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Biopharmaceuticals such as proteins and peptides usually show short half life in human and require frequent dosing for clinical application. To overcome this problem, new platform technologies for half life extension of biological drugs have been developed and applied to actual drugs for developing 2nd generation products. Most popular half life extension technologies are pegylation, hyperglycosylation, microsphere, and fusion proteins, and several products using these technologies are already in the market. In spite of the 2nd generation products which are already in the market, there are further needs for advanced platform technology to overcome the limitations of 2nd generation products, i.e., insufficient duration and efficacy, lack of patient compliance due to large needle size, unfavorable cost of goods, and so on. Hanmi has been developing next generation biological products based on inhouse platform technology named Lapscovery Technology. Lapscovery technology is consisted of carrier conjugation of biologics through non-peptidyl linker and is clearly differentiated from other technologies in the duration of products, efficacy, and patient compliance. Hanmi is continuing development of 5 LAPS-products in preclinical and clinical stages using this platform technologies. In this lecture, the overview of Lapscovery technology as well as the competing technologies will be presented. In addition, the future prospects of bio-better and bio-similar products including technical and commercial aspects will also be discussed.

Cell walls are of major importance to plant growth and development and to human society as they are used in a broad range of agro-industrial processes. Understanding the biosynthesis of wall polysaccharides, the major macromolecular components of walls, has attracted considerable interest in light of their fundamental importance, not just to plant function, but to man.Barley and other members of the commercially important Triticaceae are characterised by the presence of (1,3;1,4)-β-glucans in their walls. These polysaccharides are becoming recognised increasingly for their potential to lower the risk of serious diet-related conditions such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer and diverticular disease as they contribute to the soluble fibre component of human diets. To date, attempts to modify plant walls have been hindered by the lack of knowledge of the genes and enzymes required for polysaccharide biosynthesis, deposition and assembly, wall remodelling and the regulation of these processes. We are using an integrative, multi-disciplinary approach to identify and characterise the genes and proteins controlling wall development in cereals. Using genomic resources from barley, rice and wheat, we have identified and isolated candidate genes encoding enzymes involved in wall polysaccharide biosynthesis in barley and wheat. These include members of the cellulose synthase (CesA) and cellulose synthase-like (CSL) gene families. These genes have been subjected to gain-of-function experiments in Arabidopsis to determine their role in wall biosynthesis. Here we present the results of heterologous expression of the CSLF (Burton et al., (2006) Science ) and CSLH (Doblin et al., (2009) PNAS) genes and discuss their role in β-glucan biosynthesis. This work was supported by funding from the Grains Research and Development Corporation, the Australian Research Council, and the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Flagship Collaborative Research program, provided to the High Fibre Grains cluster via the Food Futures Flagship.

VCAM-1은 Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1이라는 내피세포에서 발현되는 단백질로서 면역 세포가 혈액내에서 Inflammation이 일어나는 곳으로 이동하여 조직내로 infiltration할 때에 중요한 역할을 하는 receptor이다. 이 receptor는 면역 세포인 T cells, B cells, monocytes, basophils 세포들의 표면에 발현되는 VLA-4 (very late antigen-4)나 α4 β7 Integrin과 interaction을 하여 면역 세포의 조직내로 infiltration 하는 과정을 조절한다. VCAM-1이 VLA-4나 α4β7 Integrin과 결합을 하게되면 내피 세포내에 존재하는 ROS (reactive oxygen species)와 Rho protein등이 activation이 되며 이들에 의해 조절되는 cytoskeleton의 재배분이 일어나 결국 cell-cell junction 부분이 열려지게 되어 면역세포의 조직내 유입이 일어나는 것으로 알려져 있다. Autoimmune disease 는 이런 면역 세포들이 자기 자신의 molecule과 결합하여 염증을 유발함으로서 일어나는 질병으로 Rheumatoid arthritis, Psoriasis, sthma 등이 있으며 현재 한화 캐미컬 Bio 연구센터의 anti-VCAM-1 antibody drug의 경우 천식과 관절염을 적응증으로 개발이 진행되고 있다. 한화가 개발중인 Anti-VCAM-1 antibody는 Human과 monkey에 subnanomole 의 binding affinity를 보여주고 있으며 in vitro adhesion assay를 통해 항체를 처리하였을시 약 80%의 adhesion inhibition을 보여주고 있고, in vivo asthma animal model에서는 AHR (airway hyperresponsiveness) 을 측정하였을 시에 약 50% 의 inhibition을 보여 주고 있다. 이 들 in vitro 실험 결과와 in vivo 동물 data를 기초로 현재 비임상을 진행하고 있다.

