Biotechnology is business, Tracy Wilkins is fond of saying. It's not just a catchy phrase; it's a philosophy that he is seeking to infuse in all aspects of Virginia Tech's Fralin Biotechnology Center. Researchers need to think of the real-world, commercial uses of biotechnology whether the research is aimed at saving lives, cleaning up wastes, weatherproofing wood, or improving food crops.

Wilkins is director of the center and one of seven scientists who maintain offices and laboratories in the $9-million building across West Campus Drive from Hillcrest. Some of the 17 research laboratories in the year-old building are set aside for research by other faculty members from throughout the university. The center's open lobby and generous expanses of glass say corporate headquarters.

"That's intentional," Wilkins says. "Our vision is that we offer training as well as an education. Biotechnology is the application of biological sciences for commercial purposes. Our students will understand the business side of it, though they won't have a business degree, and they will understand the science side of it. That makes our students more marketable."

The hope represented by the research in the center may have been one of the motivating factors for the late Horace G. Fralin '48 to leave $8.6 million to the university. Fralin, founder of one of America's largest building firms, served as a founding member of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center board of directors, board of visitors member, and was active in numerous activities benefiting Virginia Tech.

Unlike many other university centers, the Fralin Center has dedicated teaching facilities and is active in undergraduate and graduate teaching. It also offers an extensive outreach program.

But research is the heart of the center.

Biotechnology is business, as Wilkins says. Many of the researchers working at the Fralin Center have ties with start-up companies at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center - Wilkins himself is president of a biotechnology company there. And some of the research done at the center is conducted under contract from the companies with which the researchers are associated.

This relationship between scholarship and business causes unease for some in the academic community. Just as biotechnology, new as it is as an industry, is evolving and as the research funding is evolving, so too will this issue evolve.

There is no question, though, that the cross-over from scholar to entrepreneur adds spice and excitement to the research going on at the Fralin Center.

Richard Helm, assistant professor of wood science and forestry products, sorts through an incubator full of Petri dishes almost as quickly as he would shuffle a deck of cards. He stops at one and points to a twig embedded in the growth medium.

"See this?" he asks, pointing to a dark spot. "That's from the tannin. That's the tree trying to heal itself."

Understanding how the tannin from oaks and chestnuts help the trees protect themselves is a key aspect of the projects Helm's group is working on.

"If we can understand the biochemistry of natural wood durability we can put that to use in the field and have naturally treated lumber," he explains. "That would help us avoid the toxic heavy metals used in industrial wood treating processes."

The tendency of trees such as oaks to try to protect themselves from the environment, even after they have been harvested, creates color-related problems for wood processors and the pulp and paper industry. The discoloration often results in less value for the timber produced, and it requires additional chemical treatment for the production of pulp.

Helm hopes that understanding the chemistry of the process will lead to a way to control it. Many of the tannins present in oaks and chestnuts, he stresses, have a potential pharmacological value. For instance, Native Americans have traditionally used white oak bark, which is high in tannins, for treatment of cold sores.

"There is a gold mine of chemical biodiversity in our own backyards," he says.

The nature of the Fralin Center as a place where scientists from diverse disciplines come together to solve complex problems is illustrated by the collaboration of Nancy Love, Duane Berry, and Don Mullins on biotechnology-based solutions to environmental problems.

The three researchers bring together their knowledge of engineering, crop and soil environmental sciences, and entomology, respectively. Their research interests include improving wastewater treatment systems to degrade volatile compounds; developing a model for evaluating the fate of organic contaminates, including pesticides, that are subject to bioremediation; and developing practical ways to dispose of pesticides.

"These are problems that aren't solved by one individual or one group," Love says. "Each person has a tremendous amount to offer. It's a good, positive environment."

Biology professor Joseph Falkinham has been studying the molecular biology and genetics of mycobacteria to understand why some are so resistance to antibiotics and so virulent. He is especially interested in a pathogen related to tuberculosis.

This species, mycobacterium avium, once was so rare that only 2,000 cases appeared in the United States in a year. Now the disease infects more than 250,000 people - people who are least able to fight its deadly effects "This is what is known as an end-stage disease for AIDS patients," Falkinham says. It infects 25 to 50 percent of those with AIDS.

This mycobacteria is everywhere, but only a relative few bacteria cause the disease that strikes primarily the pulmonary system. Falkinham uses DNA fingerprinting in an international hide-and-seek game, tracing the infection in particular patients to a specific source.

Why some of mycobacteria are virulent and others aren't is still a mystery, but knowing the source of the virulent strains will help prevent infection. Falkinham's group has also developed a method to determine whether a particular isolate is sensitive to or resistant to a particular antibiotic by studying its DNA for signs of drug resistance. This tremendously shortens the time required to test for antibiotic susceptibility by using conventional methods.

Carole Cramer, associate professor of plant pathology and physiology, is using transgenic tobacco to produce therapeutically important human proteins.

She is targeting a rare condition in humans caused by the absence of a particular enzyme. Cramer has coaxed tobacco plants to produce this enzyme with the hope that it will allow the drug used to treat this condition to be made more cheaply.

Elizabeth Grabau, assistant professor of plant pathology and physiology, is manipulating soybeans genetically to develop strains with resistance to diseases and tolerance to harsh environmental conditions. She is also working to introduce into soybeans the gene that produces phytase. That compound, she hopes, will allow the plant to increase its use of complex phosphorous, a nutrient that is associated with environmental pollution when it is underutilized by crops.

Dennis Dean, professor of biochemistry and anaerobic microbiology, is cloning magnetosome genes, the genes giving magnetic bacteria this unusual property. Magnetic bacteria and their derivatives have a number of potential commercial applications, such as in cancer therapy and in performing difficult molecular separations.

When Wilkins isn't working on the administrative details of running the center, he's busy with his own research on diarrheal diseases, the world's major killer of young people and farm animals. He's looking into the toxins produced by microbes that cause colon disease and developing methods to quickly diagnose the causes of diarrhea.

"There are 400 species of bacteria in our colons that evolved with us, that are with us all the time," Wilkins says. "I look at this flora as an organ of the animal. It's as complicated an ecological system as you'll find anywhere in the world."

And one of the major threats to it is antibiotics. The drugs doctors prescribe to attack certain disease-causing organisms also attack the "good" bacteria that make the colon work. As more diseases develop drug-resistant strains, ever more powerful antibiotics have been created, intensifying the assault on the "good" bacteria.

"Antibiotics were essentially introduced the year I was born," Wilkins says. "We may be known as the generation that used up antibiotics."

Stewart MacInnis is the information officer from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

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