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The role of communicating bioscience in Puerto Rico
I NDUNIV Research Consortium
was created to promote and cat-
alyze effective collaboration among
industry,academiaandgovernment
to stimulate knowledge-based
capabilities in P.R., develop the
necessary strategies and action
plans to promote innovation and
position P.R. as a global best-practice
location to choose for the life-sciences
industry. The administration of the
pharmaceutical and bioscience
clusters is part of, Induniv’s role,
which in exchange requires com-
municating the attributes of these
sectors’ disciplines in terms of their
contributions toward economic
development and the value added
to the community’s well-being.
As part of this commitment, the
communication aspect deals with
promoting public awareness and
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understanding of life science in prepared and published for this pur-
poseareavailablethroughINDUNIV.
general and bioscience in particu-
lar. The information-dissemination One of the available documents
is the Puerto Rico Bioscience Des-
efforts complement the main activi-
tination, now in its third edition.
ties toward the development of the
This yearly publication is gener-
bioscience sector among and within
ated and launched at the BIO
the strategic economic clusters. By
Annual International Convention
educating the public and providing
as promotional material from the
accurate information, the goal is to
strengthentheunderstandingofbio- P.R. Pavilion at this event. It is a
publication of the Bioscience
science and its contributions toward
Cluster that promotes the island as
solutions dealing with our quality of
a bioscience destination of choice.
life. Therefore, part of our mission
The 2008 edition was launched at
within the P.R. BioscienceAlliance to
BIOInternationalConventioninSan
attain this goal has been the genera-
Diego (June 18-21). This booklet
tion of educational materials as one
highlights the six main points of
of our strategic objectives. Avariety
the life-sciences platform that P.R.
of educational materials have been
offers to companies and organi-
prepared to deliver information and
zations interested in establishing
messages targeted to the audiences
identified within our broad com- operations on the island. These
munity of partners. The materialscomponents are infrastructure,
positive business climate, global
recognition, excellent location,
experience, competitive work-
force and the innovation cluster.
Also available is a book-
let entitled “What is Biotech-
nology”, developed spe-
cifically for high-school and
college students. The booklet
(in Spanish) touches different
topics about biotechnology,
among them: the origins of bio-
tech, applications in biotech, the
 Raw Material to Final biotechnology industry, what
do I need to study to become
 Products Analyses
a biotechnologist and other
 Method Development related facts. The booklet gives
 Bioscience Testing: a general understanding of the
• Functional Genomic &
science behind biotechnol-
Microarrays Test ogy. There are other written
• Sequencing & Genomic resources available in both
• Proteomic (XRay, MS) printed and electronic form.
Other material INDUNIV
• Confocal Image
recently has prepared is the
Spanish version of the Biotech-
nology coloring book that the
Council for Biotechnology In-
UPR Río Piedras formationcreated.INDUNIVcol-
Campus laborated with CBI to translate
PO Box 21972 the book into Spanish, which is
meant to impact elementary-
San Juan PR 00931
school children. In this man-
787-282-7593
ner, the message can reach a
281-0997
broader spectrum of people.
mcc.upr@gmail.com The book is titled “ Look Closer
w w w . MCC . COM . PR at Biotechnology” and contains
valuable such information as
exercises and drawings so chil-
dren can color them. The book
focuses on the application of biosci-
ence in food and agriculture. The
main theme in the coloring book
is the way bioscience impacts the
various stages dealing with: 1) the
growing of more food and nutri-
tious plants; 2) helping the environ-
ment; 3) growing more food plants
that improve our health plus are of
value to our quality of life. The book
is easy to read and will help children
and adults alike have a better un-
derstanding of bioscience through
simple and practical illustrations.
As virtual tools to communicate
biosciences, INDUNIV has estab-
lished a series of websites that can
be reached through the following
domain names: www.induniv.org
(INDUNIV);www.biosciencepr.org
(P.R.BioAlliance);www.agbiopr.org
(P.R. Research Seed Association);
www.pharmapr.org(P.R.Pharmaceu-
ticalCluster);andwww.amcpuertori-
co.org(P.R.ScienceTeachersAssocia-
tion). Another contributing website
is from the UPR Bayamón campus,
which offers a virtual experience
about bioscience with resources and
reference materials. These websites
are communication hubs where
much of the material can be sourced
in electronic format. These sites also
help us present more information
about the strategic clusters that
INDUNIV administers. Moreover,
through this network of websites,
each organization posts important
and relevant news plus events of in-
terest to the industrial and general
community about what is happen-
ing in the life-science sectors in P.R.
One event relevant to life sciences
is the annual Bio Week celebration,
which is held the third week of
September (this year Sept. 15-19).
Throughout this week, all the afore-
mentioned materials are going to be
distributedinthevariousparticipating
regions and at three ATI train sta-
tions. The intention is to reach more
people from the community at large
than in previous years. This week is
a great opportunity to provide all
these educational materials to high-
light the importance and benefits
that biotechnology affords in our
life. The program for Bio Week can
be sourced through these websites.
We invite you to visit these sites and
attend the Bio Week celebrations. 