FlexFactory®, a paradigm shift from traditional biologics manufacturing facilities, is based on a modular biologics manufacturing platform and single use operating philosophy. The FlexFactory consists of three critical components; single use manufacturing unit operations, controlled environmental modules and process automation with electronic batch records. Included with the FlexFactory design are the design and specification of all the disposable components. Design, specification and selection of all product contact components are critical for the successful operation of a FlexFactory. Bag designs, transfer ports and tubing sets, reliable single use instrumentation, and storage containers are considered and designed into the operation of the process equipment used in a typical FlexFactory. Single use equipment eliminates the need for CIP and SIP infrastructure, leading to substantial (70%) reduction in water use. This contributes to a 55% lower carbon footprint with FlexFactory systems. Each FlexFactory process step is isolated in its own controlled environmental module (CEM), effectively shrinking the clean room around each unit operation. Upstream and downstream modules can occupy the same shared space with greatly simplified HVAC requirements. Operators can move freely from operation to operation, without the burden of gowning and degowning. The CEM architecture also enables the FlexFactory train to be 100% modular and to accommodate simultaneous multi product production. The automation portion of the FlexFactory integrated platform allows continuous process oversight in an expeditious and effective manner. The primary result is more efficient manufacturing, repeatable processes, and faster quality evaluation at the end of a batch. Product batches can be released by exception, eliminating lengthily QA reviews and speeding up overall batch release time by weeks or months.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpressed in many epithelial tumors is an attractive target for tumor therapy since numerous blocking agents of EGFR signaling have proven their anti-tumor activity. A novel monoclonal antibody (mAb), A13, was generated from mice immunized with human cervical carcinoma A431 cells. In addition to binding to soluble EGFR with affinity of ~5.8 nM, the A13 mAb specifically bound to a variety of tumor cells expressing EGFR. A13 mAb efficiently inhibited both EGF & transforming growth factor (TGF)-α dependant EGFR tyrosine phosphorylation in cervical and breast tumor cells and also in vitro colony formation of EGFR-overexpressing lung tumors. Competition and sandwich ELISAs, competitive surface plasmon resonance, and domain-level epitope mapping analyses demonstrated that mAb A13 competitively bound to the domain III (amino acids 302-503) of EGFR with EGF, but recognized distinct epitopes from those of cetuximab (Erbitux®). Human monoclonal antibodies selected from a human antibody library based on the A13 mAb reflected the biochemical properties of A13 mAb and one of them, ER2, is being developed for cancer therapeutics.

There has been a lot of attention and subsequent business activities around biosimilar in Korea during the past a couple of years. Not only some sizeable Korean pharmaceutical companies but some new players in pharmaceutical/biopharmaceutical sectors took a step in developing biosimilar products and particularly some notable companies widely covered by press have apparently shown aggressive moves to bring their products beyond Korean market. On government side, relatively big financial support was granted to a group of companies developing biosimilar products under the name of "SMART Project". Following these movements, various endeavors by government sector including the foundation of fund to support bio-business are expected to be observed in near future. All these activities around biosimilar business is based on a fundamental assumption that biosimilar could become a national platform as a future growth engine. At this point of time when unprecedented amount of investment is being put into biosimilar business, we need to answer some critical questions to project outlook of biosimilar and ultimately to figure out strategy and action plans to win this game • Is there going to be a market forbiosimilar and then how big will it be? • What are drivers and risks of biosimilar business? • Who are current players and where are they playing in terms of value chain & geography and what are their core competencies? • What would be the key success factors in biosimilar business from Korean company’s perspective? • What are the effective strategy, commercial model, roles & responsibilities and action plans for each of Korean companies and Korean government? IMS Korea will elaborate on current market status, key drivers & risks, difference between chemical generic & biosimilar and points to be considered by Korean companies. And then IMS will provide some feasible high-level strategic options for biosimlar commercialization.

All steps of developing anti-cancer therapeutics are exposed to high-risk of failure. However, optimal pre-clinical translational research using proper animal models would reduce the risk and additionally provide rational-based prediction of following clinical challenges. To realize the optimal pre-clinical translational research, we are constructing a library of patient-derived cancer cells including information about their chromosomal alterations, gene expressional characteristics, and clinical prognosis of patients from which cells oriented. Orthotopic animal models of various kinds of cancers are also being established using cancer cells from the library, which would provide proper animal models that mimic the cancers of patients closely. Since we could provide a hospital based personalized drug discovery platform with the library and orthotopic animal models, personalized translational research closer to the bedside for various anti-cancer therapeutics could be serviced to many researchers and pharmaceutical companies.

