Genome research is despised in fundamentalist quarters as a godless inquiry into the unknowable.

Its lab-coated practitioners are thought to be messing with nature, like that black-hearted Darwinian, Dr. Frankenstein.

Even liberal thinkers nurse misgivings about the ethics of human cloning, which became suddenly plausible when a motherless ewe named Dolly uttered her first ‘baaa.’

But the erudite Dr. Randy Johnston is here to demonstrate another side of the coin. If you’re a farmer, or an investor in pharmaceuticals and forestry products, genomic research may one day put more jingle in your jeans.

David Lazarowych, Business Edge
Genomic research will benefit many sectors, says top cancer researcher Dr. Randy Johnston.

Johnston, 48, is one of Canada’s most respected cancer researchers. He was recently seconded to serve as president/CEO of Genome Prairie, a Calgary-based collaborator of Genome Canada and four other regional genome research centres.

The federal government (Industry Canada) has poured $300 million into the creation of these five centres. Other partners include the provincial governments, and Genome Prairie is already sidling up to potential corporate partners.

Ultimate goal: To provide mutual benefit to Canadian industry and Canadian science.

Genome Prairie has already embarked on its first two research projects.

One, chaired by Dr. Graham Scoles of the University of Saskatchewan, is to explore the functional genomics of “abiotic stresses” in wheat and canola crops.

In English, it’s an initiative which could lead to new ways to maximize the growth potential of commercial crops by minimizing their sensitivity to cold, drought and saline soils.

The second, led by Alberta scientists Edna Einsiedel and Tim Caulfield, is an inquiry into the legal, ethical and social issues raised by the commercialization of genomics technologies.

Because, as Johnston explained, when technology collides with the natural world in unexpected ways, alarm bells ring out.

“People care about these issues deeply,” he understated. “We want to be sure, if we’re testing in these areas, that we’re doing it in a way people are comfortable with.”

In basic terms, genomics refers to the science of collecting and studying every bit of genetic information contained in an organism.

Instead of examining a gene at a time, Johnston explained, genomic researchers analyse tens of thousands of genes at a whack, in an effort to learn how they work together in an organism, or cell.

“How do they function? How do they turn on and off? How do they respond to drugs, or infection? Having that information is valuable if we wish to understand human, animal or plant disease,” Johnston explained.

An ex-director of the Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute, and a former VP of research at the U of C, Johnston’s hardly the Frankenstein type.

And, off the top of his turbo-charged brain, he suggested certain commercial implications of this brand of inquiry.

“Think about the energy industry’s concern about depleting reservoirs of natural gas,” he postulated.

“We may need to look for alternative energy sources such as hydrogen. There are micro-organisms that, when they engage in biological activity, their primary product is hydrogen,” continued the not-Frankenstein.

“I can imagine a bio-mass industry to produce high-purity hydrogen fuel.”

Other possibilities include the high-efficiency generation of clean-burning ethanol fuels from prairie crops.

Genome research could find ways to counteract the microbes believed to contribute to the corrosion, and eventual rupture, of metallic pipelines used by the energy industry. It’s believed these organisms interact with oil in the lines. They create metabolic acids which chew up metal like cheeseburgers.

Applications also abound for the forestry industry. What harvester wouldn’t want trees to grow faster, higher and stronger?

Johnston says scientists are already contemplating ways to modify aspen so it will grow in dry, sandy ground. Such trees could then be planted in southern Alberta to help stabilize eroding soils.

And, when you think about it, messing with nature (within limits, that is – many of us still have doubts about Dolly) is a birthright humankind started to indulge centuries before Mendel cross-pollinated his pea plants. It’s been happening for 10,000 years, since the first cow was tethered to a tree.

“Consider electricity. It’s a dangerous thing if used unwisely,” the good doctor extended the argument.

“But if it’s used properly, our whole society benefits. Genomics technologies should be considered the same way. There will be risks and benefits. Let’s find out exactly what they are, and then develop it wisely.”

Spooky old Dr. Frankenstein could never have put it so well.