World Academy of Art & Science

The Biofocus Foundation (BF) was established by WAAS in 1990 as a response to the ever growing importance of biology, in its widest sense, in the continuing development of our civilization. Under the leadership of Carl-Goran Heden as Director General, BF has sought to establish a multi- and inter-disciplinary systems approach to the solution of complex biological problems using the collective expertise of the Fellows of WAAS. Financial support for BF has come very largely from Swedish philanthropic foundations and from Ekvitec, a consulting company, with primary interests in equilibrium (sustainable) technology. The visible activities of BF have been a series of seminars in Stockholm in conjunction with the Swedish Academies of Science and of Engineering Science, coupled with Biopolicy Prize Lectures. The final BF Seminar, a discussion meeting on the benefits of robotics and automation in modern medical, surgical and health-care systems, was held in March, 2007, at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. In spite of the clear success of this seminar and the series as a whole, further funding initiatives have failed. As a result, the continuing activities of BF have been restricted to desk studies, very largely into the application of advances in biotechnology as far as the future pattern of development of our civilization is concerned.

Biotechnology, in various forms and under various guises, has existed for centuries, but biotechnology in the context of applied biology at the molecular level, with grandiose expectations, similar to those of alchemy in medieval times, has only existed for a little more than 30 years. Even so, very high levels of success have been achieved, particularly in biopharmaceuticals manufacture and as far as genetically modified (GM) agricultural products are concerned. In its broadest sense, biotechnology embraces an array of activities involving the application and exploitation of biological mechanisms and systems but, in common with most other technologies, the development of biotechnology has been beset by the unrealistic expectations of investors, entrepreneurs, shareholders, regulators, consumers and politicians. However, the time has now been reached where appreciation of what can actually be expected from biotechnology and in what time scale, has finally arrived. In addition, it has also been established that biotechnology is not restricted to the design, discovery and production of new or improved agricultural, pharmaceutical and health-care products. It embraces a systems approach to understanding advanced engineered bioprocesses for effective environmental protection and remediation, methodology for accurately predicting the effects of anthropogenic, particularly toxic and disruptive, inputs into biogeochemical (elemental) cycle processes in natural ecosystems of various scales, and, in the future, to provide understanding of the overall functioning of complex macro-organisms, particularly humans and economically important domestic animals. In the former context, biotechnology involves, not only applied biology at the molecular level, but the physiology of the cells and organisms involved and the almost limitless number of chemical reactions that are mediated by the micro- and macro-biota in the numerous diverse environmental systems which we can all effect and can, in turn, be affected by. In the latter context, biomedical research is undergoing revolutionary changes that are likely to have lasting impacts on society. Such changes include contributions from physics, mathematics, process and systems engineering and computer science that will enable measurement of the properties and interplay of the molecules that constitute life. In principle, the capability to unravel complete sets of chemical reactions, interactions and dynamic structures through which molecules, cells and organs carry out the vital functions of living organisms, including humans, and to establish predictive mathematical models for such systems, are starting to exist, as molecular biotechnology is transformed into systems biology.

The programme areas currently under desk study by BF include:

1) Interior environment and climate shell atmosphere control;

2) Trace gas and vapour emissions from irrigated agriculture and managed wetlands;

3) Sewage sludge hygeinization and emerging pathogens;

4) Systems biology for bacterial process cultures.

In late 2007, WAAS appointed Ismail Serageldin as the new Chairman of BF.

Geoffrey Hamer
Hon. Secretary, Biofocus Foundation