Papers by Dieter Blancquaert
Folate biofortified rice is considered an alternative strategy to reduce the burden of folate def... more Folate biofortified rice is considered an alternative strategy to reduce the burden of folate deficiency. This study quantifies the possible health benefits of introducing this GM crop in two regions at high risk of folate deficiency and neural-tube defects, namely Balrampur (India) and Shanxi (China). By measuring the number of disability-adjusted life years, the results not only highlight the problematic situation in these regions, but also demonstrate the effectiveness of folate biofortification, which could save between 29-111 DALYs (Balrampur) and between 47-104 DALYs per 1000 births (Shanxi). A sensitivity analysis underlines the impact of the parameters of the DALY framework.
In order to valorize novel biotechnology innovations, there is a need to evaluate ex-ante their m... more In order to valorize novel biotechnology innovations, there is a need to evaluate ex-ante their market potential. A case in point is biofortification, i.e. the enhancement of the micronutrient content of staple crops through conventional or genetic breeding techniques. In a recent article in Nature Biotechnology, for example, De Steur et al. (2010) demonstrated the large potential consumer health benefits of folate biofortified rice as a means to reduce folate deficiency and Neural-Tube Defects. By focusing on a Chinese high-risk region of Neural-Tube Defects, the current study defines the potential cost-effectiveness of this genetically modified crop where the need to improve folate intake levels is highest. Building on the Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) approach, both the potential health impacts and costs of its implementation are measured and benchmarked against similar innovations. The results show that this transgenic crop could be a highly cost-effective product innovation (US$ 120.34-US$ 40.1 per DALY saved) to alleviate the large health burden of folate deficiency and reduce the prevalence of neural-tube birth defects. When compared with other biofortified crops and target regions, folate biofortified rice in China has a relatively high health impact and moderate cost-effectiveness. This research further supports the need for, and importance of ex-ante evaluation studies in order to adequately market and, thus, valorize biotechnology innovations. Although the cost-effectiveness analysis enables to illustrate the market potential of innovative agricultural biotechnology research, further research is required to address policy issues on transgenic biofortification, such as biosafety regulatory requirements.
Biofortification, i.e. improving the micronutrient content of staple foods through crop breeding,... more Biofortification, i.e. improving the micronutrient content of staple foods through crop breeding, could be a pro-poor, pro-rural, agriculture-based intervention to reduce the health burden of micronutrient malnutrition. While the potential cost-effectiveness of crops biofortified with single micronutrients was shown in previous research, poor people often suffer from multiple micronutrient deficiencies, which should be accounted for in biofortification initiatives. This study is the first to estimate the potential health benefits and cost-effectiveness of multi-biofortification. Rice with enhanced provitamin A, zinc, iron and folate concentrations is used as a concrete example. The research is conducted for China, the largest rice producer in the world, where micronutrient malnutrition remains a major public health problem. Using the DALY (disability-adjusted life year) framework, the current annual health burden of the four micronutrient deficiencies in China is estimated at 10.6 million DALYs. Introducing multi-biofortified rice could lower this burden by up to 46%. Given the large positive health impact and low recurrent costs of multi-biofortification, this intervention could be very cost effective: under optimistic assumptions, the cost per DALY saved would be around US$ 2; it would stay below US$ 10 even under pessimistic assumptions.
Folate biofortified rice is considered an alternative strategy to reduce the burden of folate def... more Folate biofortified rice is considered an alternative strategy to reduce the burden of folate deficiency. This study quantifies the possible health benefits of introducing this GM crop in two regions at high risk of folate deficiency and neural-tube defects, namely Balrampur (India) and Shanxi (China). By measuring the number of disability-adjusted life years, the results not only highlight the problematic situation in these regions, but also demonstrate the effectiveness of folate biofortification, which could save between 29-111 DALYs (Balrampur) and between 47-104 DALYs per 1000 births (Shanxi). A sensitivity analysis underlines the impact of the parameters of the DALY framework.
