Agricultura biológica Árvores com "chip" incorporado Inovação. No Fundão, o maior produtor de cereja biológica da Europa desenvolveu tecnologia de ponta para gerir o seu pomar. Conceição Antunes | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Aquele vasto cerejal do Fundão já deixou de ser gerido "a olhómetro". As árvores têm um "chip" incorporado e todas as operações de rega, colheita ou colocação de adubos são controladas ao milímetro, sendo a informação continuamente encaminhada para um sistema central. "Agora, as árvores podem falar comigo", refere o agricultor. Dar uma voz à Natureza O sistema no pomar biológico de Carlos Mendes está em fase de construção, prevendo-se a sua conclusão até ao final do ano. Vai incorporar um conjunto variado de tecnologias, envolvendo também investigação da Universidade de Coimbra. Para desenvolver esta nova plataforma de "software", o agricultor português juntou-se ao informático e consultor belga Paul Raoul Gailly na criação de uma empresa comum, a SSIAgri, que está a funcionar no Parque de Ciência e Tecnologia da Covilhã. "Sempre tive o problema de conseguir gerir uma área que excede a minha capacidade humana", reconhece o produtor de cereja do Fundão. E acrescenta: "E sou obrigado a fazer o controlo dos produtos que envio para os supermercados europeus". Segundo Paul Raoul Gailly, "o carácter inovador do sistema está em dotar a Natureza de uma voz. Numa produção biológica há mais regras que são impostas, e o grau de rastreabilidade do sistema ultrapassa de longe as regras mais exigentes". Quando estiver finalizado, o sistema permite gerir as colheitas em função da previsão de chuvas ou outras condições de clima adverso que podem danificar as cerejas. "Como numa fábrica, posso informar o meu cliente na Bélgica ou na Alemanha que dentro de xis dias tenho xis quilos de cerejas colhidas. É o que sempre quis fazer e nunca consegui", salienta Carlos Mendes. Ao vender para cadeias como Jumbo e El Corte Inglés, o produtor também reforça o "casamento com a grande distribuição", ajudando ao controlo da fruta que entra nos armazéns. O consumidor também terá acesso, pela Internet (e com o código de barras da embalagem), a toda a informação sobre tratamentos feitos na cerejeira que deu os frutos que vai comer. A 'cereja em cima do bolo' é poder ver imagens da própria árvore, através de câmaras móveis a instalar no pomar. "O que está em causa é a segurança alimentar e a credibilização de origem. Não ficam dúvidas para o consumidor que as cerejas são da Cova da Beira, contrariamente à questão que se fala de pôr fruta espanhola nas casas portuguesas", sublinha o agricultor. "Este sistema foi algo que pensei para mim. Mas aplica-se a qualquer produção, tanto biológica como convencional", frisa Carlos Mendes, referindo que além da cereja, o sistema pode ser aplicado à produção de azeite, vinho, hortofrutícolas e até à floresta, com vista a obter ganhos de eficiência em várias frentes. "Vamos criar um conceito de agricultura para conseguir produtos mais baratos". A meta da SSIAgri é "criar um produto português com uma patente" e exportá-lo para vários países. Numa primeira fase, já em 2009, o alvo é a Península Ibérica, além de Itália, França ou Grécia. "O nosso caminho vai ser evoluir para um prestador de serviços global e um parceiro na gestão florestal", adianta Carlos Mendes. "E aqui já estamos no domínio da inovação pura". Compensa uma produção 100% biológica? "A cereja desenvolve-se em dois meses e requer muito menos intervenções fito-sanitárias que as batatas ou as cenouras, por exemplo", explica o agricultor. "A Mãe-Natureza é a minha grande sócia. É ela que faz 90% das coisas", sublinha.
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Friday, August 29, 2008
Agricultura biológica
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Gene therapy 'may repair hearing'
Gene therapy has the potential to restore hearing in mice, offering hope for humans too, US scientists suggest.
An Oregon team discovered gene transfer produced functioning hair cells that are essential for the inner ear to interpret sounds, Nature reports.
In people with normal hearing, cochlear hair cells convert sound into electrical signals, which are ultimately transmitted to the brain.
Once the cells are lost or damaged, they cannot be replaced naturally.
| | Although still a long way from the clinic, the work shows that gene therapy is a potential treatment to combat some forms of congenital deafness Professor Andy Forge Deafness Research UK |
According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), there are about nine million people who are deaf or hard of hearing in the UK.
Most of them have lost their hearing gradually with increasing age, partly due to the loss of hair cells in the cochlea.
Repair and replace
Prolonged exposure to loud noise is another culprit, damaging the hair cells.
John Brigande and his team from Oregon Health and Science University showed, at least in unborn mice, gene therapy can be used to encourage other cells to become hair cells.
Gene therapy uses a harmless virus to insert copies of the key gene into cells which then replicate.
The key gene used by the Oregon team was Atoh1 which is essential for hair cell development.
The cells "treated" with Atoh1 functioned exactly like original hair cells.
"This capability is a crucial first step in defining translational therapies to ameliorate the effects of inner-ear disease in humans," the researchers said.
Work in humans is still a way off, but the findings point to a way to repair the damaged cochlea without using a mechanical or electrical device.