Phage display is a technology which can display the foreign peptides or proteins on the surface of the phages to interact with exterior molecules/materials. Using this technology, we have constructed the antibody and peptide libraries to select the specific ligands binding to the target molecules. We presented here two types of the studies, one is the isolation of human antibody fragments specific to tumor cells from human single chain Fv (scFv) antibody fragment phage library and the other is the design of peptide ligands specific to human IgG using a random peptide phage library. ATL (adult T cell leukemia) is a disease caused by the infection of a retrovirus HTLV-1 to CD4 T cells. Its carrier is estimated to be 10–20 million people worldwide and especially in Japan the carrier is distributed in south area of Kyushu Island. To find a new tumor marker for ATL and a candidate of antibody therapeutics of ATL, we tried to isolate specific antibody toward the S1T cells (ATL patient-derived cell line) from our scFv library using biopanning on a flow cytometer. The successfully isolated clone maintained the binding specificities to S1T cells and indicated the strong cell death-inducing activity, suggesting this small fragment can be a candidate of antibody therapeutics for ATL. On the other hand, we also isolated the specific peptides toward human immunoglobulin G (IgG) from the random peptide library constructed on T7 phage display system. The isolated IgG-specific peptides were classified to two types of the peptides, Type I and II. Type I peptides recognized the normal conformation of IgG and was applied for the purification of IgG from human serum using the peptide-conjugated column. Type II peptide did not bind to the normal conformation of IgG but specifically recognized the alternative conformation of IgG induced by acidic condition. We would like to discuss about the potentials in the applications of these ligand molecules for the clinical and industrial uses.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are currently the most important host cells for the production of therapeutic proteins and antibodies. For past ten years there have been revolutionary advances in protein production technologies using CHO cells, and thus the present cost for protein production using CHO cells has become competitive to that using microbial systems. There are many points to be considered to develop efficient production process of antibodies. Among these, the recent advances in establishing stable production CHO cell lines, cultivation process, and cell engineering for better post-translational modifications of proteins will be discussed in detail with some case studies in my laboratory.

Therapeutic antibodies have been hot issues in both pharmaceutical industry and academia for more than a decade. The unique properties in specificity and high affinity toward their targets made them as most successful biological drugs at oncology and inflammatory diseases. However, the development of antibody therapeutics has been challenging and complicated process, which became main hurdles for small pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Scripps Korea Antibody Institute (SKAI) is the first overseas branch institute of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), which was founded 2009 at Chuncheon-si, Korea. Based on enormous experience on the antibody science from TSRI, SKAI will perform antibody-focused research programs, which will touch many issues at therapeutic antibody development. Details will be presented with the brief introduction of SKAI.

Every winter, the influenza virus causes serious respiratory infections, particularly in the young and elderly. Vaccines are available, however it is necessary to receive them annually due to the fact that influenza is able to evade immune surveillance through rapid genetic drift and shift. An annual influenza virus type for vaccine production is prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO). In spite of this, unexpected pandemic influenza viruses may occur, such as the swine H1N1 virus, which appeared in 2009, leaving people exposed to new virus without protection until a specific vaccine is available, approximately 6 months. Here, we established a rapid antibody screening process to develop universal neutralizing antibodies against hetero-subtypic influenza viruses. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of swine H1N1 convalescent patients were used to identify anti-hemagglutinin antibodies using phage display method and immunospot array assay on a chip (ISAAC). Results showed that several of the candidate antibodies revealed a broad neutralizing effect in hetero subtype influenza viruses. Moreover, this effect was seen not only in H1N1, but also in H2N2 and H5N1. In addition, prophylactic and therapeutic effects against H5N1 (A/VietNam/03/04) and a prophylactic effect against H1N1 (A/California/04/09) was observed in mice. In conclusion, we have developed universal neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against various subtypes of influenza viruses to use as an anti-influenza agent for prophylaxis or therapeutic treatment.

Multiple mediates are generally involved in pathogenesis by either distinct or redundant mechanisms in complex disease such as cancer, diabetes, and immune diseases. Many evidence shown that multi-target therapeutics that impact multiple targets simultaneously are 1) more efficacious at controlling complex diseases, 2) less prone to drug resistance or tumor escape, 3) the standard of care in many important therapeutic areas such as cancer. Especially combination of antibody-based drugs provides better efficacy with an acceptable safety profile in preclinical and clinical study. Simultaneously targeting two or more mediators with a single molecule may enhance the efficacy of antibody therapeutics. The large-scale screening of antibody library and the increased availability of library technologies should help identify promiscuous antibodies such as two-in-one antibody.

The freshwater green alga Haematococcus pluvialis produces significant amounts of the ketocarotenoid astaxanthin (3,3’-dihydroxy-β,β-carotene-4,4’-dione) during the induction of green vegetative cells to red cyst cells. Compared to β-carotene, astaxanthin has two additional oxygenated groups on each ring structure and has a high antioxidant capability, reaching an activity ten times greater than that of other carotenoids, such as β-carotene and lutein. In this study, we focused on the use of a high cell density culture of H. pluvialis based on fed-batch cultivation using an exponential feeding strategy, which is a simple but powerful method that allows cells to grow at a constant specific growth rate. From the batch cultures in a CO2-fed flat type photobioreactor under unsynchronized illumination, the parameters for the feeding equations of the growth-limiting nutrients, nitrate and phosphate, were determined for the fed-batch cultivation, such as the cell growth yields on the nutrients and the specific cell growth rate. Under exponential feedings of the growth-limiting nutrients according to the feeding equations, H. pluvialis was photoautotrophically cultivated in the CO2-fed flat type photobioreactor, followed by photoautotrophic induction for astaxanthin production.