Folate biofortified rice is recently developed as future strategy to reduce folate deficiency in ... more Folate biofortified rice is recently developed as future strategy to reduce folate deficiency in China and, in particular, Shanxi Province. Although 62 % of rice consumers in this high risk region are likely to accept this GM product, biofortification could negatively change product attributes, which may hamper acceptance. The results of this ex-ante evaluation show that when the taste, the environmental impact or the price of folate biofortified rice would be negatively altered, the initial acceptance rate would be more or less halved. Based on a survey with 588 consumers, four different segments could be identified: "Traditional attribute buyers" (17.9 %), "Price and availability consciousness" (20.2 %), "Intrinsic attribute buyers" (27.4 %) and "Health seekers" (34.5 %). Although there is a potential market of folate biofortified rice in Shanxi Province, future research and development needs to take into account the importance of attribute changes to further improve its success.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2015
A method for the quantitative determination of folates in rodent diets is very important for corr... more A method for the quantitative determination of folates in rodent diets is very important for correct interpretation of folate intake during feeding trials, given the possible discrepancy between the actual folate concentration in the diet and that mentioned on the product sheet. Liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry is the method of choice to differentiate and quantify the individual folate species present. This discrepancy may be accounted for by e.g. inaccurate folic acid supplementation and/or the presence of endogenous reduced and substituted folates. We developed a method, validated based on FDA guidelines, that allows the measurement of added and endogenous folates by quantitative determination of 5 folate monoglutamates with linear ranges from 8 µg to 2 mg/kg feed. This information, combined with feed intake data, allows insight into the actual folate intake in animal feeding studies. The relevance of this method was illustrated by the analysis of several feed samples of varying composition, by the investigation of the effect of casein incorporation and by evaluating the variability of the folate content between pellets and production batches.
Nature Biotechnology, 2015
Biofortification of staple crops could help to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies in humans. We... more Biofortification of staple crops could help to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies in humans. We show that folates in stored rice grains are unstable, which reduces the potential benefits of folate biofortification. We obtain folate concentrations that are up to 150 fold higher than those of wild-type rice by complexing folate to folate-binding proteins to improve folate stability, thereby enabling long-term storage of biofortified high-folate rice grains.
Micronutrient malnutrition, characterized by insufficient intake levels of vitamins and minerals,... more Micronutrient malnutrition, characterized by insufficient intake levels of vitamins and minerals, is a major public health problem that affects about 2 billion people worldwide. In order to reduce the burden of this ‘hidden hunger’, biofortification is more and more advocated as an alternative to the current micronutrient interventions. Through the enhancement of the micronutrient level of staple crops, it could address micronutrient malnutrition where the need is highest. Because staple crops are characterized by low micronutrient concentrations, genetic breeding techniques are often applied to increase specific vitamin levels, such as folate and pro-vitamin A. This study sheds a light on the global status of micronutrient malnutrition, biofortification and GM biofortified rice as both a GM food product with health benefits and a micronutrient intervention. Thereby, key consumer preference studies and cost-effectiveness analyses on Folate Biofortified Rice and Golden Rice are prese...
Journal of Chromatography A, 2015
A stable isotope dilution LC-MS/MS method is the method of choice for the selective quantitative ... more A stable isotope dilution LC-MS/MS method is the method of choice for the selective quantitative determination of several folate species in clinical samples. By implementing an integrated approach to determine both the plasma and red blood cell (RBC) folate status, the use of consumables and time remains limited. Starting from a single 300μl whole blood sample, the folate status in plasma and RBCs can be determined after separating plasma and RBCs and sequential washing of the latter with isotonic buffer, followed by reproducible lysis using an ammonium-based buffer. Acidification combines both liberation of protein bound folates and protein precipitation. Sample cleanup is performed using a 96-well reversed-phase solid-phase extraction procedure, similar for both plasma and RBC samples. Analyses are performed by UHPLC-MS/MS. Method validation was successfully performed based on EMA-guidelines and encompassed selectivity, carry-over, linearity, accuracy, precision, recovery, matrix effect and stability. Plasma and RBC folates could be quantified in the range of 1-150nmol/l and 5-1500nmol/l, respectively. This method allows for the determination of 6 folate monoglutamates in both plasma and RBCs. It can be used to determine short and long term folate status in both normal and severely deficient subjects in a single analytical sequence.
