Holger Breithaupt

Bio: Holger Breithaupt is an academic researcher from Washington University in St. Louis. The author has contributed to research in topics: Population & European union. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 44 publications receiving 402 citations.

Back to the roots

Abstract: New knowledge and technologies are already improving plant breeding. But will it be enough to provide sufficient food for the world's growing population?

Beyond the horizon

Abstract: During the past 150 years, biology has seen many revolutionary advances and the development of technologies that have sparked new questions and resulted in fresh insights. Advances in optics and lens‐making brought great improvements to light microscopy in the nineteenth century, which, in turn, enabled biologists to observe life at the cellular level. The resulting discovery of bacteria as disease‐causing agents spawned the field of microbiology and revolutionized medicine. The electron microscope, developed by physicists, is now mainly used by biologists to study the structures and processes that occur inside the cell, which has put cell biology at the forefront of research. At the macro‐level, the sequencing of whole genomes and the use of powerful computers and sophisticated algorithms now enable biologists to study life on a larger scale and have generated whole new fields of research, such as genomics and proteomics. But, in many ways, biology has stretched technology to its limits. Many scientists have access to equipment and databases that allows them to test ideas and produce a lot of information fairly quickly. This has produced a flood of …

They don't care.

Abstract: The birth of Adam Nash last year marked another triumph for biotechnology. He was conceived in vitro and selected from among numerous other embryos because his genetic make up makes him a perfect donor of bone marrow stem cells for his older sister Molly. Stem cells were taken from Adam's umbilical cord and injected into Molly, who suffered from a rare form of anaemia. Apart from a few ethical objections in the European media, the response—from scientists, the media and the public—to this latest achievement in molecular biology has been positive. ‘I've interviewed between 80 and 100 mothers [about the Nash case] and I've never had a negative response,’ said Arsene Burny from the University of Gembloux in Belgium at the Genetics and the Future of Europe conference held last November in Brussels. At the same time, 350 000 children die and another 2 million go blind each year because of vitamin A deficiency, 150 million children are underweight and 30 million children are born with impaired growth or even more serious deformities due to malnutrition. There is a biotechnological …

The engineer's approach to biology.

Abstract: In 1998, computer scientist Ehud Shapiro returned to the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, as a group leader after a five‐year break as a software entrepreneur. At the peak of the Internet boom, it would have been easy to find an exciting topic to pursue in computer science. Instead, Shapiro became interested in the origin of life and began to train himself in molecular biology, which eventually sparked his idea to build computers from biological molecules. His team first constructed a molecular Turing machine based on DNA, restriction nuclease and ligase to perform simple computations (Benenson et al , 2001), soon followed by a more sophisticated system that performs stochastic computations using mRNA molecules as input (Benenson et al , 2004). What seems merely to be the intellectual interest of an Israeli computer scientist—using biological compounds and systems to create logical circuits—has in fact become the hottest area in the biological sciences: synthetic biology. Other engineers are also dropping their soldering guns for micropipettes to rewire genes and genomes with the aim of reprogramming living organisms. “Synthetic biology is the other side of the coin of systems biology,” commented Victor de Lorenzo, Vice Director of the National Centre of Biotechnology in Madrid, Spain. “What you want is to create or recreate systems that have some properties of life from engineering principles.” This includes a range of techniques from recombinant cloning, to synthesizing genomes de novo , to creating completely new entities such as Shapiro's artificial systems. However, more interesting than the technology itself is the ability to create artificial metabolic and regulatory pathways and to test their viability in living systems. It allows scientists to probe the complexity of an organism's innards and thus derive further insights into how cells work. As George Church, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School …

The hunt for living gold. The search for organisms in extreme environments yields useful enzymes for industry.

Abstract: The chemical industry does not enjoy a reputation for being an environmentally friendly undertaking. Incidents such as the release of toxic dioxines in Seveso, Italy, the dumping of hazardous wastes in the Love Canal near Niagara Falls, USA, or the poisoning of thousands of Indians due to a gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, are a few examples of the health and environmental dangers that come with this industry. Since then, increasingly stricter regulations have been applied to prevent such disasters, and, indeed, the environmental track record of the chemical industry has improved vastly. But these ordinances also put pressure on the industry to improve existing—or even to develop new—processes that are more environmentally friendly. This challenge often leads scientists to nature, as many chemicals used and produced by the pharmaceutical or chemical industries have natural origins or are modified natural compounds. And nature has also already provided the catalysts necessary to produce them: enzymes. Clearly, due to their efficiency, specificity and reaction range, enzymes are far superior to most man‐made catalysts for the synthesis of complex compounds and can be used to replace more energy‐dependent and waste‐producing reactions. ‘Within the next decade we will see large developments in chemistry’, Victor de Lorenzo, Vice Director of the National Centre for Biotechnology in Madrid, Spain, said about their potential, ‘There will be a new wave of biological products and applications of molecular biology in the area of the chemical industry’. Hot springs, such as the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA, are ideal places to look for extremophile organisms ![][1] > As extremophile organisms hold a huge economic potential for a wide variety of applications, the search is on for novel bacteria and, more importantly, their enzymes More than 3000 different enzymes from a … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif

