The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "biotechnology" ...
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Allerca
Allerca is a biotechnology firm in San Diego, which claimed to have engineered the world's first hypoallergenic cats. Though the cats recieved a lot of media attention, this investigation was the first to take a hard look at the company and its founder, Simon Brodie. The investigation uncovered a string of debts, umpaid employees, court judgements, and a fraudulent and illegal fake charity website.
Tags: animals; biotechnology; public records; business; business ethics; Allerca foundation; cats
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Pandora's Pantry
Genetically engineered foods have risks that the U.S. government ignored during the approval process. Now companies like Monsanto and Novartis Seeds are facing stiff opposition to these foods in other countries. The protests could move to the U.S. with people asking questions that perhaps should have been asked years ago.
Tags: genetics; genetically enhanced foods; biotechnology; bioengineering; DNA; Monsanto; FDA
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BioPulse Clinic Shut Down
The story looks into the "medical" practices of BioPulse International, a company that offers alternative treatments to cancer patients in its Tijuana clinic. Reports from respected medical professionals and also from patients that followed the treatments signal that, despite the promises of the BioPulse doctors and the money the patients paid, their condition was unchanged if not worse. A sustained PR campaign (with what now seams misleading information) has also boosted share prices of the company. Following the article Mexican authorities have closed the clinic and the US Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation.
Tags: BioPulse; biotechnology; cancer; alternative treatments; cancer vaccine; insulin induced coma; FTC; Tijuana; Liviakis Financial Communications
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Avi Ben Abraham series
Chicago Tribune tells the story of an "ingratiating charmer," Avi Ben-Abraham, 43, who persuaded some of the smartest world's investors to finance a nonexistent vaccine for AIDS. To gain access to the circles of wealth and power on three continents, Ben-Abraham purported to be the youngest doctor in the world with an unbelievable IQ and a degree from an Italian university. The investigation revealed that Ben-Abraham is not a doctor at all, and that he received his diploma by deception. The want-to-be doctor recently announced a project to clone the first human being, the series reports, but other doctors in the cloning consortium denounced him as a fraud.
Tags: medicine; business; politics; Israeli parliament; biotechnology; HIV
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The Monkey Series: Shock the Monkeys; The Brain Gain; The Spy Who Loved Monkeys; Monkey in the Middle; Year of the Monkey
Willamette Week investigated a whistleblower's claims of inhumane treatment of research monkeys at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center. Some of the stories shed light on "a controversial procedure for collecting rhesus semen samples, known as electro-ejaculation," which has later been modified. Another part of the series profiles a researcher who examines what causes depression by using primates. A third part focuses on how an undercover observer documented the use of kittens for hearing-problems and deafness research, the atrocities taking place at a fox farm, and the cruel training of elephants for circus purposes.
Tags: animal care; medical records; undercover investigations; behavioral psychology; animal rights; ethics; sperm gathering; veterinary medicine; public records requests; biotechnology; PETA; vegetarians; reproduction biology
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Patent Patterns
Capital News Service reports on "an intense new-style border war ... being waged over high-tech businesses between Maryland and Virginia, with each state trying to lure the businesses in." Though biotechnology and high-tech development officials boast about their success in each state, Maryland inventors are surpassing the Virginians with almost 20 percent more patents awarded in the first quarter of 2001.
Tags: U.S. Patent and Trade Office; science; research and development; medicine; economics; CAR
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The Biotech Bet
Governing reports on "cultivating biotechnology" as a major economic development objective in Arkansas. The story looks at finances behind the biotech research and development efforts throughout the country. The article details initiatiatives coming from the business and the academic world, but also examines "the public sector's role in helping fledgling enterprises to thrive." The report describes methods of pumping capital into money-starved biotech companies, and some competitive advantages of small cities that are not amongst the largest biotech incubators.
Tags: genetics; research; medicine; farming; agriculture; venture capital funds; tax-credits; high-tech; National Rice Research Center; pharmaceuticals; FDA; labor; PhD
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Laboratory Hybrids; How Adroit Scientists Aid Biotech Companies With Taxpayer Money
The Wall Street journal reports on "entreprenurial scientists... using private nonprofits to obtain government grants -- and then using the money to fund their own for-profit biotechnology ventures." Some non-profits share office space, employees and equipment with their for-profit partner, which are sometimes run by the same person.
Tags: biotechnology; National Insititutes of Health; non-profits; grants
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Sowing Technology; Spinning Science into Gold; A Nation of Lab Rats
The Sierra Magazine examines the achievements of the modern agribusiness as a "self-contained factory" with sophisticated tools and techniques. The story package finds that "the concern about genetic engineering isn't that it enables us to commit altogether new mistakes; it's that it perfects out ability to commit old ones." The authors point out that the "overriding question about biotechnology is not whether we are for or against this or that technical achievement, but whether the debate will be carried out in such fragmented terms." The articles describe in detail most of the tools of the modern biotechnology, and look at the question whether we are "losing sight of ... the diverse and complex communities and habitats we live in."
Tags: ecology; genetic engineering; agriculture; FDA; cold tolerance; disease resistance; bacteria; environment; health; biomedicines
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A Regulatory Maize
The Legal Times examines the maze of issues surrounding the regulation of biotech foods to find out who is responsible for overseeing the biotechnology industry. "It just doesn't make sense--the FDA is looking at food, and the EPA is looking at certain seeds, and the USDA is look at other aspects of genetically modified food," the Legal Times quotes a Durbin staffer.
Tags: biotechnology; bioengineering; bioengineered corn; regulation of biotech foods; StarLink; Department of Agriculture; Enivronmental Protection Agency; Food and Drug Administration; Biotechnology Industry Organization