Microalgae are the highest potential energy yield plants and produce 8 to 120 times larger amount of oils than those of terrestrial oil crop plants, because they contained 12.5-72% total lipids (% of total dry weight). Effective liquid fuel production from microalgae has been studied using Botryococcus braunii, a green colonial microalga characterized by a considerable production of lipids, notably hydrocarbons. The strains of this alga differ in the type of hydrocarbons they synthesize and accumulate, in the amount of lipid production and in the growth capacity. So the acquisition of the strains with high lipid production and growth rate is requested for utilization of this alga for fuel production. The growth and lipid production of this alga were enhanced by the addition of pre-treated domestic and industrial wastewater under the light conditions. The use of industrial flue gas to supply cultures of B. braunii with CO2 was possible supported by the tolerance of B. braunii towards some pollutants such as sulfite and bisulfite. Supposed that B. braunii is grown and harvested in the large scale culture pond (19 ha), LCA showed that an amount of acquired energy was about 3 times higher than that of consumed energy, resulting in plus energy balance. It is the true in the case of CO2. However, the charged cost was 3 times higher than gained cost. If we set and managed this system in Indonesia which has cheap personnel costs and cheap lighting, heating and water expenses, the gained cost is higher than the charged cost. So it is possible to improve the economy of algal fuel even in developed countries by future development of technology.

Botryococcus braunii was cultivated with ambient air containing 10% CO2 and flue gas. With flue gas, the biomass and lipid productivity for B. braunii were 77 mg L-1 d-1 and 21 mg L-1 d-1, respectively, which were higher than those with 10% CO2. Oleic acid, a main component of biodiesel, occupied 55% among the fatty acids in B. braunii. The photosynthetic parameter Ik, which is the irradiance at the onset of light saturation, was relatively higher for B. braunii, meaning it could be cultivated under a high light intensity. Therefore, the present results suggest that B. braunii is appropriate for producing biodiesel, due to its high lipid content and oleic acid proportion. The specific growth rate of B. braunii reached a constant of 0.177 d-1 during cultivation with an initial nitrate feed of 3.66 mM. The maximum lipid productivity of 19 mg L-1 d-1was achieved at 0.37 mM nitrate. Fatty acid composition changed with nitrogen concentration. Under nitrogen limitation, the fatty acid composition of the B. braunii changed with increase in oleic acid content. Oleic acid content (86 % of total fatty acids) was higher in nitrogen limited culture than in nitrogen sufficiency culture condition (69 % of total FA). Delta-9 desaturase (desC) gene encodes an ACP-desaturase involved in the synthesis of the oleic acid. The expression level of desC measured by qRT-PCR showed a 2.6-fold increase in nitrogen-limited cells than that of nitrogen-sufficient cells. This coincides with the time when the cells reached nitrogen-starvation conditions i.e., after day 4. Biodiesel containing higher concentration of oleic acid has better properties such as anti-oxidation and cold flow property. Photosynthetic capacity based on O2 evolution rate per cell or chl-a was increased with decreased nitrate concentration. The factors for harvest by flocculation of B. braunii were investigated. The most significant factors were determined as FeCl3 concentration, bioflocculant percentage, and the time for slow mixing. When the biomass of B. braunii was 1.1 g L-1, the optimum harvesting condition were 0.57 mM FeCl3, 0.87% bioflocculant, and slow mixing for 180 sec. Additionally, 10 mM CaCl2 and rapid mixing for 60 sec. were basically needed for bioflocculation.

Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms being capable of converting carbon dioxide and water to organic macromolecules such as lipid, carbohydrate, and protein. They could recover carbon dioxide that was emitted from industrial sources including coal-power plant, and this could be one of economically viable carbon dioxide fixation processes. Conventional diesel from crude oil could be replaced by renewable biodiesel, which could be produced from the lipid component of microalgal biomass. Thus, the production of biofuels from microalgal biomass might be one of the best solutions for combating global warming, reducing greenhouse gas emission, and improving energy security. In this meeting, R&D status and prospect regarding microalgal biorefinery process using high concentrations of carbon dioxide will be presented and discussed. The process consists of development and characterization of microalgae, cultivation using the flue gas from demonstration-scale coal-power plant, lipid extraction and conversion into biodiesel, and utilization of residual biomass (gasification, biocomposite).

