5-Animals: Aqua Bounty receives funds to develop GE fish"reversible sterility"

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TITLE:  Aqua Bounty Receives $1.68 Million NIST Award
SOURCE: Aqua Bounty Technologies, USA/Canada, Press Release
        http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030911/neth018_1.html
DATE:   Sep 11, 2003

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Aqua Bounty Receives $1.68 Million NIST Award

WALTHAM, Mass., Sept. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Aqua Bounty Technologies has
been awarded a $1,680,000 grant from the National Institute of Standards
and Technology's Advanced Technology Program to develop a genetic
technique that allows fish farmers to breed fish safely in captivity but
prevents the same fish from reproducing if they escape into the wild.

"Reversible sterility is a platform technology that will allow the $52-
billion global aquaculture industry to triple production over the next
two decades, as it must do to meet the expanding demand for seafood,"
said Elliot Entis, the Aqua Bounty president and CEO. "By removing the
risk that farmed fish might breed in the wild, this technology opens the
door for many new species in fish farming, including transgenic fish and
non-native species in locations that do not now have access to the best-
performing livestock."

The project will compare five different genetic engineering strategies to
interrupt the reproductive cycle in channel catfish and common carp, and
then attempt to reverse the process through various fertility treatments.
Offspring would be incapable of reproduction from birth, but fish
selected for breeding could be restored to fertility in the secure
conditions of a land locked hatchery.

Aqua Bounty Technologies, formerly known as Aqua Bounty Farms, pioneered
the development of molecular breeding in fish. It's advanced hybrid
salmon is currently under FDA review and on track to become the first
transgenic animal approved for food use. "The ATP award is a vote of
confidence in our company and in the prospects for our technology to be
employed commercially," Entis said. The company will fund 1.8-million of
the $3.5-million project cost. Researchers at Auburn University in
Alabama will provide catfish expertise and technical support to the project.

The ATP provides cost-shared funding to industry-led teams, which can
include non-profits and universities, to help advance particularly
challenging, high-risk R&D projects that have the potential to spark
important, broad-based economic or social benefits for the United States.
The program supports projects that industry cannot fully fund on its own
because of significant technical risks. ATP awards are made on the basis
of rigorous, competitive peer review of the scientific and technical
merit of each proposal. The program accelerates enabling technology
research, but does not support product development work. Further
information available at www.atp.nist.gov.

CONTACT:
Joseph McGonigle
T: +1-781-899-7755


                                  PART II
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TITLE:  Developing Reversible Sterilization in Fish to Eliminate Genetic
and Environmental Risk
SOURCE: National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA
        http://jazz.nist.gov/atpcf/prjbriefs/
prjbrief.cfm?ProjectNumber=00-00-5976
DATE:   Sep 2003

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Project Brief
Open Competition 3 - Biotechnology (September 2003)
Developing Reversible Sterilization in Fish to Eliminate Genetic and
Environmental Risk

Develop technology to produce sterile transgenic fish that can be made
fertile as needed for reproduction.

Sponsor: Aqua Bounty Farms, Inc.
935 Main Street Waltham, MA 02451

Project duration: 10/1/2003 - 9/30/2006
Total project (est.): $3,554,513.00
Requested ATP funds: $1,680,000.00

Genetic engineering has produced fish with highly improved growth rates
and disease resistance. However, the potential economic and social
benefits have been held back by the community mainly because of the
concern over the possibility that these fish can escape from aquaculture
facilities and damage native populations. Strict environmental policies
and legislation often prevent growers from producing the most
advantageous fish species. This three-year project will develop a method
of introducing genes into fish that can be chemically manipulated to
interrupt the normal reproductive cycle of transgenic fish. This will
produce sterile fish that can be made fertile later for breeding within a
controlled environment eliminating the environmental risk issues
currently vexing the aquaculture industry. Successful sterilization would
encourage policy changes regarding production of transgenic fish. This
would lead to better home market penetration by the United States, which
now trails nine nations in fish production. Moreover, a worldwide 55-
million-metric ton shortage in seafood products is predicted by 2025.
Aquaculture would have to increase by 350 percent to meet this impending
demand. Alternative sterilization technologies have been ineffective or
have damaged the fish. For this ATP project, Aqua Bounty will use and
compare five genetic engineering strategies and hatchery manipulations on
channel catfish and common carp, first endeavoring to create 100 percent
sterility in the fish, then attempting to reverse this sterility. Another
project goal is perfecting early maturation of the fish, which also may
contribute to reversing sterility. This concept is considered very high
risk because 100 percent sterilization and its reversal may not be
possible or the process could result in deformity or death of the fish.
However, even with partial success, the U.S. technology and research base
would be enhanced by the data generated about transgenic sterilization,
transgenics, and reproduction in aquaculture species. If the transgenic
sterilization fails, Aqua Bounty would still advance the knowledge about
reproduction and spawning from which the U.S. aquaculture industry would
greatly benefit. Auburn University (Auburn, AL) would provide technical
support to Aqua Bounty and assistance in breeding and testing of the
fish. Aqua Bounty does not have the internal funds available to pursue
this whole research project and the company has not been able to secure
venture capital, federal grants, or other funding because the risks are
too high. Without ATP funding, the project will be delayed indefinitely.
Expected economic benefits include possibly decreasing the current U.S.
trade deficit in fish products and generating an additional $850 million
a year within the U.S. economy, while lowering labor costs and increasing
productivity of aquaculture farming.

For project information: Joseph McGonigle, +1-781-899-7755
jbmcgonigle@earthlink.net
ATP Project Manager Douglas Jones, (+1-301) 975-2004 doug.jones@nist.gov




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