|
Biotechnology is technology based on biology, especially when utilized inside agriculture, food science, and medicine.
Of a numerous different definitions available, the of these formulated per UN Convention on Biological Diversity is one of the broadest:
1 part of biotechnology is the directed utilize of organisms for the manufacture of organic products (examples include beer, milk products, and skin). Naturally present bacteria are utilized per mining industry within bioleaching. Biotechnology is as well wont to recycle, handle waste, clean and jerk higher web sites dirty by industrial activities (bioremediation), and green groceries biological weapons.
There are as well applications of biotechnology that don't apply residing organisms. Examples come DNA microarrays used around genetic science & radioactive tracers used within medicine.
Modern biotechnology is typically associated by owning a have of genetically altered microorganisms such as E. coli or yeast for the production of substances like insulin or antibiotics. It can likewise refer to transgenic animals or transgenic plants, such as Bt corn. Genetically altered mammalian cells, like Chinese Hamster ovarian cells, are too widely wont to manufacture pharmaceutic. A second promising recently biotechnology application is the development of plant-made pharmaceuticals.
Biotechnology is likewise usually associated sustaining breakthroughs around newly medical therapies & symptomatic gear.
Sub-fields of biotechnology
There are the total of jargon terms for sub-fields of biotechnology.
Red biotechnology is biotechnology applied to medical processes. A bit of examples come a design of parasites to develop antibiotics, and a engineering of inherited curative to diseases across genomic manipulation.
Whiten biotechnology, as well referred to as grey biotechnology, is biotechnology applied to industrial processes. An case is the design of an organism to develop the utile chemical substance. Whiten biotechnology tends to consume less around resources that traditional processes whilst utilized to develop industrial goods.
Green biotechnology is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes. An lesson is the design of an organism to develop under specific environmental conditions or even even in the presence (or absence) of certain agrarian chemical substance. Green biotechnology tends to create environmentally other friendly solutions than traditional industrial agriculture. An lesson of this is the engineering of the plant to express the pesticide, thereby eliminating the require for external application of pesticides.
Bioinformatics is a an interdisciplinary field which addresses biological problems using computational techniques. A field is likewise typically known as computational biology. It plays the key role inside various areas such as functional genomics, structural genomics, & proteomics amongst others, & forms the key component inside biotechnology & pharmaceutical sector.
A term blue biotechnology has likewise been utilized to describe a marine & aquatic applications of biotechnology, however its utilize is comparatively uncommon.
Biotechnology timeline
8000 BC Collecting of seeds for replanting. Grounds to believe that Babylonians, Egyptians and Romans used selective breeding (artificial selection) practices to improve livestock.
6000 BC Brewing beer, fermenting wine, baking bread with help of yeast
4000 BC Chinese processed yogurt and cheese with lactic-acid-producing bacteria
1500 Plant collecting in the world
1675 Microorganisms discovered (applying number 1 microscope)
1856 Gregor Mendel discovered the laws of inheritance
1919 Karl Ereky, a Hungarian engineer, number 1 utilized a word biotechnology
1953 James D. Watson and Francis Crick describe the structure of DNA
1975 Method for producing monoclonal antibody developed by Kohler and Milstein
1980 Modern biotech is characterized by recombinant DNA technology. A prokaryote model, E. coli, is used to produce insulin and other medicine, in human form. (All about 5% of diabetics come supersensitized to sensual insulins available prior to)
1994 FDA approves of the first GM food from either Calgene: "Flavr Savr" tomato
2000 Completion of the Human Genome Project
Biotechnology firms
A top Decade publicly-traded biotechnology corporations, ranked by 2003 sales, come:
Amgen
Genentech
Serono
Biogen Idec
Chiron
Genzyme
MedImmune
Pfizer
Millennium Pharmaceuticals
Applied Biosystems
Key visionaries and personalities in biotechnology sector
Biotechnology in fiction
Ninth Day of Creation
Genetic engineering and drug design feature prominently in a act carried out at the fictional biotech company known as Immunological Technologies, which appears in the science thriller Ninth Day of Creation by Leonard Crane, published in 2000. More leading light biotechnology-related elements appearing in the book include the supposed guide to the protein folding problem, the creation of novel triple-helix depending genetic medicines, and a reconstruction of the 1918 Spanish Flu from century-old fragments of viral RNA.
Star Trek
A Breen use starships with organic technology. A spaceship USS Voyager used bio-neural gel pack circuitry. Species 8472 used organic spacecraft.
Star Wars
A Yuuzhan Vong exclusively use organic technology & regard mechanical technology when blasphemy.
Jurassic Park
|