Telomeres and human disease: ageing, cancer and beyond

Abstract: Telomere length and telomerase activity are important factors in the pathobiology of human disease. Age-related diseases and premature ageing syndromes are characterized by short telomeres, which can compromise cell viability, whereas tumour cells can prevent telomere loss by aberrantly upregulating telomerase. Altered functioning of both telomerase and telomere-interacting proteins is present in some human premature ageing syndromes and in cancer, and recent findings indicate that alterations that affect telomeres at the level of chromatin structure might also have a role in human disease. These findings have inspired a number of potential therapeutic strategies that are based on telomerase and telomeres.

In Defense of the Internet: The Relationship between Internet Communication and Depression, Loneliness, Self-Esteem, and Perceived Social Support

Abstract: As more people connect to the Internet, researchers are beginning to examine the effects of Internet use on users' psychological health. Due in part to a study released by Kraut and colleagues in 1998, which concluded that Internet use is positively correlated with depression, loneliness, and stress, public opinion about the Internet has been decidedly negative. In contrast, the present study was designed to test the hypothesis that Internet usage can affect users beneficially. Participants engaged in five chat sessions with an anonymous partner. At three different intervals they were administered scales measuring depression, loneliness, self-esteem, and social support. Changes in their scores were tracked over time. Internet use was found to decrease loneliness and depression significantly, while perceived social support and self-esteem increased significantly.

Alien Marine Species in the Mediterranean - the 100 'Worst Invasives' and their Impact

Abstract: A number of marine alien species have been described as invasive or locally invasive in the Mediterranean because of their proliferation, and/or their geographical spread and/or impact on native populations. Based on that information and on the documented impact they have on the biodiversity and socioeconomics of the basin, a preliminary list of the 100 ‘worst’ Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in the Mediterranean has been produced and presented in this work along with details on their impact. Emphasis is given to their impact on socioeconomics (fi sheries/aquaculture, health & sanitation, infrastructure & building), documented for 43 species. Such selection of the ‘worst’ IAS was diffi cult and controversial and is expected to attract much attention and scientifi c criticism since not only can the documentation of the impact of IAS be controversial, but also their inventory can be biased towards the effort and resources devoted to the study of the impact of certain species/taxonomic groups. Thus, while marine plants (phytobenthos and phytoplankton) are fairly well studied, less attention has been paid to the impact of vertebrates and even less to invertebrates. Nevertheless, the list highlights the need for continued research on the issue (monitoring aliens and their impact for an integrated ecosystem based management approach over the entire area). The preliminary list can provide the basis for selecting indicator species within the Mediterranean and thus be the common ground to build cooperation about IAS within countries in the region.

The zebrafish embryo model in environmental risk assessment—applications beyond acute toxicity testing

Abstract: The use of fish embryos is not regulated by current legislations on animal welfare and is therefore considered as a refinement, if not replacement of animal experiments. Fish embryos represent an attractive model for environmental risk assessment of chemicals since they offer the possibility to perform small-scale, high-throughput analyses. Beyond their application for determining the acute toxicity, fish embryos are also excellent models for studies aimed at the understanding of toxic mechanisms and the indication of possible adverse and long-term effects. Therefore, we have reviewed the scientific literature in order to indicate alternative applications of the fish embryo model with focus on embryos of the zebrafish. The analysis of the mode of action is important for the risk assessment of environmental chemicals and can assist in indicating adverse and long-term effects. Toxicogenomics present a promising approach to unravel the potential mechanisms. Therefore, we present examples of the use of zebrafish embryos to study the effect of chemicals on gene and protein patterns, and the potential implications of differential expression for toxicity. The possible application of other methods, such as kinase arrays or metabolomic profiling, is also highlighted. Furthermore, we show examples of toxicokinetic studies (bioconcentration, ABC transporters) and discuss limitations that might be caused by the potential barrier function of the chorion. Finally, we demonstrate that biomarkers of endocrine disruption, immune modulation, genotoxicity or chronic toxicity could be used as indicators or predictors of sub-acute and long-term effects. The zebrafish embryo represents a model with an impressive range of possible applications in environmental sciences. Particularly, the adaptation of molecular, system-wide approaches from biomedical research is likely to extend its use in ecotoxicology. Challenges for future research are (1) the identification of further suitable molecular markers as indicators of the mode of action, (2) the establishment of strong links between (molecular) effects in short-term assays in embryos and long-term (toxic) effects on individuals, (3) the definition of limitations of the model and (4) the development of tests that can be used for regulatory purposes.