Innovation and the Sustainable Development Goals
Call for game changing solutions for the UN Food Systems Summit 2021
WIPO Green is calling for game changing solutions for the UN Food Systems Summit, which will take place later this year. The summit is part of the larger process of pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals, and has the ambitious objective of transforming the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food. The process is guided by five Action Tracks, and the Summit will bring together key players from the worlds of science, business, policy, healthcare, and academia, as well as farmers, indigenous people, youth organizations, consumer groups, environmental activists, and other key stakeholders. The first wave of callsfor solutions has been completed, and a second wave is now active, with a deadline of April 30th. If you are interested, and would like to know more or need assistance, you are welcome to contact Peter Oksen at WIPO GREEN (peter.oksen@wipo.int).
An interview with Nobel Prize winner Robert Lefkowitz
Robert Lefkowitz is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. His mantra? If you’re not failing, you’re not asking hard enough questions. During the past 50 years, Bob’s work in identifying and understanding receptors (the parts of cells that receive hormones) has led to the creation of many drugs and saved countless lives.
In this interview, you will learn more about his life and career path. For example, he had the happiest time in his entire education when he went to medical school because he was able to realize his dream of becoming a doctor; at that time he had absolutely no interest in becoming a scientist. Despite this, he and colleague Brian Kobilka were later awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012 for their studies of G-protein-coupled receptors.
As Locusts Swarmed East Africa, This Tech Helped Get Rid of Them
In 2020, billions of locusts descended on East African countries that had not seen them in decades. The cause? Unusual weather connected to climate change. Kenya last dealt with a plague of this scale more than 70 years ago; Ethiopia and Somalia, more than 30 years ago. Nineteen million farmers and herders across these three countries, which bore the brunt of the damage, saw their livelihoods severely affected.
Tech and crowdsourcing operations have proven useful in managing such locusts invasions more efficiently. The app PlantVillage, for example, uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help farmers in 60 countries, primarily in Africa, diagnose problems in their fields. Borrowing from PlantVillage’s blueprint, another app called eLocust3m was developed in just a month. The success to date of these apps shows that crowdsourcing and artificial intelligence can be absolute game-changers for hundreds of millions of people as we adapt to climate change.
Opinion: How Intellectual Property Rights Helped America Fight COVID-19
James Pooley, a former deputy director general of WIPO and a member of the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding, explains in this article how past investments in R&D helped in the fight against Covid-19. Over the last 10 years alone, drug companies have invested more than $1.5 trillion in global pharmaceutical research (notably, the US—home to less than 5% of the world’s population—accounts for roughly half of all international pharmaceutical R&D spending). With this in mind, it takes years to develop a new medicine, conduct clinical studies, and navigate regulatory review; indeed, it costs $2.6 billion, on average, to bring a new drug to market. Patents, however, give innovators a fair opportunity to recoup their investment costs before generics firms can manufacture copycat medicines, making it possible for companies to chase state-of-the-art ideas.
Solar Entrepreneurship Masterclass 12 May, 12pm GMT
On Wednesday, 12 May at 12pm GMT, Tony Tiyou, founder and CEO of Renewables in Africa, a clean energy engineering company and a media platform is presenting a workshop on how to become a solar developer and get funding.
Read the full story and register here.
Techinvention’s scFv libraries help fight COVID-19
Innovation Council member Techinvention, has successfully generated two scFv libraries using phage display technologies from the convalescent plasma of COVID-19 recovered patients. The library now with us includes one billion different clones of antibody genes (VHs-Vκs and VHs-Vλs) with high probability to get high affinity fully human antibodies. This library will be used for the development of monoclonal antibody against multiple proteins of SARS-CoV-2 to address the looming threat posed by emerging mutant strains. It can also be used for diagnostic purposes, bioassays kit development, affinity maturation, studying protein-protein interactions and developing antibodies against other viral diseases with grave consequences and unmet medical needs.
For more information please click on the following links:
TechInvention Lifecare Pvt Ltd (www.techinvention.biz)
Fiocruz, Brazil (https://lnkd.in/eF5tShs)
Bio-Manguihos, Brazil (https://lnkd.in/evVWeX2)
The Role of Business Schools in Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals: Beyond Quality Education
In this article, Sherif Kamel describes how business schools can help advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both through advocacy and through the revamping of their business and management education programs to include the study of businesses’ societal contexts. The actions that Kamel describes include redesigning curricula, revisiting pedagogical approaches (including experiential learning), creating internships and co-op programs, identifying research endeavours and their policy implications, carefully selecting business partners and affiliations, diversifying extracurricular activities, integrating innovative technologies, investing in community development, and reconfiguring executive education.
This robot doesn’t need any electronics
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have created a four-legged soft robot that doesn’t need any electronics to work. The robot only needs a constant source of pressurized air for all its functions, including its controls and locomotion systems. Soft robots are of particular interest because they easily adapt to their environment and operate safely near humans.
Most of them are powered by pressurized air and are controlled by electronic circuits, but this approach requires complex components like circuit boards, valves, and pumps, often outside the robot’s body; these components, which constitute the robot’s brains and nervous system, are typically bulky and expensive. By contrast, the UC San Diego robot is controlled by a light-weight, low-cost system of pneumatic circuits, made up of tubes and soft valves, which are built into the robot itself. The robot can walk on command or in response to signals it receives from the environment.
Innovation for Sustainable Food Production: Shiok Meats, Singapore
On the occasion of the WTO TRIPS Council online side event focusing on the intersection of innovation, IP and sustainability – which will take place on March 9 at 16:00 – we are re-posting some resources about IC member Shiok Meats. Shiok Meats is a Singaporean company that produces cell-based crustacean meat. Shiok Meats plans to bring healthy, nutritious, environmentally-friendly and cruelty-free crustacean meat to tables everywhere in the coming years, disrupting the global shrimp market which is worth an estimated 40b USD annually. This month marks the one-year anniversary since the Singaporean innovators introduced their first shrimp dumpling. Shrimp grown from cells has several advantages over wild caught shrimp or shrimp raised through aquaculture – notably in relation to health, environment, and labor impacts – but further innovation is required to bring down production costs. This is the goal of the team at Shiok Meats over the next 2-3 years.
Read more:
Shiok Meats Raises $4.6 Million Seed Round To Develop Cell-Based Shrimp
How artificial shrimps could change the world
Singapore’s Shiok Meats hopes to hook diners with lab-grown shrimp