Word: hiatt
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...scraggly cornstalks sprouting from pots in Andy Hiatt's laboratory don't look particularly unusual. But woven into their DNA is a tiny strip of mankind: a human gene that codes for an antibody to a sexually transmitted disease--genital herpes--that afflicts some 60 million Americans. When the corn plants mature and produce kernels, Hiatt's company, Epicyte Pharmaceutical of San Diego, hopes to turn them into a topical gel for herpes...
...Epicyte's spotless laboratory, Hiatt is taking no chances. Tiny tobacco leaves injected with herpes-antibody genes fill the incubators--a backup, he says, in case corn is outlawed. And the company is branching out, developing plant-grown antibodies to fight respiratory syncytial virus, treat Alzheimer's, battle weaponized Ebola and even attack sperm--a kind of biopharm birth control...
...decade, biopharmaceuticals are projected to grow into a $20 billion industry. But how many of the new drugs will be manufactured in living plant-factories remains uncertain. "There has been an emotional response to the technology," says Hiatt. "But if we can bring down the cost of treating these diseases, the drawbacks compared with the benefits will be minuscule...
...assailed "the moral hypocrisy underlying America's demand for democracy in Palestine and Iraq" while "we simultaneously coddle the dictators in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan." Columnist Thomas Friedman complained that "the Bush team is advocating democracy only in authoritarian regimes that oppose America." Washington Post editorial-page editor Fred Hiatt made the larger point: "The United States cannot fight, let alone win, a cold-war-style campaign for freedom in the Islamic world unless, as in the cold war, it is fully engaged throughout the world, committed to democracy in China as well as in Iraq, to peace in Chechnya...
...Hiatt says students should see the ultimate victory of the movement as a triumph for their organization...