Partnership to develop biofuels promotes
Puerto Rico’s economy
When it comes to finding cost-effective ways
to produce large amounts of biofuel, a num-
ber of efforts are underway in Puerto Rico
that involve public and private organizations
alike. This includes combined efforts among
the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, Sus-
tainable AgroBiotech LLC of Puerto Rico
(SABI), and INDUNIV Research Consortium,
whose representatives and specialists have
formed partnerships to develop new tech-
nologies to reduce dependence on fossil fuel.
In addition to identifying and developing high-
biomass crops, with companies such as SABI es-
tablishing renewable-energy partnerships with
local farmers and helping them re-establish sug-
arcane farming, local scientists are also looking
at developing microorganisms that can effec-
tively ferment the monosaccharides present in
the feedstock created from ligonocellulosic bio-
mass. This, in turn, would be a significant con-
tributor to the cost and ease of manufacturing of
bioethanol. “The availability of effective means to
process biomass will increase our ability to exploit
a greater percentage of available types of ligno-
cellulosic biomass and effectiveness of microbes
in fermenting the feedstock produced from such
biomass,” said Dr. Govind Nadathur, of the De-
partment of Marine Sciences at the University of
Puerto Rico’s Magueyes Island research center.
However, given that effective processing often
requires enzymes that can work under harsh
conditions, the tropics, with its dynamic biodi-
versity, may serve as the source of some viable
alternatives. Harnessing the local strains of ter-
mites as ideal decomposers of biomass is under-
way in studies by researchers on Dr. Nadathur’s
team. “[Termites] are a keystone species that
form a base to the grazing food chain of tropical
terrestrial ecosystems,” he said. “Termites posses
their own nutritional mutualism with microor-
ganisms, which allows them to overcome obsta-
cles in the utilization of plant cellusosic materi-
al.” He also added that environmental genomics
from prokaryotic symbionts in termite guts have
yielded valuable libraries of complex carbo-
hydrate-degrading enzymes. So far, a detailed
study on the termites in Puerto Rico and the U.S.
Virgin Islands has identified 21 different species.
Shipworms–marine wood-boring mollusks
that are well-known for their destructive action
on wharfs and other wood exposed to the sea
also have been identified as potential agents
for their decomposing capabilities as well. “As
early as the 1920s, it was shown these worms
have the capacity to digest both cellulose and
hemicellulose,” said Dr. Nadathur. “Our labo-
ratory has identified areas in the southwest of
Puerto Rico that can yield such mollusks and
developed a technique for the targeted enrich-
ment of these shipworms from these areas.”
By strategically placing pine grids in a man-
grove area in the southwestern region of the is-
land, the researchers have been able to isolate
various species to identify the best candidates
for enzyme production for a given biomass.
Given Puerto Rico’s warm waters, SABI,
which is an affiliate of Sustainable Cellulosics
Inc. (SCI) of Florida, has joined efforts with Dr.
Nadathur’s group, Iván Lugo from INDUNIV,
and others to develop end-to-end technology
solutions for producing bioethanol and other
Bio refinery team, Lajas experimental station
value-added products. As an emerging agri-
cultural-biotechnology company focused on
maximizing the value of agricultural land and
aquaculture by producing and selling biofuels
and high-value biobased products, SABI’s ma-
jor objectives include establishing renewable-
energy partnerships with farmers to help them
increase their operating margins, as well as im-
plementing an integrated biorefinery business
customized to meet the needs of Puerto Rico.
“Our mission is to create jobs in agriculture and
industrial manufacturing sectors and help small
and midsize farms produce a diverse portfolio of
products,” said Dr. Arup Sen, CEO of both SABI
and SCI. “We are doing this through a unique
university-industry-community collaboration
as we address the specific needs of the island by
effectively utilizing Puerto Rico’s intellectual,
agricultural and manufacturing resources.” He
pointed out that while SABI and UPR are in-
volved in the research efforts, INDUNIV pro-
vides facilitation to the group and strategic di-
rection to address legislative and governmental
issues, including the permitting process, fund-
ing, legislation, promotions and networking.
As SABI develops new ways to harvest and
process biomass, the company is also aggres-
sively collaborating with researchers at the
University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez (UPR-
RUM) and providing partial funding to de-
velop technology to make biodiesel fuel from
algae. Dr. Jose Colucci, associate dean of the
faculty of engineering at UPR-RUM is serving
as the principal investigator, with Dr. Nadathur
working as co-principal investigator. “[Puerto
Rico] has very warm tropical resources and,
in the ponds, you can find algae that produc-
es oil for its own survival,” said Dr. Sen. “Not
only is this oil fantastic for producing biodiesel
fuel, but the pond version produces 10 times
more oil than what you get from palm trees.”
Focusing heavily on bringing algae technolo-
gy to the forefront, members of the project team
recently received a grant from the U.S. Air Force
to study various kinds of algae to determine the
kinds of oils they produce and which would be
appropriate for producing various grades of
diesel for trucks, farm equipment and jet fuel.
“We already have started a program to look for
algae for jet fuel for the Air Force, and are also
building a library of different algae and how to
grow them,” he said. While Dr. Sen believes it
is technically impossible to totally replace fos-
sil fuels, the work being done by his compa-
ny can result in various blends that can cause
the price at the pump to drop significantly.