UC Berkeley and the Biolab Boom:

In terms of mission, profit-seeking, and biosafety, maybe not so much these days. But because of transparency and accountability failures, and the blurring of private and public interests, the only thing the public knows for sure is that more we learn, the more we learn we don’t know much.

UC Berkeley intends to demolish buildings in downtown Berkeley to put up two more large biolabs. The almost two acre “innovation zone” will be sited in spite of Berkeley’s publicly ungovernable biolab boom and despite revelations that biolabs are losing tenants. Because the University owns the land in question, they don’t have to ask for City approval. Even so, shouldn’t they be compelled to answer questions that citizens have a legitimate interest in knowing?

For example, what exactly will they be researching and in what biosafety level biolabs? Will their research include genetically modifying viruses? Will information concerning potentially biohazardous undertakings be shared with the community? In the event of a lab mishap or biohazardous incident, who will be responsible – the university, one of its corporate partners or affiliates, one of their faculty’s own commercial companies perhaps?

Being a California public university, UCB doesn’t have to pay taxes, although it doesn’t much act like a public university these days. It considers itself a bioentrepreneurial hub and functions something the way venture capitalists do in wanting to support start-up biotech companies.

What does it mean when universities behave like for-profit corporations? Does the “disinterested inquiry” for which universities were once renowned suffer when profit-seeking companies drive research agenda? When the public hands over tax dollars to for-profit innovators, does that constitute corporate welfare? Are liability and accountability issues well understood?

The never adequately-studied trend of public-private merging took a sharp plunge into increasingly muddied waters when, in 2019, the Swiss drug company GlaxoSmithKlein (GSK) went into partnership with the University of California to the tune of $67 million. The merging took place despite the fact that in 2012, GSK was found to have engaged in illegal marketing and kickbacks for which it was fined $3 billion dollars.

There’s a lot at stake these days in understanding how profit-seeking can influence research direction. One of UCB’s new biolabs will be researching genome editing. When this research is directed to finding cures for sick people living today, the goal is not ethically problematic. But there’s plenty of evidence that some researchers want to go beyond finding cures for people now living and move to editing genomes to make “better” future people – “designer children.” At the press conference announcing the GSK-UC partnership Jennifer Doudna, the UCB Nobel Laureate who co-discovered CRISPR gene editing, was asked about whether they would edit embryos. She replied, “I don’t think there’s any intention right now to be editing embryos in this center.” We don’t need to worry about this - “right now?” Such a qualifier can signify a path for re-directing intent down the road, with no public awareness or oversight.

In its development agreement with the city of Berkeley, the German company Bayer agreed to research limits at its Berkeley campus. Among these are: limiting themselves to biosafety level 1 and 2 labs, not engaging in genetic manipulation of viral particles designed to enhance pathogenicity, and not performing “heritable alterations to the human germline” (i.e., to embryos, ova, or sperm). Shouldn’t the Berkeley City Council, remembering that it works for the people of Berkeley and not the University, demand at least as much from the University – even if the University does own the land on which they want to build more biolabs?

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UCB must submit an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) before building. If you’d like to ask questions or share concerns, you can do so before 5pm on November 29. Prior to this, there’s a“public scoping” meeting on November 15 at 6:30pm where you can learn more about the project and comment on the scope and content of the EIR. Now is the time to attend, take action, and ensure your views are heard. Visit Biolab Watch to access details.

See: Hey, City Council: Do you Know What’s Happening in Berkeley Biolabs?