Biotechnology gold-rush threatens the last wilderness

By STEVE CONNOR

A biotechnology "gold-rush" is threatening an unregulated harvest of "extremophiles" - bacteria, fungi and algae - that thrive in Antarctica, says the United Nations.

It is warning of the dangers posed by biotechnology companies scrambling to turn microscopic lifeforms into the raw material for a billion-dollar industry making everything from detergents to cancer treatments.

A UN study warns that if unchecked, the bio-prospectors' activities could turn into an unregulated free-for-all, undermining the potential human benefits of Antarctica's unique flora and fauna.

Researchers from the Institute of Advanced Studies in Tokyo found that there were vigorous attempts to control intellectual property rights on inventions resulting from Antarctic exploration.

They found 62 patents in the European Patent Office that relied to some extent on Antarctic wildlife, and a further 300 references and 92 applications in the US Patent Office referring to the Antarctic.

Recent examples include a Spanish patent for a protein extracted from an Antarctic bacteria that is allegedly able to treat damaged hair, skin and nails as well as having a vital wound-healing property.

Another skin treatment derived from a green alga has been patented in Germany, and the Russian Patent Office has registered a product with anti-cancer properties that was extracted from the Antarctic black yeast.

It is not just Antarctic microbes that have generated new products. Scientists have isolated anti-freeze proteins from the great Antarctic cod that prevent the fish's blood from freezing.

The protein could be used commercially for anything from icecream making to organ transplants.

But the unfettered search for life at the ends of the Earth threatens to undermine the international rules on intellectual property rights, and could pose a fundamental threat to the fragile environment of the Antarctic, says Hamid Zakri, an academic with the United Nations University.

"Biological prospecting for extremophiles is already occurring and is certain to accelerate in Antarctica and the southern oceans," said Dr Zakri, who is the director of the institute that carried out the study.

Sam Johnston, one of the authors of the UN report, said part of the problem was that nobody owned the genetic resources of the Antarctic, which meant that the more ethical companies felt they could not assert their intellectual property rights with Government agencies.

"The concern we have is that there's an issue of equity - the benefits of these resources are not being distributed fairly.

"Unlike the open sea, which is seen as international territory, the Antarctic is neither international territory nor is it clearly within national jurisdiction.

"What needs to be done is that the Governments who are active in Antarctica need to develop a protocol that assesses the genetic resources and the costs of exploiting them."

Although the Antarctic Treaty System was designed to protect and preserve the environment, it did not directly regulate bio-prospecting activities, said Dr Johnston.

The UN report says that until now bio-prospecting has usually been done by consortia of private and public bodies, such as universities and Government research institutes.

This has made it difficult to draw a clear line between scientific research and commercial activities, although it is clear that a lot of the recent activity has led to commercial applications, the report says.

Big money is a motive for much of the search for new microbes with unusual properties. The UN estimates that the combined market for products derived from genetic resources is worth up to $200 billion in the cosmetics and drug industries.

"Sixty-two per cent of cancer drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration are of natural origin or modelled on natural products," the report says.

"A consequence of this trend is that naturally occurring genetic resources and biochemical processes will most likely receive greater attention from the private sector."

A natural target for biotechnology companies are extremophiles living at the edges of the habitable environment because they have adapted through millions of years of evolution to life at freezing temperatures, intense aridity, acidity or high salt concentrations.

The report says "the application of extremophiles in industrial processes ranges from their use in liposomes [fatty particles] for drug delivery and cosmetics, waste treatment, molecular biology to the food industry".

- INDEPENDENT