Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a technology based on biology, especially when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine.

Of the many different definitions available, the one formulated by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is one of the broadest:

"Biotechnology means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use." (Article 2. Use of Terms)

Or another definition can be: Biotechnology is the manipulation of organisms to do practical things and to provide useful products.

One section of biotechnology is the directed use of organisms for the manufacture of organic products (examples include beer, milk products, and skin). Naturally present bacteria are utilized by the mining industry in bioleaching. Biotechnology is also used to recycle, treat waste, clean up sites contaminated by industrial activities (bioremediation), and produce biological weapons.

There are also applications of biotechnology that do not use living organisms. Examples are DNA microarrays used in genetics and radioactive tracers used in medicine.

Modern biotechnology is often associated with the use of genetically altered microorganisms such as E. coli or yeast for the production of substances like insulin or antibiotics. It can also refer to transgenic animals or transgenic plants, such as Bt corn. Genetically altered mammalian cells, such as Chinese Hamster Ovarian (CHO) cells, are also widely used to manufacture pharmaceuticals. Another promising new biotechnology application is the development of plant-made pharmaceuticals.

Biotechnology is also commonly associated with breakthroughs in new medical therapies and diagnostic devices.

Sub-fields of biotechnology

There are a number of jargon terms for sub-fields of biotechnology.

Red biotechnology is biotechnology applied to medical processes. Some examples are the designing of organisms to produce antibiotics, and the engineering of genetic cures to cure diseases through genomic manipulation.

White biotechnology, also known as grey biotechnology, is biotechnology applied to industrial processes. An example is the designing of an organism to produce a useful chemical. White biotechnology tends to consume less in resources than traditional processes when used to produce industrial goods.

Green biotechnology is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes. An example is the designing of an organism to grow under specific environmental conditions or in the presence (or absence) of certain agricultural chemicals. One hope is that green biotechnology might produce more environmentally friendly solutions than traditional industrial agriculture. An example of this is the engineering of a plant to express a pesticide, thereby eliminating the need for external application of pesticides. Whether or not green biotechnology products such as this are ultimately more environmentally friendly is a topic of considerable debate.

Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field which addresses biological problems using computational techniques. The field is also often referred to as computational biology. It plays a key role in various areas like functional genomics, structural genomics, and proteomics amongst others, and forms a key component in biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector.

The term blue biotechnology has also been used to describe the marine and aquatic applications of biotechnology, but its use is relatively rare.

Biotechnology timeline

8000 BCE Collecting of seeds for replanting. Evidence that Babylonians, Egyptians and Romans used selective breeding (artificial selection) practices to improve livestock.
6000 BCE Brewing beer, fermenting wine, baking bread with help of yeast
4000 BCE Chinese made yogurt and cheese with lactic-acid-producing bacteria
1500 CE Plant collecting around the world
1590 CE The microscope is invented by Zacharias Janssen.
1675 CE Microorganisms discovered (using first microscope)
1857 CE Gregor Mendel discovered the laws of inheritance
1919 CE Karl Ereky, a Hungarian agricultural engineer, first used the word biotechnology
1953 CE James D. Watson and Francis Crick describe the structure of DNA
1972 CE The DNA composition of humans is discovered to be 99% similar to that of chimpanzees and gorillas.
1975 CE Method for producing monoclonal antibody developed by Kohler and Milstein
1980 CE Modern biotech is characterized by recombinant DNA technology. The prokaryote model, E. coli, is used to produce insulin and other medicine, in human form. (About 5% of diabetics are allergic to animal insulins available before)
1980 CE A viable brewing yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae 1026 acts a modifier of the microflora in the rumen of cows and digestive tract of horses)
1984 CE Nutrigenomics as applied science in animal nutrition
1990 CE Adam Williams was the first test tube baby made from the embryo of a mouse
1994 CE FDA approves of the first GM food from Calgene: "Flavr Savr" tomato
1997 CE Scottish scientists from the Roslin Institute report cloning a sheep called Dolly using DNA from two adult sheep cells. Ian Wilmut led the team that cloned Dolly.
2000 CE Completion of the Human gaynrreemm Project
2002 CE Researchers sequence the DNA of rice, the main food source for two-thirds of the world's population. Rice is the first crop to have its genome decoded.
2003 CE GloFish, the first biotech pet, hits the North American market. Specially bred to detect water pollutants, the fish glows red under black light thanks to the addition of a natural bioluminescence gene.
2006 CE Scientists in Asia implant the DNA of a jellyfish into a pig embryo, creating the first bioluminescent pig.