N.A.F Signs Biotech Agreement With F.S.R
March 20th, 2020
Many North American biotechnology industries have announced that they, with approval from the federal government, have signed a cooperative agreement with the Andean Workers Cooperative biotechnologies division, which operates within the Federation of Socialist Republics. The agreement isn't anything complicated and is more or less collaboration on projects that the N.A.F and F.S.R have been already developing, and it most likely will not include every biotechnology projects in development. The agreement currently entails collaboration on at least two projects that the N.A.F is developing and the F.S.R's biotech goals from its five-year plan and at least two of it's associated projects (see below.) Both sides have stated that more projects are going to be included in the future. Given the past tension between the two nations, many assume that collaboration will be specific towards civilian technologies and application rather than anything that can be used militarily. The population has expressed mixed feelings towards this. On one hand the N.A.F is "giving [it's] technological secrets" to the F.S.R, which is viewed with distrust in the N.A.F. Many argue that the F.S.R would misuse N.A.F technology and apply it in the development of unconventional bio-weapons. On the other hand though, many view this as a sign of thawing relations and that by combining the two largest economies in the development of biotechnology could lead to significant development in the fields of medicine and genetics, thus improving quality of life globally.
Here is a list of projects known to be included in the agreement:
From the F.S.Rs five-year plan:
- Move faster to facilitate the wide application of genomics and other biotechnologies
- Create demonstrations of network-based biotech applications
- Stimulate the large-scale development of next generation biotech products and services
- Promote the creation of basic platforms such as gene and cell banks
Projects that are part of the five-year plan currently included in the agreement:
- The development of genetically engineered bacteria-phages that can be utilized as an alternative to antibiotics and also allow for easy re-specialization of the phage in accordance to the bacteria involved, thus allowing for easy
treatment of all know bacterial infections and diseases.
- The development of genetically engineered crops that can survive in extreme environments/conditions and have natural resistance to harmful insects.
Projects from the N.A.F that are currently included in the agreement:
- The development of genetically re-programmed adult stem-cells that operate identically to embryonic stem cells and thus can specialize in all cell types.
- The development of genetically engineered hybrid species between extinct and living relatives that can be deployed throughout the world in an attempt to stabilize local ecosystems and ensure global ecostability. This project also includes the development of an effective means to produce these animals in a manner that is fast and also retains genetic diversity. It is also not exclusive to extinct animals and aims to assist in preventing current living animals from going extinct. A sub-project also exists that is working on developing the means to artificially create genetic-diversity within a genetically engineered species.