U.S., Cuban collaboration grows

By Paul Elias
The Associated Press
Monday, December 23, 2002 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific

HAVANA — Jeffrey Rosen's work with genetically engineered cows is the stuff of science fiction — and a new priority for Cuba's biotechnology program.
That's why the researcher from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston spent Thanksgiving here, talking with Cuban colleagues about the promise of milking human medicines from cow udders.

Exchanges between scientists on both sides of the Florida Straits are growing as researchers try to make a political statement while furthering science.

Since 1995, when Rosen began traveling to Cuba on such missions, scientists at Havana's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology have launched a full-scale program to engineer plants and animals for drug production.

Researchers believe a breakthrough will yield inexpensive medicines and badly needed revenue for the cash-strapped country.

Though Cuba has a thriving health-care system and exports several medicines, it generates little revenue. Citizens get health care free, and its biggest customers are other poor nations.

Economic development is the big driver behind Cuba's biotechnology program, and the country is looking to the world's experts for help.

The Cuban government has financial partners around the world. But Cuba cannot deal directly with U.S. companies because of Washington's four-decade-old embargo on trade, so scientists exchange ideas and work mostly out of altruism.

"It's a basic tenet of science to share information and have open exchanges," Rosen said. "It's something scientists do, and Cuba is no exception."

Exchange of researchers

During a recent weeklong conference, several U.S. researchers lectured at the Havana biotechnology center while their Cuban counterparts presented research on topics such as genetically engineered fish and test-tube fertilization.

Earlier this year, five Cuban scientists were the country's first to attend the prestigious annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.

The exchanges extend beyond biotechnology and reach into fields such as chemistry, meteorology and zoology.

"Like any other profession, there's mutual respect," said Carlos Borroto, vice director of the Havana biotech center. "We have very good friends and collaborations."

Borroto said about 600 U.S. scientists visited Cuba last year on official missions.

Much of this year's conference focused on using genetically engineered plants and animals to produce medicines — research that has come under fire in the United States after regulators accused a company of contaminating food crops with genetically engineered plants.

But in Cuba, such work is progressing rapidly with technical assistance from Rosen and other U.S. scientists. The Cuban scientists have even adopted U.S. business attitudes.

"We want to be able to market in the First World," Borroto said. "And we want a strong patent position."

While Borroto talked about patents and profits, other Cuban scientists showed off their genetically engineered hepatitis B and meningitis vaccines, the pride of their biotechnology program.

A legacy of mistrust

Still, it's difficult to counter a 40-year history of mistrust, antagonism and the U.S. economic embargo.

Far fewer U.S. scientists are expected to visit this year, their momentum slowed considerably by national-security concerns.

Cuba is one of seven countries the U.S. State Department considers "state sponsors of terrorism." Cubans wanting to visit the United States must endure a rigorous and time-consuming background check by the FBI. The popular Afro-Cuban All-Stars music group recently canceled a five-week tour because of visa delays.

In May, the Bush administration accused the Cuban biotechnology program of helping U.S. enemies develop biological weapons. Borroto and his colleagues remain highly agitated by the charges, heatedly denying them.

The charges also sent a chill throughout the scientific community, with many researchers now skittish about drawing unwanted scrutiny by collaborating.

"They really worry about repercussions," said Mark Rasenick, a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago's medical school who visited Cuba earlier this month to discuss helping Cuban neuroscientists buy equipment to scan brains.

Even in the best of times, relationships between American and Cuban scientists have been carried out mostly by telephone or e-mail because face-to-face meetings are difficult — sometimes impossible.

Cuban researcher Mario Estrada applied eight times to visit the United States and was turned down all but once.

"You get your hopes up only to be disappointed," Estrada said.

Borroto, who has traveled to the United States once, said he declined a recent invitation because he's insulted by past rejections. He now corresponds with U.S. colleagues through e-mail.

Nobel laureate kept away

In 1999, the U.S. government refused to let Nobel medicine laureate Harold Varmus attend a biotechnology conference in Havana. At the time, Varmus headed the National Institutes of Health.

"It was felt that I was a too-high-ranking government official," Varmus said in a telephone interview from New York, where he is president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "I thought it was a ridiculous decision."

Despite the travails, many other U.S researchers continue visiting Cuba and consulting with their Cuban colleagues, out of collegiality and a sense of obligation to help make up for the Washington-imposed isolation.

Rosen and Rasenick say they have not felt any pressure from their employers to stop these exchanges, and both researchers are hopeful that the embargo will soon end.