This study focuses on the separation and storage of the global warming greenhouse gas, CO2, and the use of enzymes in development of technologies to provide new methods for CO2 capture. Carbonic anhydrase has recently been used as a biocatalyst to sequester CO2 through the conversion of CO2 to HCO3- in the mineralization of CaCO3. In this study, we compared soluble protein of HDS (hemocyte from diseased shell) and EPF (extrapallial fluid) extracted from crassostrea gigas with BCA (bovine carbonic anhydrase) in terms of their ability to promote CO2 hydration and the production of calcium precipitates. This study has confirmed that BCA, HDS and EPF activate remarkable CO2 hydration. In general, the suggested mechanism of CO2 hydration by carbonic anhydrase involves catalysis of CO2 hydration initiated by nucleophilic attack on the carbon atom of CO2 by zinc-bound OH- to produce bicarbonate, which is then displaced from zinc by water. BCA, HDS, and EPF have excellent activity in CO2 hydration in aqueous systems. In Previous efforts to use CO2 mineralization as a method for CO2 sequestration, the slow rate of hydration of CO2 has been limiting factor of CO2 mineralization. A calcium precipitate was identified in experiments using either BCA or HSD. This result suggests that BCA and HDS may be involved not only in CO2 hydration but also in CO2 mineral carbonate conversion. The information gained from this study will contribute to research aimed at understanding and applying biomimetic approaches to CO2 capture and sequestration.

Zymomonas mobilis ZM4 was an important gram-negative bacterium used for fuel ethanol production and biorefinary process. For a long time, pLOI193 has been used as the most efficient mobilizable plasmid for Z. mobilis strains; however, the limited cloning sites and relative big size (13.4kb) of this plasmid has limited its application in molecular manipulation. In this work, a new plasmid pHW20a as tool vector was constructed from pLOI193 for efficient transformation of Z. mobilis cells. The constructed vector contains an oriV for replication in gram-negative bacteria, one antibiotic resistant gene (tetracycline resistant gene, tcr), two mob genes (mob from RP4 and mob from RSF1010), and a screening marker lacZα for genes to be cloned into the multiple cloning sites by blue-white screening. The transconjugation efficiency of pHW20a was about two orders of magnitude greater than pLOI193 and about three orders of magnitude higher than pBBR1MCS derivative plasmid. The constructed pHW20a could be stably transferred in Z. mobilis ZM4 without selection pressure at least for 120 generations and the function of lacZα was also confirmed by blue-white screening with insertion of genes in the multiple cloning sites. Two examples of Z. mobilis ZM4 transformation were demonstrated by overexpressing a Z. mobilis ZM4 native gfo gene (encoding glucose-fructose oxidoreductase, GFOR) and expressing a heterologous mdh gene (encoding malate dehydrogenase, MDH) from E. coli BL21, respectively. The results indicated that pHW20a was a useful vector for transformation of Z. mobilis strains. A low level of ppc transcription was also observed during the expression of mdh under the control of ppc promoter. The low ppc transcription level was considered as another important factor responsible for the uncoupled growth of Z. mobilis ZM4, although a low ATP generation efficiency of ED pathway was traditionally regarded as the sole reason for the uncoupled growth. The comprehensive understanding of the uncoupled growth of ZM4 would be beneficial to the effective preparation of biocatalysts for the fuel ethanol and sorbitol production with a finely tuned strategy.

This work aimed to investigate the anti-microbial activity of a fermented papaya extract, mainly composed of alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) as the active ingredients, against the disease-causing micro-organisms in agricultural fruits and crops such as Mycosphaerella fijensis causing black sigatoka disease and Ralstonia solanacearum causing Moko disease in Cavendish (banana) and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides causing anthracnose, amongst others. During bioassay tests, the extract significantly inhibited the growth of the fungal pathogen M. fijiensis causing black sigatoka on Cavendish banana. The efficacy is comparable to a standard fungicide check after 48 and 72 hours of incubation. The degree of control exhibited by the extract against the fungal pathogen ranged from 64.65% to 100% inhibition at various dosages. Results of the single-leaf test against Sigatoka disease also showed that the lowest dosage rate at 0.187 li/ha is the most effective and comparable with the standard, Dithane M-45 at 2.0 kg/ha. The extract was also tested in vitro against R. solanacearum, a bacterial pathogen causing moko wilt disease of Cavendish banana. No growth of the bacterium was observed three days and seven days after incubation during bioassay tests. The extract was effective against the pathogen beginning at 50 ml per 16 liters of water, and significantly superior when compared to the bactericidal antibiotic check streptomycin. Furthermore, results also show that the extract exhibits a consistently strong inhibition against C. gloeosporioides, which causes anthracnose. Its zone of inhibition reaches an average of 24.19 mm during the five-day incubation period, and is well-sustained during an extended period of ten incubation days. A concentrated sample of the extract shows total inhibition against C. gloeosporioides as no growth of the microorganism was observed during the extended 10-day incubation period.

