Biotechnology 

Biotechnology is a set of modern techniques that used to be living beings or organisms for specific needs and opportunities. This entire field is the source of producing new products in a larger faster way, deviating from the conventional way of doing the same. 

A Hungarian engineer, Karl Ereky in 1917 at first introduced the term ‘Biotechnology’ to describe a process for large scale production of pigs. 

Introduction

      Biotechnology is the application of scientific methods to manipulate living cells or organisms for practical purposes. In other ways, this branch is described as the methods and techniques that involve the use of living organisms like bacteria, fungi, plant and animal cells or their parts or products as tools (e.g. genes, enzymes). For centuries, humankind has made significant improvements to crop plants through conventional breeding and hybridization. In this case, plant biotechnology is an extension of the traditional plant breeding method with very important differences which allows for the transfer of a greater variety of genetic information in high precision and controlled system. This technique is used in various fields like food processing, agriculture, pharmaceutical and medicine. 

   Based on function modern biotechnology decided into following five branches – human, environmental, industrial, animal and plant. 

Types of Biotechnology 

Like the stripes of the rainbow, biotechnology has seven different application aspects which give many useful directions to human beings. 

• • Red Biotechnology:  This is the branch of the health department, and responsible for more than 250 vaccines and medications such as antibiotics, regenerative therapies and the production of artificial organs. 
  • Green Biotechnology: This branch related to agricultural purposes where farmers use this technology to fight against pests, different microorganisms and extreme weather events (drought and frost) and mostly for nourishment crops and strengthened against these factors. 
  • White Biotechnology: This branch related to industrial purposes. By this modern technology occurs the development of biofuels and other manufacturing processes which make the industry more efficient and sustainable. 
  • Yellow Biotechnology: This branch relates to the food production industry. It helps to reduce the levels of saturated fats in cooking oils. 
  • Blue Biotechnology: This technology exploits marine resources to obtain aquaculture, cosmetics and health care products. And also used for obtaining biofuels from certain microalgae. 
  • Grey Biotechnology: By this method conservation and restoration of contaminated natural ecosystems occurs. 
  • Gold Biotechnology: It is responsible for obtaining, storing, analysing and separating biological information, mainly related to DNA and amino acid sequences. 

Another one type is called Dark Biotechnology,  which is associated with bioterrorism or biological weapons and biowarfare which uses microorganisms. 

Scope and Importance

This is the application of scientific methods to manipulate living cells or organisms for beneficial use. It has an integration with other branches such as life sciences, biochemistry, molecular biology, microbiology etc. The importance of this branch of science is directly related to human health, environment, agriculture and industry. 

Some of the major application of biotechnology has been described below:

• • Biotechnology in Medicine: The monoclonal antibody, DNA/RNA probes have been made through modern biotechnological approaches. These can be used in the diagnosis of various diseases. The valuable drugs such as insulin and interferon have been synthesized on large scale by bacteria for the treatment of human diseases. Pharmacogenomics is a combined technology of pharmacology and genomics, that analyses how genetic makeup affects an individual’s response to drugs. The main purpose of this technology is to develop rational means to optimize drug therapy, with respect to patients’ genotype and to ensure maximum efficacy with minimal adverse effects. 
  • Industrial Purpose: It was initiated for large scale production of antibiotics and alcohol by genetically engineered microbes. In recent times, a variety of pharmaceutical drugs and chemicals are produced through genetic engineering method, for better quality and quantities, such as lactic acid, glycerine etc. It provided us with very precise and cost-effective techniques for the production of many valuable biomolecules such as immobilized enzymes. A variety of existing proteins have been remodelled for increasing efficiency of their function. 
  • Agricultural field: In agriculture, plant cells or tissues or organs are cultured widely for rapid and economic clonal multiplication of fruits, seeds and forest trees. Such cultures are carried out for the production of virus-free genetic stocks and in the creation of novel genetic variation through soma-clonal variation. Genetic engineering techniques can be applied to create transgenic plants having desirable genes such as disease resistance, herbicide resistance, increased shelf-life of fruits etc. Molecular markers provide powerful tools for selection of both qualitative and quantitative traits which can be used for molecular breeding. 
  • Biotechnology and Environment: There are major concerns about environmental problems, such as pollution, depletion of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, etc. Such problems can be solved using modern technological tools. In bioremediation, engineered bacteria are being utilized for detoxification of industrial effluents, in combating oil spills, in treatment of sewage and also for biogas production. Biopesticides such as Bt protein provide environmentally safer alternatives to chemical pesticides for control of insect pests and diseases. 

Advantages

The benefits of BIO on the environment and human beings are very tangible and have many positive effects on the environment, health and ethics. 

• It reduces Carbon dioxide emissions – optimises the use of water and reduces waste and chemical processes thanks to techniques such as recombinant DNA. 
• It improves medical diagnosis – minimises the harmful side effects of medications and favours progress in developing countries. 
• Helps to improve the health and life span of human beings and decreases the dependency level on imported goods. 
• It Favours healthy and sustainable agriculture – this technology provides more nutritious, toxin and allergen-free food and also helps to reduce the use of pesticides and toxic chemicals. 
• Biomass production for energy. 
• Used plants and animals as bioreactors. 
• Increased production and health of livestock. 

Disadvantages

Besides these positive sides, this technology has some adverse effects on the entire environment. 

• The proliferation of industrial wastage could end in crop diversity and have very harmful effects on human life and lose the balance of the ecosystem. 
• Through this modernization reduction of natural resources occurs day today. 
• Legal and financial complications happened sometimes. 
• The unemployment rate increased randomly which shows a bigger problem nowadays. 

That’s it for this post. If you have any query please feel free to comment below. Thank you.