The production of biological ...
The production of biological weapons can be divided into several stages, a biological agent must first be chosen and acquired, the production method must be acquired, the agent ...
What is biotechnology?
Biotechnology is the term used to describe a group or collection of technologies which capitalise on the attribute of cells, an example of this is manufacturing capabilities and ...
Agricultural biotechnology
Since time began we humans have always relied on plants and animals to provide us with food, shelter, clothing and fuel, and for thousands of years farmers have ...
Bio energy
Bio energy is any form of energy which can be stored in materials with the help of any living thing, one very simple example of a form of ...
The production of biological ...
The production of biological weapons can be divided into several stages, a biological agent must first be chosen and acquired, the production method must be acquired, the agent ...
What is biotechnology?
Biotechnology is the term used to describe a group or collection of technologies which capitalise on the attribute of cells, an example of this is manufacturing capabilities and ...
Agricultur ...
Since time began we humans have always relied on plants and animals to provide us with food, shelter, clothing and fuel, and for thousands of years farmers have ...
Bio diesel
Bio diesel is an alternative clean burning fuel that is made from domestic renewable resources which is better for the environment. It contains no petroleum but it can ...
Biotechnology can not only benefit humans but also animals too, recently there have been over 100 great advancements in veterinary biologics and vaccines that can help to improve the health of our family pets, livestock and poultry.
Advancements in veterinary products have made great advancements in being better able to treat heartworm, arthritis, parasites, allergies and heart disease as well as advancements in vaccines against rabies and feline HIV and these advancements are used on a daily basis in veterinary clinics throughout the world.
Biotechnology has also significantly improved the way vets address animal issues with the use of diagnostics kits and the improvements of breeding programs to eliminate hereditary diseases. Biotechnology based animal health products have also taken off with a total market over $18 billion; $2.8 billion of these products are biotechnology based.
The tools and techniques of biotechnology have opened up new doors when it comes to researching and learning more about the human body and what goes wrong with it when problems arise. Due to being able to understand the molecular base of health and disease this has lead scientists to improved methods of treating and preventing those diseases.
Biotechnology has made a huge difference in human health care and has now enabled scientists to develop products which can give quicker and more accurate tests, therapies that have a lot less side effects and vaccines which are safer than ever before.
Recombinant DNA technology is thought by many to be the cornerstone of biotechnology; recombinant DNA literally means the joining or recombining of two separate pieces of DNA from two different species. Thousands of years ago, humans would effectively combine the genetic material of domestic pets such as cats and dogs by specifically choosing which individuals would reproduce.
By hand picking which individuals would reproduce only those with favourable traits were bred thus eliminating bad points or genes and as we went along with the line, we changed the genetic make up of the animal in question.
This is seen in the show dogs and cats of today, with breeds now having to comply with a set standard, this very often is far from the looks of the original breed dating back hundreds of years.
Biotechnology has made some great achievements over the last few years giving us things that at one time we would have only dreamed of being possible. Advancements are being made in many different aspects, such as giving us easier and quicker diagnostic tests making treatments quicker and the prognosis better.
They have given us new ways to diagnose, discover and treat new as well as old diseases, such as better knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Here are just some of the many interesting facts in which biotechnology has helped and is helping to make the world a better place.
Acclimatization – the adaptation of an organism to a new environment.
Active immunity – acquired immunity to a disease where resistance is built up either by having the disease or having vaccination against the disease.
Aerobic – needing oxygen for growth.
Allogenic – of the same species but with a different genotype.
Anaerobic – growing without the need for oxygen.
Antibiotic – chemical substance which was a byproduct in bacteria or fungi and used to treat bacterial infections.
Even though great advancements in biotechnology have been made in the last few years biotechnology was around for a long time before we fully realised what we could achieve. Here is the time line:
8000 BC – humans began to domesticate animals and crops and potatoes were cultivated as a means of food.
4000 to 2000 BC – biotechnology was first introduced during this period when the Egyptians began fermenting beer and baking bread. Wine was fermented and the production of cheese began in sumeria, china and Egypt.
500 BC – the first ever antibiotic which was mouldy soybean curdle was used in the treatment of a boil in china.
A.D 100 – powdered chrysanthemums were used as the first form of insecticide in china.
1322 – artificial insemination is first used to produce superior horses in Arabia.
Nano technology is a relatively new technology which came into its own around the year 2000, Nano technology is a step into the future of miniaturization. In today’s world smaller is better, examples of this are seen with electronics equipment. And the best example of this? A few years ago home computers were big and bulky, so were monitors.
Today we have slim line wafer thin monitors with flat screens and much slimmer computer bases with more power than ever before, due to the smaller circuits boards inside. The word Nano technology derives from the word Nano meter which is one thousandth of a micron, which is roughly the size of a single molecule.
Nano technology is the study, manufacture and manipulation of any small structure or machine that can be made of as little as one molecule. Nano technology has only been made possible by the advancement in microscopic tools designed for looking at and allowing manipulation of single molecules.
Therapeutics used today have only been made possible with the use of biotechnology, therapeutics which have been approved are commonly used today to treat a wide variety of diseases such as arthritis, hepatitis, genital warts, anaemia, cystic fibrosis, leukaemia and some other cancers.
Without the use of biotechnology, the great advancements into these diseases wouldn’t have been possible. The therapies which are outlined below all shares the same foundation and all of them have been designed by Mother Nature using biological processes and substances, with some of them relying on the body’s own natural method of healing and correcting problems. Here are just a few of the great advancements biotechnology has helped
Using natural products in therapeutics
Almost all living things have compounds which are therapeutic to us, a lot of our antibiotics are derived from naturally occurring microbes, and a great deal of the medicines which are available today are made from plants, such as Digitalis. Biotechnology is now making it easier than ever before for us to be able to tap into the diversity that nature has to offer.
Bio fuels have been around for many years, for as long as any one can remember wood has been burnt as a source of heating and used in cooking, plant matter has always been used to produce methane, a gas which can also be used to provide heat and is totally natural.
However, scientists with the help of biotechnology are studying new and more efficient ways of providing a natural form of gas. Scientist say the future of bio fuel rests on cellulose or more specifically ethanol.
Where does ethanol come from? Ethanol is typically made from the kernels of corn, with corn being composed of starch and simple sugars which easily dissolve in water, once the sugar has been dissolved they are easily fermented by yeast to give us ethanol. The cellulose is the part of the corn which is left over after harvesting the corn kernels, it is the stalks, leaves and parts of the plant that are thought of as crop residues which are made up of ethanol.
With the discovery and introduction of biotechnological drugs, the pharmaceutical industry is rapidly rising, changing and expanding. Biotechnological drugs are any medicines which are therapeutic proteins such as monoclonal antibodies, blood proteins and enzymes that are produced by a living form specifically to help fight disease.
They are usually produced by microbial fermentation or by mammalian cell culture and are not synthetically produced. At this present time there are over 370 new biotechnology medicines in different stages of progress, with the cell cultures being grown under very strict conditions and are regularly maintained in large stainless steel fermentation vats.
Making a biotechnology drug
Producing drugs is a very complicated and a time consuming process with many years just being spent in actually identifying the therapeutic protein, the gene sequence, then has to be determined and a process has to be worked out using biotechnology to produce the molecules. Only after the method has been devised and scaled up can biotechnology medicines be made in large quantities.