There is no doubt that biotechnology research offer great potential for sustainable development. Although advanced biotechnology-based research is costly, it is still the sole hope for developing countries worldwide to catch. Developing countries including Mongolia, suffer to some extent from the same agricultural and health problems having the same dreams and hopes. On the other hand, International organizations and developed world would like to support and to develop real partnership for the benefits of the both sides. Fortunately most of these countries still have some advantages to benefit from gene revolution, such as high degree of biodiversity, very rich natural genetic resources and highly qualified human resources received their training and postgraduate education abroad. This paper will discuss state of going biotechnology-based research at National University of Mongolia. The topics of the paper will cover plant biotechnology, food biotechnology, animal biotechnology, microbial biotechnology, biodiversity and bioactive compounds from extracted from natural plants and animals and bioinformatics. The National University of Mongolia (originally Mongolia State University) was established in 1942. Department of Biology (currently Faculty of Biology) was one of the first departments at the NUM and has been recognized as a Centre for research and education in Biological Science. Currently, Faculty of Biology has 9 departments including Zoology, Botany, Biochemistry and Bioorganic chemistry, Microbiology, Genetics and Molecular biology, Biophysics, Ecology, Forestry and Ecotourism. Education and research in the field of Molecular biology and biotechnology were started at the Faculty of Biology since 1980. Our researches were mostly concentrated at the following Departments: Biochemistry and Bioorganic Chemistry, Microbiology, Genetics and Molecular Biology and Biophysics. Main research topics are 1) biochemistry and biotechnology of Mongolian traditional fermented dairy products, 2) biologically active compounds from Mongolian endemic medicinal and useful plants and animals, 3) enzymology, and 4) biotechnology of plants and microorganisms. One of the main research areas of our faculty is study of dairy products. Mongolians has great traditional experience for the production and conservation of fermented dairy products. Most of these products and their production technologies are exclusively endemic to the country of origin. Traditionally Mongolians are consuming the dairy products not only as a food but also as complete nutrient and medicinal remedies. As a result of our research we have maintained a collection of yeasts and Lactic Acid Bacteria from dairy products and now collection contains more than 200 monocultures of yeasts and bacteria isolated from fermented dairy products. Now, the faculty researchers are working on the isolation and identification of bacteriocin, ICE inhibitor producing Lactic Acid Bacteria and doing partial purification and characterization of the bioactive peptides. In terms of plant biochemistry and biotechnological studies we are mostly conducting studies of medicinal plants used in Mongolian traditional medicine, cell-tissue culture of rare and endangered plant species of Mongolia and special attention given to the trees and shrubs of desert and semi-desert areas. Recently we are begun to conduct researches on molecular evolution and molecular phylogeny of Mongolian mammals. We have started project named as “Molecular biological study of the eukaryote genome of Mongolian mammals”. The project aims to initiate and carry out molecular characterization of Mongolian mammals to understand their genetic structure and taxonomic status. In order to establish eukaryotic genome resource bank, we are collecting samples from different species and by now we have collected samples from 120 individuals of about 20 species. We have started investigating mitochondrial DNAdiversity analyses by DNA sequencing for different taxonomically informative domains of mitochondrial DNA such as control region, 16S rRNA and cytochrome b. In addition to the sequencing, we are also using restriction fragment length polymorphism of mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite analyses to study molecular phylogenetics of Mongolian mammals. At the Department of Microbiology we started investigation of soil microorganisms and their usage in tree breeding, bioremediation and soil improvement. Bioinformatics is a new emerging research area in Mongolia. In 2009 we developed Bioinformatics curriculum for bachelor and master students which will be taken in activity at the Department of Biophysics. New helix fitting software named “HELFIT” has been developed for the analysis of protein secondary structure and structural analysis of solenoid proteins. HELFIT program is also used for analysis of DNA, RNA structure and 3D structure prediction of solenoid proteins for the purpose of solenoid proteins structural genomics. Department of Forestry have started to establishment of Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) plantation and researches on medicinal, nutraceutical and cosmeceutical usage of fruit and berries.

There is a big potential for industrial biotechnology in Malaysia. The National Biotechnology Policy was launched in April 2005, with the objective “biotechnology for wealth creation and social well-being”. The policy identified industrial biotechnology as one of the three main pillars, besides healthcare and agricultural biotechnology. Ever since then, the Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation has spearheaded the government’s initiatives for the growth of biotechnology in Malaysia. The national biotechnology road map comprises three stages; capacity building in phase 1 (2005-2010), science to business in phase 2 (2011-2015) and global presence in phase 3 (2016-2020). Three centres of excellence have been set up, and biotechnology companies have been awarded bionexus status with many incentives. The final objective is to make biotechnology a new growth engine for the economy. This paper will discuss the implementation and current status on biotechnology in Malaysia, with emphasis on industrial biotechnology.

