Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Biotechnology in industry

As technology advances, the many roles biotech plays in our lives increases. Biotechnological advances can be found in nearly all sectors of industry today. There are, of course, the obvious medical, pharmaceutical and food industries. Biotechnology is being used to determine cause and effect of various diseases and are used in the production of drugs. The production of foods is enhanced by biotechnological advances that improve crop yields, introduce in-situ insect resistance and provide new ways of food preservation. Technological advances also include biodegradable packaging and built-in bio-indicators of food contamination. In the environmental sector, biotech has played a role in remediation of contaminated land, water and air, pest control, treatment of industrial effluents and emissions, and acid mine drainage.
Biotechnology is technology based on biology, especially when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity has come up with one of many definitions of biotechnology: "Biotechnology means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use."

Traditional pharmaceutical drugs are small chemicals molecules that treat the symptoms of a disease or illness - one molecule directed at a single target. Biopharmaceuticals are large biological molecules known as proteins and these target the underlying mechanisms and pathways of a malady; it is a relatively young industry. They can deal with targets in humans that are not accessible with traditional medicines. A patient typically is dosed with a small molecule via a tablet while a large molecule is typically injected. Small molecules are manufactured by chemistry but large molecules are created by living cells: for example, - bacteria cells, yeast cell,animal cells.

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