Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and advanced engineering techniques to supply or manufacture products and services using cells, portions of creatures, and chemicals. The term biotechnology means producing products from raw materials with the help of living organisms. The process of baking bread is an example of biotechnology in action, as it involves the utilisation of yeast in the form of live organisms to generate the bread. Traditional approaches almost always use living creatures in their natural state. The more current version of biotechnology, on the other hand, will almost always use a more advanced modified version of the biological system or organism.
Biotechnology has now influenced various fields, including genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology. Every year, new technologies and products arise in medicine (creating novel medications and cures), agriculture (the production of genetically modified plants, biofuels, and biological treatment), and industrial biotechnology.
Applications of Biotechnology
Biotechnology applications involve genetically modified crops for waste treatment, agricultural products, production of energy, processed food, and more. Three critical research applications areas of biotechnology are –
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Providing the best catalyst solutions in the form of improved organisms,
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Creating an optimal environment through engineering for a catalyst to act, and
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Optimising processing technologies to nurture the protein/organic compound.
Let us walk through how human beings have utilised biotechnology to improve the quality of human life, particularly in the field of food production and health.
Biotechnology in Agriculture
When the DNA of agriculture plants is modified with modern genetic engineering techniques, they are called genetically modified crops. The basic goal throughout most circumstances is to introduce a novel characteristic that does not exist in the species naturally. Consequently, biotechnology companies can contribute to upcoming food availability by strengthening the nutrition and profitability of modern agriculture.
Biotechnology in Healthcare
Modern biotechnology has contributed to pharmaceutical drug discoveries and production, pharmacogenomics, and genetic testing in healthcare. Biotechnology has many applications to the discovery and manufacturing of traditional small molecule pharmaceutical medicines and medicines that are the product of biotechnology – biopharmaceutics. Modern biotechnology can be helpful to manufacture existing medicines in a relatively easy and cheap manner. Genetic testing enables the diagnosis of vulnerabilities to inherited diseases. A genetic test can provide conformity or rule out a suspected genetic condition.
Biotechnology in Environment
Environmental biotechnology involves different disciplines that play an essential role in reducing environmental waste and designing environmentally safe processes, such as biofiltration and biodegradation. The environment gets affected by biotechnologies, both positively and adversely. Cleaning up environmental waste is an example of an application of environmental biotechnology; on the other hand, loss of biodiversity or containment of a harmful microbe are examples of environmental implications of biotechnology.
Branches of Biotechnology
A list of terms has been determined to identify several branches of biotechnology:
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is an integrated field that uses computer tools to solve biological problems and allows for the quick organisation and analysis of biological data. Bioinformatics is an essential aspect of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, with applications in functional genomics, structural genomics, and proteomics.
Red Biotechnology
Red biotechnology is helpful in the medical and pharmaceutical industries and healthcare preservation. This section covers the development of vaccinations and antibiotics and artificial organs, and illness diagnostics.
Green Biotechnology
Green biotechnology is the methodology applied in agricultural processes – for instance, designing transgenic plants to grow under particular environments in the presence (or absence) of chemicals. The general thought is that green biotechnology might be helpful in the development of more environmentally friendly products than traditional agriculture patterns.
Blue Biotechnology
Blue biotechnology is derived from exploiting sea resources to create products and industrial applications. This is the most used branch of biotechnology for the industries of refining and combustion principally to produce the bio-oils with photosynthetic micro-algae.
Yellow Biotechnology
Yellow biotechnology refers to bio-methods followed in the food production industry – for instance, the winemaking and cheesemaking processes and brewing by using fermentation techniques.
White Biotechnology
White biotechnology, also called industrial biotechnology, is a technique applied to industrial processes. White biotechnology, meant to consume fewer resources than traditional processes, is followed to produce industrial goods.
Gray Biotechnology
Gray biotechnology is mainly dedicated to environmental applications and concentrates more on maintaining biodiversity and the remotion of pollutants.
Conclusion
We can conclude that biotechnology is the application of natural sciences and modern engineering techniques to produce or supply products and services using cells, animal parts, and chemicals. The term “biotechnology” refers to the use of living organisms to create goods from raw materials. Traditionally, living creatures in their natural state are virtually always used. On the other hand, modern biotechnology usually generally employs a more advanced modified version of the biological system or organism.