The country’s formal directions for bio-industry were placed under the National Biotechnology Policy Framework 2004–2009 with targets to bring about investment in biotechnology research and development of over US$ 125 million and emergence of over 100 new companies in biotechnology business. The Board of Investment of Thailand <BOI> has been creating a positive environment for local and international industries by providing a maximum benefit privileges to biotechnology-related investments. Until 2009, there are 120 new emerging biotechnology companies in Thailand, 48 % of which is in medical area. The Revenue Department also provides concession enabling companies to deduct up to 200 % of eligible expenditure incurred on R&D activities from assessable income when lodging their tax returns. About 9 research and development centers have been newly established in private sector until 2009. Government agencies and universities provide supporting services to stimulate biotechnology businesses. R&D infrastructures such as Biopark in the expansion phase of Thailand science Park will be operational in 2010. The National Science and Technology Development Agency, the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the Thailand Center of Excellence for Life Science and BOI under the direction of Ministry of Industry are major agencies committed to strengthening Thailand’s competiveness in Biotechnology. In 2006, it has been reported that the number of high school student in science is 2.3 times higher than those in social science, whereas the number of science student in bachelor degree turns to be 3 times lower than that of social science student. A number of universities, both in Bangkok and up-country are offering biotechnology degree. From the survey conducted in 2002, there were 700 student students per year who graduates from 15 biotechnology programs in 15 universities with the average enrolled credit of 134. It is also noticed that there were wide-variety of the programs, specifically in the major courses, in which the subjects very much depend on expertise of each university. The survey also revealed that 60 % of biotechnology graduate was employed, the rest was either continuing study for master degree and running their own business. 32% of those employed graduate was in private sector.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which represent widespread and the most ancient symbiosis, cannot be grown outside the host plants like other fungi. The absence of an authentic pure culture creates a problem in their commercial production and study of symbiosis. Piriformospora indica isolated from desert soil of north-west India is similar to AM fungi. Like AMF, it has a broad and diverse spectrum, exerts plant growthpromoting effects on host plants, relieves stress conditions and acts as a tool for biological hardening of micro-propagated plants as well as biofertiliser and bioprotector. A similar behavior is shown by another fungus Sebacina vermifera. S. vermifera-inoculated plants flowered earlier, produced more flowers and matured more seed capsules than did non-inoculated plants. But the most important advantage of these two fungi over AMF is that they are facultative symbionts and can be easily cultivated axenically on a variety of synthetic media. Linum album is a perennial plant. Cell suspension cultures of this plant are able to produce lignans, which are derivatives of the general phenylpropanoid pathway. The main lignan in L. album is podophyllotoxin, which is used for the semi-synthetic production of the anti-tumor agents, etoposide, etopophos and teniposide. Lignans are defense molecules produced by plants in response to any pathogenic attack or under stress conditions by elicitation. To investigate the elicitation of lignan biosynthesis, the effect of culture filtrates of P. indica and S. vermifera on production of podophyllotoxin (PT) and 5-methoxypodophyllotoxin (5-MPT) was studied. Further, to investigate if the two fungi have some plant growth- promoting activity along with production of elicitors, which could activate biosynthetic pathway of PT production, both the fungi were individually co-cultivated with L. album in suspension cultures for different time periods and at different levels of fungal inoculums. The PT and 5-MPT content in both the cases were found to be significantly enhanced on co-culturing the fungi with the plant cells. The activity of phenylalanine ammonia lyase was observed to be related to the lignan accumulation indicating its role as the key enzyme of the phenylpropanoid pathway. The study resulted in lignan accumulation of 740 mg/L of culture broth with a very high productivity of 52 mg/ (L.d).

Indonesia belong to the worldwide second mega biodiversity and has very potential for supporting human life. Various product from biopharmaceuticals product, food, energy, chemicals and material can be produced for socioeconomic development, especially in remote area as well. As tropical humid country. Indonesia therefore has a high productivity of photosynthesis which can produce various natural products and chemicals. In relation of the global mission, sustainable development is the main goal, but on the other hand there are some problems to be faced related to the environmental damage. The strategies to overcome such barrier is key factors to protect the potential biodiversity. In this paper, a review of potential and prospective of biodiversity and also the current status of problem related to sustainable utilization will be reported. The role of biotechnology regarding point of view bio-chemicals, biopharmaceutical, food and energy security, for environmental remediation will be discussed. Moreover, a comprehensive review about continuing progress has been achieved in improvement and application of biotechnology in various industrial process and product also summarized. Possible international collaborations between AFOB members with research institutions in Indonesia are discussed as well.