Currently, people can have a cochlear implant which works by bypassing the damaged cochlear hair cells and stimulating the auditory nerve directly.
An implant cannot restore hearing to normal but it does give the sensation of sounds.
Andy Forge, Professor of Auditory Cell Biology and advisor to Deafness Research UK, said: "Although still a long way from the clinic, the work shows that gene therapy is a potential treatment to combat some forms of congenital deafness.
"With one in 2,000 children born deaf because of genetic defects, such a therapy would clearly be of value."
Dr Mark Downs, of the RNID, said: "This is an exciting development which completes another important piece of the jig-saw in understanding how we might use gene therapy to eventually restore hearing loss."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7582640.stm
Published: 2008/08/27 23:20:17 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Hope over 'early arthritis test'
A new way of scanning joints which may reveal early warning signs of arthritis is being developed by US researchers.
The MRI scan looks for low levels of the chemical glycosaminogycan, which helps cartilage in joints hold the water that makes it tough and elastic.
New York University researchers told the American Chemical Society conference early diagnosis could reduce the need for surgery later in life.
The Arthritis Research Campaign said the scan could help assess treatments.
| | Our methods have the potential for providing early warning signs for cartilage disorders like osteoarthritis, thus potentially avoiding surgery and physical therapy later on Dr Alexej Jerschow New York University |
The weakening and breakdown of cartilage, which cushions the moving parts of joints, is a key factor in the development of osteoarthritis, which is common in the over-40s.
There are an estimated eight million people in the UK who have the problem in some form or another, and in severe cases patients can require constant painkillers or even joint replacement surgery.
Cartilage is tough and elastic because of its high water content, and existing MRI scans look for lower levels of this as a sign that the disease is developing.
The team is trying to spot the disease even earlier by looking for a substance called glycosaminogycan (GAG), which helps the cartilage hold plenty of water.
The scientists found a way to make the hydrogen atoms attached to GAG emit a signal which can be picked up by the scanner.
Dietary supplements
Dr Alexej Jerschow, one of the researchers, said: "Our methods have the potential for providing early warning signs for cartilage disorders like osteoarthritis, thus potentially avoiding surgery and physical therapy later on."
He said that a patient given early notice of impending arthritis could take steps to protect their joints, perhaps using dietary supplements such as glucosamine and chondroitin, which may be able to slow or halt joint degeneration.
The next stage now is to test the technique in trials.
However, Professor Alan Silman, the medical director of the Arthritis Research Campaign, said that the practical implications of the research were "currently very limited".
"Unfortunately at the moment there is no treatment that could be offered that would change the situation.
"What it may prove to be is a very sensitive test of drug treatment response as new agents are developed."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7574707.stm
Published: 2008/08/22 23:00:17 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Cell change 'keeps organs young'
Researchers may have found a way to halt the biological clock which slows down our bodies over the decades.
A US team thinks it may have found the genetic levers to help boost a system vital to cleaning up faulty proteins within our cells.
The journal Nature Medicine reported that the livers of genetically-altered older mice worked as well as those in younger animals.
They suggested it might one day help people with progressive brain diseases.
| | These results show it's possible to correct this protein 'logjam' that occurs in our cells as we get older, thereby perhaps helping us to enjoy healthier lives well into old age Dr Ana Maria Cuervo Yeshiva University |
The researchers, from Yeshiva University in New York, are focusing on a process which is central to the proper working of cells.
The fundamental chemicals of cells - proteins - often have very short working lives, and need to be cleared away and recycled as soon as possible.
The body has a system for doing just that, but it becomes progressively less efficient as we get older.
This leads to progressive falls in the function of major organs - the heart, liver and brain, some of which contribute to the diseases of old age.
Dr Ana Maria Cuervo, from Yeshiva, created a mouse with two genetic alterations.
The first, when activated, boosted the number of specific cell receptors linked to this protein recycling function, while the second allowed the first to be turned on whenever Dr Cuervo wished simply by modifying the animal's diet.
Switched on
She waited until the mice were six months old - the point at which age-related decline in the protein-recycling system begins - then turned on the receptor gene.
When examined at two years old, the liver cells of these mice were far more effective at recycling protein compared with normal mice.
When the overall liver function of the very old genetically-modified mice was tested, they performed at a comparable level to much younger mice.
Dr Cuervo said: "These results show it's possible to correct this protein 'logjam' that occurs in our cells as we get older, thereby perhaps helping us to enjoy healthier lives well into old age."
She now plans to test animal models of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, believing that the abnormal protein deposits in Alzheimer's in particular might be dealt with more effectively this way.
Thomas von Zglinicki, Professor of Cellular Gerontology at Newcastle University, said that the results were "very exciting".
"It's not often you see studies where they have managed to improve function in this way.
"What they seem to have managed is to maintain the mice at this young stage, and both restore and maintain normal activity."
He said that it should, in theory, be possible to achieve the same effect across the whole body.
A spokesman for the Alzheimer's Society said: "As we age we have an increase in protein misfolding and general faults in protein processing, so the ability to maintain an effective system to clear these would be beneficial.
"However, a direct line to the clearance of defective proteins in the brain is not so clear from this research."
