat reduction technology and currently co-chairs the nanotechnology task force.

Dr. Arntzen’s primary research interests are in plant molecular biology and protein engineering, as well as the utilization of plant biotechnology for enhancement of food quality and value, for expression of pharmacologically active products in transgenic plants, and for overcoming health and agricultural constraints in the developing world. He has been recognized as a pioneer in the development of plant-based vaccines for human disease prevention (with special emphasis on needs of poor countries) and for disease prevention in animal agriculture. Recently this research has been extended to creation of effective vaccines against biowarfare agents.

As part of his Fellowship, Professor Arntzen is touring Australia with lectures and consultations. The Selby Travelling Fellowship is presented annually by the Australian Academy of Science to distinguished overseas scientists to enable a visit to Australia for a national public lecture/seminar tour.

ABSTRACT: Oral vaccines are a convenient and potentially safer means of implementing universal vaccination programs in the developing world (as well as in economically advanced countries). Vaccines which would not require refrigeration would greatly reduce the cost of such programs. To meet the needs for temperature stable, oral products, we have genetically engineered crops using genes from human pathogens. We have asked the question if these "pharmacrops" would produce subunits of the pathogens that would induce protective oral immune responses. Three human clinical trials have validated the concept of oral immunization when the plant samples are simply eaten as food. I will discuss our current production system that uses genetic containment greenhouses to grow tomatoes, and food process technology to obtain freeze-dried, tomato fruit-derived, temperature-stabile vaccine doses for clinical trials. The importance of working within a strong regulatory framework to ensure that the GM plants are strictly segregated from crops grown for food consumption will be emphasized.

Plant-based vaccines build upon a technology base derived from agriculture and food processing. Because it does not require capital intensive pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, it could be directly transferred to developing countries to establish a sustainable, in-country capacity for vaccine manufacture. One major outcome of this technology transfer would be for self-sufficiency in public health care needs of poor populations, thereby expanding the global capacity for health promotion

THE SPEAKER: Dr. Arntzen held previous faculty positions at the University of Illinois and Michigan State University, and visiting professorships in the Laboratoire de Photosynthèse du CNRS in France, the Department of Applied Mathematics in Canberra, Australia, and the Academia Sinica in Beijing, China. He also served as a research scientist with the USDA and as the director of the Michigan State University-Plant Research Laboratory (funded by the Department of Energy). In 1984 he joined the DuPont Company in Wilmington, Delaware as Director of Plant Science and Microbiology and was later promoted to Director of Biotechnology in the Agricultural Products Department. In 1988 he was appointed Dean and Deputy Chancellor for Agriculture at Texas A&M University, and subsequently served as Director of the University's Plant Biotechnology Program of the Institute of Biosciences and Technology. From 1995-2000, Dr. Arntzen served as President and CEO of Boyce Thompson Institute - a not-for-profit corporation which is affiliated with Cornell University.

Dr. Arntzen was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1983 and to the National Academy of Sciences in India the following year. He is a fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science, received the Award for Superior Service from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for international project leadership in India, and received the degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa from Purdue University in 1997. He has been a member of numerous national and international committees that serve general scientific interests, and in 2003 was awarded the Selby Fellowship by the Australian Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the University of Chicago for the Argonne National Laboratory and served as chairperson of their Science and Technology Advisory Committee. He served as chairman of the National Biotechnology Policy Board of the National Institutes of Health, as chairman of the National Research Council's Committee on Biobased Industrial Products, and on the National Research Council's Committee on Space Biology and Medicine. He served for eight years on the Editorial Board of SCIENCE.

Dr. Arntzen served until 1998 on the Board of Directors of DeKalb Genetics, Inc. and on the Board of Directors of Third Wave Agbio, Inc. and on the Scientific Advisory Board for Sumitomo Chemical Company, Ltd. until 2001. He now serves on the Board of Directors of Advanced BioNutrition, Inc., and is on the Advisory Board of the Burrill and Company’s Agbio Capital Fund and The Nutraceuticals Fund, and on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Advanced BioNutrition, Inc., and Epicyte Pharmaceuticals. He also serves as a Distinguished Advisor on the Council for Biotechnology.

All welcome. Parking in Car Park P3, Hackett Drive, Entrance 1.