"Boeing is funding a study to determine the feasibility of establishing a plant biology research and development centre in Malaysia... Boeing said it had contracted the services of the non-profit Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre, a world-class research centre located in St Louis, Missouri, United States, to conduct the study." (item 1)

See our profile of the Monsanto-backed Danforth Center and it founding president (item 2).

Meanwhile, Malaysia's Innovation Ministry has hired Burrill & Company to conduct a study and analysis for the drafting of a new policy on biotech. Burrill & Company are a life sciences merchant bank focused exclusively on companies involved in areas such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, agricultural biotechnology, and industrial biotechnology.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/NewsBreak/20041026164541/Article/indexb_html

1.Boeing funds biotech study in Malaysia
2.Danforth Plant Science Center and Dr Beachy
------

1.Boeing funds biotech study
The Edge, 13-10-2004
http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_929e1924-cb73c03a-18e609b0-c15d0488

Boeing is funding a study to determine the feasibility of establishing a plant biology research and development centre in Malaysia in support of, and under, its proposed F/A-18F Super Hornet Advantage (SHA) offset programme.

SHA also includes programmes in information and communication technology, healthcare, human resource development, aerospace, science and technology, marketing assistance for Malaysian products, and aquaculture, in line with Malaysia's on-going development.

In a statement on Oct 13, Boeing said it had contracted the services of the non-profit Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre, a world-class research centre located in St Louis, Missouri, United States, to conduct the study.

It said led by Dr Karel Schubert, vice president of Technology Management and Science Administration, an international team of scientists visited Malaysia's research and academic institutions last week to gather the necessary information for the study.

"The purpose of the visit, which was coordinated by the National Biotechnology Directorate, was to explore areas of mutual interest and identify potential areas for collaboration between Malaysia's biotech/agricultural community and Danforth Centre," Boeing said.

It said the study was expected to be completed late this year and the findings would be presented to the Malaysian government early next year.

The Danforth centre has a long-standing research partnership with the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute focused on the control of rice tungro disease.

The Danforth centre is focussed on increasing the understanding of basic plant biology, applying new knowledge to help sustain productivity in agriculture, forestry and allied fields.

It facilitates the rapid development and commercialisation of promising technologies and products. The centre also contributes to the education and training of students and scientists around the world in the development of plant biology.

Its international programmes have addressed global challenges in human health and nutrition, using herbal plants to prevent and/or treat chronic diseases, increasing food safety, increasing agricultural productivity and sustainability, protecting environment and biodiversity and developing novel bio-based and nanomaterials.
------

2.Danforth Center and its founding president
GM Watch profile
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=200

Dr Roger Beachy, is the founding president of the Danforth Plant Science Center, which was established by Monsanto and academic partners, including Peter Raven's Missouri Botanical Garden. The Center was launched with a $70-million pledge from Monsanto, which also donated the Center’s 40-acre tract of land, near Monsanto's home town of St. Louis, valued at $11.4 million.

Beachy is also Professor in the Department of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. It was Beachy's work at Washington University which, in collaboration with Monsanto, led to the development of the world's first genetically modified food crop, a variety of tomato that was modified for virus disease-resistance.

In 2003, in letters to the journals Science and Nature, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, complained that Beachy had published an editorial in Science and co-signed a letter in Nature Biotechnology without either journal disclosing that 'Beachy's research on agricultural biotechnology has been funded by Monsanto and other biotech companies, even though the subjects of his submissions - the safety of genetically engineered crops and intellectual-property policies - are directly relevant to those companies.'

One of the co-signatories of Beachy's letter in Nature Biotechnology was Prof Chris Lamb. Beachy is a co-chair with Lamb of the scientific advisory board of the Akkadix Corporation, a global agricultural biotechnology company co-founded by Lamb. Beachy is also on the Board of Directors of the industry-supported Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise, and on the scientific advisory board of Spacehab, Inc.. He is also a consultant to the United Soybean Board.

Among numerous honours and awards, Beachy was the 1991 recipient of the Bank of Delaware’s Commonwealth Award for Science and Industry and in 1999 he was named R&D Magazine’s Scientist of the Year.