The average American is living a longer and healthier life. While medical care has made tremendous improvements, we see increases in certain types of medical problems.

Obesity has increased to the point that some studies indicate most American adults are overweight and many have become obese. Heart problems and diabetes continue to plague us. Eating habits, lack of exercise, and sedentary lifestyles all contribute to the problems.

At the same time, advancements in medical treatment almost stagger the mind. Some of these advancements provide potentially lucrative opportunities for businesses in the Evansville community.

Recent breakthroughs in genetically modifying organisms have opened superhighways to solving many heretofore unconquerable issues. Microsurgeries have improved lives and led to even more advanced life-saving techniques.

“Microbioengineering” is the term we have invented to describe the processes by which scientists develop changes to life in microscopic proportions. This term would include genetically modifying organisms, manufacturing of microscopic “machines” to alter life, and similar situations.

One example of microbioengineering involves aiding tomato farmers in getting their crops to market. Today, tomatoes are picked from the vine while still unripe. They are then placed in refrigerators and cooled to a certain temperature where they are held until just before being shipped to market.

The tomatoes are then removed from the coolers, treated with chemicals to start the ripening process, and shipped to market. By the time the tomatoes arrive at the grocery store, the chemicals have ripened them to the point where they can be placed on the grocery shelf and purchased by customers for immediate consumption. This process is lengthy, involved, chemically enhanced, and, some say, gives a less than natural taste.

It would be better if the tomato could be left on the vine to ripen naturally, then picked, frozen to preserve freshness, and shipped in a frozen state to the grocery store. There, it could be thawed, placed on the shelf, and purchased for immediate consumption with the natural flavor preserved. That sounds good, but most varieties of tomatoes cannot “take” being frozen and then thawed. If only a way could be found or developed to permit this freezing and thawing while preserving the tomato in its natural state!

Well, there is a certain variety of fish that can be frozen alive and kept in a frozen state. When the fish thaws, it swims away without any adverse effect on its life.

The ability of the fish to be frozen and thawed without harmful effects is controlled by a gene in its DNA. That gene has been identified and isolated by scientists and can be removed from the fish DNA.

That same gene can be spliced into the tomato DNA and a new, biologically modified tomato variety can be grown which can be frozen and thawed without any problems. Sound impossible? It is being done today.

Over the years we have learned plaque deposits are left inside our blood vessels by the foods we eat. Physicians encourage us to lower our cholesterol levels which aids in preventing certain types of cardiac problems. If the plaque comes off the vessel walls in too large a clump, it may cause serious harm, or even death, by becoming lodged in the heart, lung, brain, etc. What if there was some way to grind off the plaque in such small amounts at a time that there would be little if any chance of blockage?

Scientists have developed microscopic “grinding wheels,” for lack of a better term. These tiny machines contain a turning abrasive surface that is fully capable of grinding away unwanted plaque with little if any danger to humans.

On still another note, Dr. Keith Campbell and his team of scientists have cloned Dolly the sheep. This process opened the door to unbelievable advances in treatment of certain diseases and medical conditions and regeneration of body parts, thereby prolonging and enhancing life.

Can we continue our sedentary lifestyle and ruin our bodies because super medical improvements will correct all our self-induced problems? Certainly not. Do fantastic inventions such as these solve our problems? Perhaps some, but there may be some inherent matters to clear up along the way.

What of the people, albeit few in number, who are deathly allergic to fish? What would happen if one of them ate a tomato modified with part of a fish DNA? What if the microscopic grinding wheels, once injected into the bloodstream, could not be removed, but just kept grinding and grinding and grinding away through the plaque, through the blood vessel walls, and on and on?

With all advancements come new sets of problems. Should the new achievements, such as those described above, be thrown out with the bath water as they might carry some dangers? Surely not.

It is sad that while so many scientific advances are developed in the United States and Great Britain, these same two countries are among the slowest of all nations to implement their usage. We invent but sit on our inventions. China and other Asian nations take those inventions and race ahead with them, reaping the medical as well as economic benefits and perhaps leaving the United States and United Kingdom in their “dust.”

While often uninformed or otherwise ill-motivated activists demonstrate, burn, and destroy scientific laboratories in protest, other nations pour millions of dollars into the development of economically viable usages of many of these new techniques.

Rather than turning up our noses at these seemingly impossible new techniques, perhaps we as entrepreneurs and governments should be encouraging and supporting research and development in these areas. Evansville has been and is in the forefront in certain nutritional and medical advances. Maybe this is another area where local businesses can make their mark (and fortune) in the medical industry.

NOTE: Dr. Les Nunn and Dr. Brian L. McGuire are faculty members in the College of Business at the University of Southern Indiana. Nunn is associate professor of business law; McGuire is chair of the Department of Accounting and Business Law and professor of accounting.