Seaweeds provide a habitat and serve as spawning beds, breeding and feeding grounds for coastal fish, shellfish as well as other important fisheries resources (Terawaki et al., 2001), which are commercially important in themselves (Watanuki and Yamamoto, 1990). Seaweeds have been reevaluated as food sources, medical, industrial uses and CO2 sinker in Korea. In recent years, many countries have made an effort to lower the dependence on fossil energy and to develop the new regeneration energy for low-carbon green growth. Also, in Korea, a substantial extent of efforts has been made to develop biodiesel and bioethanol with the use of microalgae and macroalgae. In the development of new regeneration energy, it is essential to secure a marine biomass. Because the technological level at which the seaweeds are raise in Korea is quite high, so the development of new regeneration energy will be achieved with a very high possibility. The total annual production of seaweeds from the natural beds and cultivated areas of Korea was estimated to be 934,890 tons (wet wt.) in 2008. Of this, 921,024 tons were produced by cultivation, constituting 98% of total seaweed production. The economically important genera are: Porphyra, Undaria, Hizikia, Laminaria, Sargassum, Enteromorpha and Codium all of which are used for food, and Gelidium, Pachymeniopsis and Ecklonia which are used as raw material for phycocolloid extraction. More than 30 species of seaweeds have traditionally been used by Koreans (Sohn, 1988).

Production of biofuels from renewable biomass has received a lot of interests due to instability in petroleum oil supply and global warming. Currently, biofuels are produced predominantly from food crops such as corn and sugarcane in the case of ethanol, and palm oil and soybean in the case of biodiesel. Using food crops for the production of biofuels has caused a controversy of "fuel versus food". Due to the abundance and sustainability of feedstocks, a lot of research efforts are placed on commercializing the production of biofuels from terrestrial non-food crops such as switchgrass and Miscanthus, and agricultural and forestry residues (corn stover and bagasse). Another potential source of biofuels is marine plant biomass such as macroalgae and microalgae. Macroalgae has several attributes that would make it an attractive renewable source for the production of biofuels. First, production yields of marine plant biomass per unit area are much higher than those of terrestrial lignocellulosic biomass. Second, marine biomass can be depolymerized relatively easily compared to lignocellulosic biomass as it does not contain recalcitrant lignin and cellulose crystalline structures. Third, the rate of carbon dioxide fixation by marine biomass is much higher than by terrestrial biomass, making it an attractive option for sequestration and recycling of carbon dioxide. We will present technological challenges and economic analysis of producing ethanol from red seaweed, one of the most abundant macroalgae found in Asia.

Macroalgae bioethanol production has been carried out using marine biomass such as sea tangle (Laminaria japonica), sea mustard (Undaria pinnatifida) etc. Seaweeds, macroalgae grow faster than land plant and contain large amount of carbohydrate [1]. Macroalgae can be classified to red, brown and green algaes and contains 53~70%, 30~67% [2] and 48~55% of carbohydrate, respectively. However, the carbohydrate compositions of macroalgae are too complex and variable to degrade to reducing sugar. Therefore, proper saccharification process is required for the ethanol production. Physical, chemical and biological pretreatment and saccharification processes should be developed. Also, the ethanol fermentation process should be developed using proper yeasts. After the evaluation of saccharification and ethanol production processes, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) process will be developed for the reduction of processes for cost reduction. The general evaluation on this area for marine bioethanol production and R&D status will be discussed in this topic.

Alginate is a gelling polysaccharide found as a major constituent of the cell wall and intracellular material in the brown seaweeds, Macrocystis, Laminaria and Ascophyllum. Alginate is also produced with O-acetylated form by two genera of Pseudomonas and Azotobacter. Alginate has been widely used in the food, textile, printing, and chemical industries because of its molecular properties. For the purposes of specific physical and biochemical properties, short length alginate, oligoalginate can be obtained by acid hydrolysis or alginate lyases. Alginate is a complex copolymer of α-L-guluronate (G) and its C5 epimer -D-mannuronate (M), arranged as homopolymeric G blocks, M blocks, random heteropolymeric G/M blocks (Wong et al. 2000). Alginate lyases, also known as alginases or alginate depolymerases, catalyze the degradation of alginate by a -elimination mechanism. Although most organisms produce one alginate lyase with high substrate specificity, some bacterial strains produce several alginate lyases with different substrate specificities (polymannuronate lyase, EC 4.2.2.3 and polyguluronate lyase, 4.2.2.11). Alginate lyase from Alteromonas sp. H-4 showed alginate degrading activity on broad range substrates. Alginate lyases from marine and bacterial sources have been applied successfully to the extraction of protoplasts for food research and regeneration of a variety of algal species (Boyen et al. 1990).The use of alginate lyase for the treatment of bacterial infection in the lungs of CF patients still remains one of the most important goals. In the future, alginate lyases can be used for the production of biofuel from unusable seaweed materials like xylanases. Acknowledgement : This workwas supported by New & Renewable Energy R&D program under the Korea Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE). And also, students were supported by MKE and KOTEF through the Human Resource Training Project for Strategic Technology