This page has not been updated since 17 October 1997.Announcing C.I.T.A. at http://www.cita.es COOPERACION INTERNACIONAL EN TECNOLOGIAS AVANZADAS (C.I.T.A.)
Postal Adress: Apartado (P.O. Box) 17.083, E-28080 Madrid, Spain Tel.: +341 474 38 09, Mobile-cellular:+3470 768 263, Fax:+341 902 99 83 79 Internet http://www.cita.es C.I.T.A. will sign the contract with the Commission and assume joint and liability for completing the work envisaged, at least with this staff availability:
Miguel Angel Gallardo Ortiz, born in 1962, is a Mining Engineer at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (1986) and Criminologist Universidad Complutense (1995) who proposed the funeral Intranet in IBEROEKA 116 project in February 1996. This funeral technology project was presented at FUNERMOSTRA International Fair in May 1996, Valencia. He was invited by “Asociación Latinoamericana de Parques Cementerios y Servicios Exequiales (ALPAR) as exhibitor and lecturer at the II International Congress of ALPAR in Panamá, April 1997. He has visited more than 70 cemeteries in 10 different countries, publishing more than 70 articles on several topics, but in order to offer references for this project objectives, we can point out “El cementerio como ecosistema singular” (The cemetery as a special ecosystem) already published in several countries (first publication in Revista RF Funeraria, Barcelona, May 1997), and “Genética forense y Criminológica” at Boletín de la Asociación Española de Criminólogos, September 1997, as well as “Psicogenética” for “Psiquiatría forense y criminología (in print). He has been working as an expert witness for Spanish courts of law teaching about forensic techniques and criminalistic scientific police to Consejo General del Poder Judicial, the judges and prosecutors official organization in Spain. He has been professor at Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (1992-1994) and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (1994-1996). He is an advanced Internet user and published a book about Unix Security on 1996. Now he is Prof. of the International Studies Society, C.S.I.C., Spain, member of Asociación Española de Criminólogos board of directors for Foreign Affairs, president of “Asociación para la Prevención y Estudio de Delitos, Abusos y Negligencias en Informática y Comunicaciones Avanzadas (APEDANICA)” and general manager of C.I.T.A.
One of the most important projects of C.I.T.A. is the following proposal for the European Commission Biotechnology programme (1994-1998):
BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR EUROPEAN CEMETERIES
Summary
This proposal wants to study in depth the applicability of biotechnology to European cemeteries and animal remains decay, from two fundamental lines of research:
a) The graveyard as a biological system understanding is important for future applications, because it is an unresolved issue related to ecology and human health. Recent scientific studies suggest control of the putrefaction process in cemeteries by supplementing nature with non pathological bacteria and enzymes (biocatalyst) that can decompose the bodies more completely and efficiently in less time, with no resultant dangerous water contamination. Areas where animal corpses or remains decay can be dangerous enough to be considered a real ecology risk. The target is to show the best biological way for proper maintenance of the cemetery and to keep an eye on the main progress of the cemetery's involvement in the equilibrium of the flora and the micro fauna giving much more value and less risk to the area around it where people live.
b) Cemeteries as potential sources of human DNA that could be used to develop databases, provide raw material for allowed experiments, and help in pure and applied research in genetics. Also, these "DNA cemeteries" may be used to provide with new services to funeral customers and the future best organization of these services. This second subproposal will study the possibility to develop a genetic-forensic database, that will relate sequenced genes and medical history of dead people to help pure and applied research in genetics, specially in the branches of gene therapy and genetic diseases. However, other researchers may benefit for a such a database: biotechnology labs looking for new drugs, anthropologists studying migrations, social researchers trying to find connections between gene pool and behavior, among others. Also, we will study the possibility to offer a new service for relatives aiming the identification role and looking in particular for genes encoding data function with an applied potential in biotechnology, and gene therapy.
Contrary to the first subproposal, which takes into consideration the development of experiments and a prototype infrastructure for ecology and health improvement, the second subproposal is more like a theoretic study of the functionality of the project, specially its social and ethical implications.
BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR EUROPEAN CEMETERIES
0. Scope of this proposal and eligibility criteria
This proposal wants to study in depth the applicability of biotechnology to European cemeteries and animal remains decay, from two fundamental lines of research:
b) Cemeteries as potential sources of human DNA that could be used to develop databases, provide raw material for allowed experiments, and help in pure and applied research in genetics. Also, these "DNA cemeteries" may be used to provide with new services to funeral customers and the future best organization of these services.
This proposal fall within the scope and objectives of the programme and it is related to more than one of the listed objectives in the call (Biotechnology Information Package 1997 Edition, Conformity with the escope and objectives of the programme, pp. 18).
Line a) can be related to these objectives:
7. PRENORMATIVE RESEARCH (BIOSAFETY), BIODIVERSITY AND SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE
7.2.1 Microbial Ecology (in cemeteries)
7.4 Biodiversity (plants, animals and microorganisms at the cemetery)
7.5 Social acceptance
3. PLANT AND ANIMAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
3.1 Plant molecular and cellular biology (in cemeteries) 3.2 Animal Physiopathology
(because cemetery environment)
3.2.2 Animal models (farm and fish of mass mortalities of diseased animals)
1. BIOLOGICAL COMPONENTS OF CELL FACTORIES
1.1.1. Microbial factories (enzymes, bacteria and microbial dynamics)
1.2 BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING COMPONENTS OF CELL FACTORIES
1.2.2 Biotransformation (in cemeteries)
And line b) is related to basic objectives, related to the following areas:
7. PRENORMATIVE RESEARCH (BIOSAFETY), BIODIVERSITY AND SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE
7.5 Social acceptance (of the sequencing and storage of DNA from corpses).
2. GENOME ANALYSIS
2.2 Function search: (New tools provided by means of having big databases
of human corpse DNA)
3. PLANT AND ANIMAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
3.2 Animal physiopathology (development of genetico-forensic databases from
DNA obtained in graveyards to study genetic diseases).
