Previous Fora / 2011
RECH, Elibio
Researcher, Genetics and Molecular Biology, EMBRAPA Recursos Geneticos e Biotecnologia, Brazil
Rech has been a scientist at EMBRAPA Recursos Geneticos e Biotecnologia, Brazil, since 1981. He obtained his PhD in 1989 at the University of Nottingham, England. He is recognized by his studies on the recombinant DNA technology and its application for development of processes and products with economic and social impacts. His work focuses on the molecular and biochemical mechanisms that govern several types of protein-conformational expression. His awards include: Prize Estado de Sao Paulo Governator; Embrapa Prize for Research Excellence; Commander of the Order of National Scientific Merit, Brazil; and Fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
Elibio Rech research group began improving physical capability to direct introduce genetic information into a living cell and in vitro cell culture technologies to produce proteins for basic and applied research. His group has pioneered studies on understanding of the process of selecting germ line-transformed leguminous plants and have developed. He has also been studying evolutionary and structural modular engineering of spider genes and regulatory sequences prospected in brazilian biodiveristy, and producing synthetic spider silk fibers using recombinant DNA technology. His work currently focuses on the molecular and biochemical mechanisms that govern several types of protein-conformational expression and covers a broad range and the various projects have an intersection in recombinant DNA technology, synthetic biology and biodiversity. He is fellow member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS).
ABSTRACT
17:00-19:00 18 November
THEMATIC SESSION III. Brazil: “Sustainable Food Production”
Biotechnology and the sustainable use of biodiversity
There is a worldwide consensus that the production of food, biomolecules and bioenergy should be sustainably intensified within the next decades. Reaching these objectives will demand new research that will effectively and operationally integrate practices from thoroughly mastered agricultural systems and advanced research technologies in genomics, transgenics, microbiology, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. It has been proposed that a global network should be established to monitor the effects of agriculture on the environment, across large agricultural, ecological and climatic zones worldwide. This would involve the interested parties – politicians, farmers, consumers, businesses, NGOs and teaching and research institutions – to jointly develop a set of measures to quantify social, economic and environmental results arising from a range of agricultural strategies. Recombinant DNA derived products will continue playing a key role as the foundation to intensify the sustainable production of food, biomolecules and bionergy and will also contribute to mitigating emissions of CO2 equivalent gases and their derived impacts on climate changes. In addition to the efforts made to conserve biodiversity, an effective, evidence-based method for estimating biodiversity value is necessary. The use of genomics to metabolomics, through seed metabolic engineering and synthetic biology may constitute an important tool and be a viable option for the prospection, evaluation and manipulation of biodiversity, as advocated, as well as be useful for developing methods for sustainable use and production of novel molecules. In this conference I will summarize some of the recent advances in the mentioned fields utilizing technologies and products developed in our own laboratory and discuss how to intensify the production of food and biomolecules.