Archive for the ‘Hologenome’ Category

The Illahee Talk: opening the innovation ecology

August 31st, 2011

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to speak in Portland, Oregon on my thoughts of opening the innovation ecology.   The talk was sponsored by a non-profit, Illahee.org.

The talk was introduced by Illahee’s Director, Peter Schoonmaker.   In his  blog post, Peter described his summary of my presentation.

I used the occasion to wax lyrical about the congruence of the hologenome theory of evolution with our work on creating an open and transparent innovation cartography tool.

I tried to find a common thread of ‘biological innovation’ that can guide not only the practical realities of improving health, agriculture, environment and energy, but also the formation of productive and equitable economic and social structures and tools.

The full video of this presentation is available on Vimeo:   Enabling Innovation

The hologenome theory of evolution

November 16th, 2010

I’d like to share an email exchange I had some months ago with Eugene Rosenberg, one of the authors of some extremely interesting papers outlining the hologenome theory of evolution.   He and his wife, Ilana Zilber-Rosenberg apparently completely independently from me articulated the hologenome theory from their experiences in microbiology and nutrition, and coral microbiology in particular.

In 2009, I found some Rosenberg papers describing the hologenome theory from 2008 and 2009.  I was delighted at the clear and lucid writing and exposition, and that their observations leading to the hologenome concept came from such a different field to my own.

My  development of the hologenome theory in 1991-1994 came from two avenues of work I’d been pursuing for some years:

1)  vertebrate commensal microbes and their role in controlling critical hormones necessary for macro-organism fitness and

2) the role of endophytic and epiphytic microbes in plant performance in agriculture, including of course rhizobia and numerous other plant-associated bacteria.

The Hologenome: the Cold Spring Harbor 1994 presentation

February 22nd, 2010

I finally unearthed the old videos of my Cold Spring Harbor talk in 1994 in which I outlined the ideas and context of the ‘Hologenome’ as a new lens on evolution.  Cold Spring Harbor actually packaged and (briefly and presumably unsuccessfully) marketed these videos of the meeting.  Now out of print.

Cambia\’s Youtube Channel, including Cold Spring Harbor presentation

At that time (September, 1994)  I was trying to set the scene for why studying, understanding and manipulating complex systems with tools and approaches of reductionism would not be enough.

I started in part one with the concept of getting ‘Beyond the Model System’, and used real-world agriculture and environment as the entry point for that discussion.

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Hologenomics II: Type IV Secretion Systems and horizontal gene transfer

September 9th, 2007

This topic is such fun, I could log in each day and all the ideas I’ve had for thirty years would start lining up on the framework of hologenomics.

In the last few years our lab has been getting more deeply into Type IV Secretion Systems. We set out some years back to ‘re-invent’ the Agrobacterium tumefaciens plant gene transfer capability in other families and genera of bacteria.

The reasons were twofold. First to invent around a very egregious and complex patent ‘thicket’.

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The Hologenome & Hologenomics: a different lens on evolution

September 6th, 2007

This one is a treat. An opportunity to blog about my ideas on science! It seems that most of my efforts these days are focused on BiOS, patent transparency and innovation strategies. Science is still an important part of my life, but my dismay at the way it has been co-opted and made less relevant to society has left a bitter taste.

Still, there are new fields that are breathtaking in their implications (to me at least) and which do not lend themselves to being ‘owned’, but – at least at this stage in their development – rather shared.

The single most exciting development in the biological sciences to occur in my lifetime is the idea that microbes are not only ubiquitous but that they may be the most important component that drives the evolution of macro-organisms.

In fact, I’d venture to say that multicellular eukaryotes only exist in nature as complexes of organisms in which microbial genomes are critical, essential contributors to the fitness of the overall ‘individual’ (which itself needs redefining).

Back in September of 1994 I gave an invited presentation at a Symposium at Cold Spring Harbor sponsored by Perkin Elmer Corporation: “A Decade of PCR“.   The symposium was only a couple of days, was a celebration of the impact and future of PCR on life sciences, and featured Jim Watson, Kary Mullis, and a number of other prominent speakers. I was given the task of talking about Agriculture, Environment and the Third World. Rather dauntingly broad marching orders. But I decided that I’d try something fun out on the audience, which was a pretty substantial group of scientists.

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