Alongside the development of biotechnology and its increasing expansion from medicine into the agricultural field, foodtech, and other sectors, the issue of new approaches to economics and even bioeconomics is becoming more evident. What principles shall it follow? What ethical standards will not inhibit its development and will ensure human safety? These and other issues were in focus of two discussions at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum – 2024 Bioeconomy: Innovation and Bioproduction – as a part of the main and youth business program. The theme of the food industry was a red thread through both sessions.
Both the speakers and the audience reached a common opinion through voting: healthy life tests upon healthy food. It is also the most important area of biotechnology development.
Scientific Director of FIC Fundamentals of Biotechnology under the RAS
Producing wholesome food with respect for nature is already a reality. EFKO's projects on sweet proteins or autophagy activators were cited as prime examples of such projects.
"Together with the Institute of Functional Genomics at Moscow State University, we are attempting the dream of healthy longevity," Sergey Ivanov, Executive Director at EFKO, shares. "What is the point of living for 100 years if you have been struggling with your body for the last 30 years? Our dream is to allow someone 60 and older to feel the way they felt when they were 30 to 50 years old. Recent discoveries show: that some enzymes and probiotics stop the aging of the microbiome and help with this solution. And the most inspiring thing for me is, of course, the impact of biotech on intellectual resourcefulness using the symbiotic gut-brain connection.
The issue of insufficient scientific and regulatory framework for research was also raised at the sessions. Participants representing business and science shall be very conscious and responsible about the consequences of developments in biotech. The good old principle of medical ethics "do no harm" remains relevant. And it's not just about human health, it's about biodiversity and preserving life on the planet."
"About unexpected, as we immersed ourselves in the world of biotechnology, it became clear that the possibilities of modern biotech are virtually limitless. That is, it can handle any task," Sergey Ivanov says. "And if so, then the question is interesting: who and how shall set this task? And what solutions shall biotech create and whom for? For us, biotechnology is about dreams, about the future, about human beings. Thus before we talk about biotech, we want to agree on how we collectively see the human being of the future. There are two extreme options. The first is the pleasure-maximizing human consumer. Ultimate hedonism is resulting in an incapacity for creative activity. The second one is a creator human who values the result higher than the situational discomfort associated with its achievement. Both mental and physical health matters here. And biotech can help a person both to relax on the sofa and to do something more complicated. And then every business that develops biotech has an ethical fork in the road. The one is to make traditional food cheaper: to add something, to replace something, to sell more of this food, and the other is to fit into the socio-cultural models of shaping a creative person."
"It's amazing how much, by influencing the microbiome, the gastrointestinal tract, you can accelerate, amplify processes in the human brain and enhance its cognitive abilities. This is one of the amazing projects that we are currently implementing," Rostislav Kovalevsky, Innovations Director at EFKO, shared at the session of the youth track of the business agenda.
"I was very pleased with EFKO mentioning the microbiome. This is an important area we don't know much about and need to develop. And a special thanks for the nod to psychobiotics," Maria Vorontsova, a member of the Presidium of the Russian Science Promotion Association, emphasized. "It seems to me that in the field of bioethics, discussions about what moral vector we want to take here are important for our understanding. I liked the idea of the sociocultural background. I think that's the social basis for the bioeconomy."
"Everything is done for the sake of a human," Oksana Lut, Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, summarized. "The most important thing is the food. All the People will be Wined and Dined. And I think we will all try to ensure that this food will provide the greatest possible benefits for a person's ability not to lounge on the sofa, but also to develop properly and intellectually".
a member of the Presidium of the Russian Science Promotion Association