International Journal of Biotechnology, 2014
Trends in Food Science & Technology, 2014
ABSTRACT Socio-economic research plays an important role to successfully introduce novel, controv... more ABSTRACT Socio-economic research plays an important role to successfully introduce novel, controversial goods, such as GM food. This review presents a conceptual framework to explore the market potential of GM food with health benefits at both micro and macro level. While the former examines consumer acceptance and willingness-to-pay, the latter assesses the health impacts and cost-effectiveness. Thereby, underlying theories, methods and empirical research underpinning each line of inquiry are reviewed. By compiling results from eight socio-economic studies, Folate Biofortified Rice is taken as a case to illustrate how the framework contributes to assess its market demand as well as cost-effectiveness.
Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 2015
Handbook of Food Fortification and Health, 2013
ABSTRACT
Annual review of plant biology, 2014
Metabolic engineering can be used to modulate endogenous metabolic pathways in plants or introduc... more Metabolic engineering can be used to modulate endogenous metabolic pathways in plants or introduce new metabolic capabilities in order to increase the production of a desirable compound or reduce the accumulation of an undesirable one. In practice, there are several major challenges that need to be overcome, such as gaining enough knowledge about the endogenous pathways to understand the best intervention points, identifying and sourcing the most suitable metabolic genes, expressing those genes in such a way as to produce a functional enzyme in a heterologous background, and, finally, achieving the accumulation of target compounds without harming the host plant. This article discusses the strategies that have been developed to engineer complex metabolic pathways in plants, focusing on recent technological developments that allow the most significant bottlenecks to be overcome.
Nature Biotechnology, 2015
Handbook of Food Fortification and Health, 2013
phone number: +32(0)9 264 5185, fax: +32(0)9 264 5333 Word count: 6966 Number of tables: 0 Number... more phone number: +32(0)9 264 5185, fax: +32(0)9 264 5333 Word count: 6966 Number of tables: 0 Number of figures: 6 Number of references: 62 List of abbreviations: 10 FDF, 10 formylTHF deformylase; 10 FS, 10 formylTHF synthase; ADC, Key points:
Plant Molecular Biology, 2013
Folates are key-players in one-carbon metabolism in all organisms. However, only micro-organisms ... more Folates are key-players in one-carbon metabolism in all organisms. However, only micro-organisms and plants are able to synthesize folates de novo and humans rely entirely on their diet as a sole folate source. As a consequence, folate deficiency is a global problem. Although different strategies are currently implemented to fight folate deficiency, up until now, all of them have their own drawbacks. As an alternative and complementary means to those classical strategies, folate biofortification of rice by metabolic engineering was successfully achieved a couple of years ago. To gain more insight into folate biosynthesis regulation and the effect of folate enhancement on general rice seed metabolism, a transcriptomic study was conducted in developing transgenic rice seeds, overexpressing 2 genes of the folate biosynthetic pathway. Upon folate enhancement, the expression of 235 genes was significantly altered. Here, we show that rice folate biofortification has an important effect on folate dependent, seed developmental and plant stress response/defense processes, but does not affect the expression of the endogenous folate biosynthesis genes.
New Biotechnology, 2012
Biofortification, that is, improving the micronutrient content of staple foods through crop breed... more Biofortification, that is, improving the micronutrient content of staple foods through crop breeding, could be a pro-poor, pro-rural, agriculture-based intervention to reduce the health burden of micronutrient malnutrition. While the potential cost-effectiveness of crops biofortified with single micronutrients was shown in previous research, poor people often suffer from multiple micronutrient deficiencies, which should be accounted for in biofortification initiatives. This study is the first to estimate the potential health benefits and cost-effectiveness of multi-biofortification. Rice with enhanced provitamin A, zinc, iron and folate concentrations is used as a concrete example. The research is conducted for China, the largest rice producer in the world, where micronutrient malnutrition remains a major public health problem. Using the DALY (disability-adjusted life year) framework, the current annual health burden of the four micronutrient deficiencies in China is estimated at 10.6 million DALYs. Introducing multi-biofortified rice could lower this burden by up to 46%. Given the large positive health impact and low recurrent costs of multi-biofortification, this intervention could be very cost effective: under optimistic assumptions, the cost per DALY saved would be around US$ 2; it would stay below US$ 10 even under pessimistic assumptions.
Nature Biotechnology, 2007
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Papers by Dieter Blancquaert