5. INMUNOLOGY AND TRANSDISEASE VACCINOLOGY
5.1 Immunology and immunotechnology (development of genetico-forensic databases
from DNA obtained in graveyards to study relation between viric diseases
and gene pool).
There is a transnational collaboration in this project involving many non affiliated participants from four different Member States (Spain, Italy, Greece and Ireland) and a from one State associated (Canada), and the partnership is open to others.
Scientific and technical excellence and novelty is very clear because as far as we know, there is no more biotechnology projects for European cemeteries, and organizations, techniques and products involved in this project should represent a clear and useful advance in cemetery ecology and health. Moreover, the development of a DNA corpse storage and database can be a great help to pure and applied research in the field.
There is a precompetitive character in this project because its results
will require further development to produce marketable products, processes
and normative for European cemeteries, but the biotechnology products and
processes, the environment impact and the experiments related with putrefaction
that will be performed in this project will improve the already known funeral,
inhumation and exhumation practices in European cemeteries and some European
companies will provide advanced biotechnology products and know-how for cemetery
health and ecology. The Spanish company COOPERACIÓN INTERNACIONAL
EN TECNOLOGÍAS AVANZADAS (C.I.T.A.) is already promoting biotechnology
for European and Latin America cemeteries in a Internet site
Scientific, technical, and economic benefits are obvious for any Environmental Agency, Municipal Government, or cemetery manager concerned with corpse exhumations and funeral practices. Also, every laboratory and research unit invloved may enrich their knowledge, results, and experiments if DNA cemeteries are common enough to develop efficient databases that will improve research by means of new tools and information on a ethical and legal basis.
Moreover, cemeteries interested may offer DNA storage and analysis to customers, so they may have complete studies of their genetic pool to locate possible genetic diseases in the family, or other genetic-related information that imply no juridical or ethical problems. In that sense, C.I.T.A., with its proved efficiency promoting biotechnology for European and Latin America cemeteries may be the perfect start for such a project.
Unfortunately, there are very few biologists, veterinary surgeons, forensic or pathologists working for cemeteries and funeral homes, thanatology, and RTD projects involving them are based on non connected exceptions. In the following objectives there is a realistic description of some expected scientific, technical and economic benefits, from a general point of view related to European cemeteries.
The European dimension is very clear too, because there are many kinds of cemetery environments in the Member States that merits European Community funding for cemetery improvement, with health, research, and ecology aims. The project is open to partnership from other countries, and if the Commission allows the required changes in this proposed project, we would like to include at least a partner or representative from every country with a flexible negotiation process for any technical or financial modifications required by the Commission (7. Contracts procedures and principles, general procedures Biotechnology Information Package 1997 Edition, pp. 29).
The quality of management is based on personal and professional CV, organization profiles, and resources already used for this proposal. Electronic-Mail and Internet services has been used by all the contractors, associated, and collaborators, and as the project manager is working in a Funeral and Cemetery Intranet International project including advanced cryptographic telematic procedures for digital signatures and timestamping services. So, it is easy to understand that management will be based in complex real-time scientific electronic document interchange based in the Internet domain http://www.cita.es. However, this project only aims at studying the feseability of DNA cemeteries, basicly for research and pre-normative purposes, and does not aim to start any real infrastucture to develop line b).
From the bureaucratic point of view, the project manager is open for Commission suggestions and directives to be respected in biotechnology understanding.
Potential exploitation of results after and even while precompetitive period can be performed by the project manager C.I.T.A. with its own commitment to such exploitation. By the way, in the last years many biotechnology companies showed industrial interest on cemetery biotechnology needs, but the main problem for further involvement is the image and marketing opposition to any agreement on this field. If this project is selected many enzyme and cell factories, as well as civil and environmental engineering companies shall offer new and better products for cemetery ecology and health. C.I.T.A., as a small but very active European enterprise, will be very pleased improving and distributing them all over the World where there are cemeteries at ecology or health risks on a “integration of disciplines”, “multilateral cooperation” and “industrial commitment”.
It is clear the importance of a DNA cemetery, related with a forensic database for pure and applied research in genetics: almost any Biochemistry, Biology or Genetics Deparment, plus biotechnology bussiness will get great benefits if a network of cemeteries in the EU to develop and storage such DNA cemeteries is stablished.
Science is no longer an ivory tower (if it ever was): its research and finds are inevitably tangled with economic, social, moral and philosophical implications. With that in mind, we have assembled a team where the presence of biologists and geneticists is important, but we also care about incluiding jurists, philosophers, engineers and bussinessmen in the task, so we can generate a biotechnology product and a multidisciplinary know-how that takes into account most of the wanted and unwanted derivations that the project under discussion may present.
Technical competence, credibility and effectiveness of the partnership involved can be foreseen with CV and profiles detailed in “7. The partnership”, but it is very important to point out the commitment of the project manager that is already working in the project and improving every day the biotechnology offer for European cemeteries.
Madrid, 14th October 1997.
Ing. Miguel Angel Gallardo
Ortiz
, CEO of C.I.T.A.
COOPERACIÓN INTERNACIONAL EN TECNOLOGÍAS
AVANZADAS
C.I.T.A. SL, Apartado Postal (P.O. Box) 17.083 - 28080 Madrid, España
Tel.: (+34) 91 474 38 09 - Modem/Fax: (+34) 902 99 83 79, Internet E-mail:
miguel@cita.es
This page has not been updated since 17 October 1997.