Sustainable Design and Social Responsibility - Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering - page 195

Appropriateness . Will it be affordable, robust, and adjustable to health care
settings in developing countries, and will it be socially, culturally, and
politically acceptable?
Burden . Will it address the most pressing health needs?
Feasibility . Can it be developed realistically and deployed in a time frame
of 5 to 10 years?
Knowledge gap . Does the technology advance health by creating new
knowledge?
Indirect benefits . Does it address issues such as environmental improvement
and income generation that have indirect, positive effects on health?

Table B5.1 Ranking by Global Health Experts of the Top Ten Biotechnologies Needed to
Improve Health in Developing Countries

Final
Ranking Biotechnology

1 Modified molecular technologies for simple, affordable

diagnosis of infectious diseases

2 Recombinant technologies to develop vaccines against

infectious diseases

3 Technologies for more efficient drug and vaccine delivery

systems

4 Technologies for environmental improvement (sanitation,

clean water, bioremediation)

5 Sequencing pathogen genomes to understand their biology

and to identify new antimicrobials

6 Female-controlled protection against sexually transmitted

diseases, both with and without contraceptive effect

7 Bioinformatics to identify drug targets and to examine

pathogen-host interactions

8 Genetically modified crops with increased nutrients to

counter specific deficiencies

9 Recombinant technology to make therapeutic products (e.g.,

insulin, interferons) more affordable

10 Combinatorial chemistry for drug discovery

Source: Data from a survey rported by A. S. Daar, H. Thorsteinsdottir, D. K. Martin, A. C. Smith,
S. Nast, and P. A. Singer, “Top ten biotechnologies for improving health in developing countries,”
Nature Genetics , 32, 229-232, 2002.