Developing countries increasingly see biotechnology as an avenue to improving the quality of life of their residents. Wonderful things are being predicted, and a capability is building to assure developing countries that they will benefit from the biotechnology revolution, and not become its victims (van Hemertet al. 1983). Outstanding in this regard, despite legal and other problems, is the establishment, by the United Nations Industrial and Development Organization (UNIDO), of twin International Centres for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB). The centers are under the guidance of a panel of eminent scientific advisors that includes four Nobel Laureates. This panel thinks that excellence and not nationality will be the basis for the selection of directors and senior scientific staff for the centers. One center is planned for New Delhi, India, and its clone will be built in Trieste, Italy. Their proposed programs are based on the assumption that three years will be required to bring the centers to full operating capacity. In the fourth year, it is expected that 31 scientists, 20 postdoctoral fellows, and 30 technicians will be working at each location. The Indian facility will focus on agricultural biotechnology and animal and human health, whereas research at Trieste will concentrate on industrial applications of biotechnology. At both locations, programs will be relevant to problems of developing nations, they will not duplicate programs at other institutions, and to the greatest extent possible, they will be result-orientated. A biophysicist, Dr. Burke Zimmerman, has been appointed Acting Director of the center's projects. He has been a consultant to biotechnology firms and the United States Congress as well as a special assistant to the Director of the National Institutes of Health. He is experienced in policy-making on a broad spectrum of scientific and environmental issues, and in his recent bookBiofuture: Confronting the Genetic Era, Dr. Zimmerman (1984) wrote, “The next decade will witness many efforts to extend biotechnology to all corners of the world. Idealism, however, must be coupled with a keen sense of the real problems which now confront developing countries, whether economic, educational, political, or ideological. Some countries are torn by war at present; many others are in the midst of a severe economic crisis. It would be too much to expect these endeavors to proceed smoothly and logically, governed by vision. Instead, biotechnology is likely to come slowly to the areas of the world which need it most, through trial, error, and muddling along, through the sustained efforts of dedicated men and women, but, in time, changing the way the world lives.”
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