The lesson was about the BioBusiness Revolution, the impacts it had on various sectors. BioBusiness is already an important part of the global economy, constituing 25% of global GDP and employing 40% of the global workforce. This may be so, but more than 50% of the employees in the BioBusiness are engaged in low wage subsistence farming, something which the world leaders need to look at in order to maximise the actual benefits that BioBusiness can bring.
BioBusiness is a summit based opportunity, with the potential to bring relevant fields to the same level which may originally be in the valley. Turn low value industries into high value industries. This lesson also had plenty of videos, one of which depicting how people in the future will deal with medicine based on plenty of touch screen. Dr Shahi talked about how most people would had laughed at this idea being implemented in the next decade before the IPhone and IPad was marketed, showing how people's perception can change easily simply with one innovation, or one which was kept secret from the masses.
Interesting Observations and Ideas
From reading 5, there are plenty of direct benefits to be dervied from the continued funding of biomedical technology. These benefits are not taken into account in standard measures of aggregate economic output. Despite new medical technology, there is increased spending on health care, this is because the benefits of innovation is rising slower than the cost. Dr Mark is also concerned about the threat to innovation as the process of medical innovation has become more lengthy and costly, as shown by one of the youtube videos, when the time taken for a drug in research to go out onto the market will usually take 14 years. This means that people will still suffer from the lack of the drug while money is continuously poured into the project. Even when the drug goes out onto the market, there will still be lag time due to the lack of knowledge on the part of the consumers.
New policies will have to be implemented to review our current procedures, consumers will have to be better informed by setting up of guidelines and initiatives, as well giving consumers a more rapid access to generic drugs. We have to encourage high value innovations and get more value from our current products. We must find better ways to keep modern care affordable, while still encouraging medical innovation. As Dr Shahi wrote at the whiteboard, BioBusiness is likely to be the means to which we achieve sustainable development and we have to capitalise on such means.
Among the various sectors of BioBusiness, Biofarming is one which has plenty of potential for growth. First of all, it can enable rural farmers to have better farming output by using modern Agro-Equipments and technical knowledge. Secondly, as it was mentioned in class, we can use living plants and animals to produce the drugs or materials we need via Biofarming, such as producing the material for spider's web from a goat.
Key Takeaways
The saying "prevention is better than cure" has probably been heard of thousands of times, but it can not be more applicable for the medical industry than now, when so much money is being pumped, just so to make drugs accessible to people. Billions of dollars can be saved, simply by promoting a healthier lifestyle through exercise and better eating habits, which could be spent elsewhere such as helping the rural farmers or developing biofuels to the next level. The reason why this is not being done in the US now is because of the lobbying that the pharmaceutical companies do to the politicians, therefore the agendas that should be forwarded are not being done so.
The presentation done by Elaine was about NanoMedicine, one which I found extremely intriguing. Most of the smallest cells in our bodies are nanoscale objects, thus with nanobots the effectiveness of treating a particular ailment without damage to the rest of our bodies could be much higer. Such technology is not simply limited to treatment, diagnosis could also be improved by leaps and bounds, while such nanobots that could help to repair tissues could also be made available on ambulances, thus increasing the chances of survival of the patient before he reaches the hospital. However, one of the arguments mentioned in class was that the functions that such nanobots can perform can possibly be achieved by our own cells, is there really a need to generate such unnecessary technology and introduce something artificial into our body? Would it not be better to find ways rather to stimulate the cells in our very own body to do the functions that we intended the nanobots to achieve?
I feel that nanotechnology has immense potential in other areas than medicine, where problems can arise like how to remove the nanobots from our body after their work are done. Nanotech is already at use in consumer products ranging from stain-resistant and anti-wrinkle textiles in clothing, smart clothing can be developed that could measure our heart rate, blood pressure, sugar levels and vital signs. Nanotechnology can also be used to protect our environment, nanobots can be programmed to eat up or break up particles of pollutants such as oil spills and turn them into harmless substances.
Issues for Discussion
In one of the videos that we watched, Bioindustry Organization, the leading bio organization in the world has the belief that biotech is capable of feeding the world, fueling the world, using nature to change the world, improving the human condition. I was very interested in finding out more about how biotech can use nature to change the world, which was not really or directly addressed in the lesson.
Personal Ratings for Session
I rate this lesson a 7/10. The lesson talked about the BioBusiness broadly and all the areas it has influenced, but I felt that it did not go indepth adequately. On the whole, I still enjoyed the lesson and I was extremely amused by a certain skype incident which happened during class.
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