After Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader criticized Iowa State for its close ties to the biotechnology industry, officials in the Department of Biotechnology said Iowa State is an unbiased land-grant institution when it conducts its research.

During a campaign stop in Des Moines Oct. 27, Nader said Iowa State’s corporate donations sway the university’s research toward what the donors want.

“Common people might perceive that when a public university takes corporate money, that the corporation might want something in return,” said Carl Anderson, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering. “But there are safeguards to prevent that from happening.”

He said all research done by a public university is open to the public and other researchers to examine, unlike the research done in the private sector. He said there also are strict rules governing research done and to what extent outside input, like corporations, can interact.

“I would have to say we are not biased — the land-grant research we do is unbiased research,” said Mark Zeller, program coordinator for the biotechnology department. “I have never experienced pressure of any type of favoritism toward corporations.”

Zeller said Iowa State’s biotechnology research enhances products and commodities in the medical and agricultural industries. He said Iowa State is a public university, and the research done here helps Iowans and the state’s agricultural economy.

“Most people who make comments [like those Nader made] don’t know what biotechnology is,” Anderson said.

Some biotechnology personnel said they have wondered why Nader made those comments about Iowa State and the biotechnology department.

Anderson said Nader has campaigned against big-business involvement.

“My guess would have to be [that Nader] is not well-informed about procedures of a land-grant institution,” Zeller said. “[Nader said these things] because of the nature of his platform. It is good fuel for the press.”