Biotechnology Unit 1:Introduction to Biotech by Doctor-dr

Biotechnology

Unit 1: Introduction to Biotechnology

What is Biotechnology, and how does it work?

Karl Ereky used the term "biotechnology" in 1919 to describe the overall process of turning raw materials into usable goods.

“Biotechnology is the regulated use of biological agents such as cells or cellular components for useful purposes,” according to the United States National Science Academy.

Biotechnology is described as "the use of live creatures, cells, or cellular components for the manufacture of chemicals or exact genetic modification of living things for the benefit of man" in a more generic sense.

Biotechnology May Be Classified Into Three Stages or Categories: 

1. Biotechnology from the past (Pre-1800)
2. Biotechnology as it is known today (1800 to almost the middle of the twentieth century)
3. Biotechnology of the Present (till date)

Classical Biotechnology

• Before the twentieth century, the word "biotechnology" was used to describe traditional activities such as the production of dairy products such as cheese, curd, bread, wine, and beer. None of these, however, can be classified as biotechnology in the contemporary sense.
• Similarly, genetic modification of species by selective breeding, plant cloning through grafting, and other forms of biotechnology are not included.
• Classical biotechnology or traditional biotechnology refers to the fermentation process used to prepare and manufacture items such as alcohol, beer, wine, dairy products, and other forms of organic acids such as vinegar, citric acid, amino acids, and vitamins.

Modern Biotecnology

• In the use of live organisms, modern biotechnology is comparable to classical biotechnology.
• It is not modern in the sense of using various living organisms, but rather in the techniques for doing so. The technological explosion of the twentieth century, in various branches of science such as physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science, and information technology, revolutionised the development of life sciences, leading to the evolution of modern biotechnology.
• In addition to bioprocess technology, modern biotechnology is primarily dependent on recombinant DNA (rDNA) and hybridoma technology.

1. Recombinant DNA Technology (RDNA)

• The main tool for creating genetically modified organisms is rDNA technology.
• In reality, recombinant human insulin was developed and sold in the United States in 1982, marking the start of contemporary biotechnology.
• The endeavour that led to this historic occurrence began in the early 1970s, when researchers devised methods for creating vectors by cutting out and pasting bits of DNA together to generate a new piece of DNA (recombinant DNA) that could be introduced into the E. coli bacteria.
• If one of the new DNA pieces has a gene for insulin or any other therapeutic protein or enzyme, the bacteria might generate vast quantities of that protein or enzyme using bioprocess technology.

2. Hybridoma Technology

• Hybridoma Technology is a technology that combines the best of both worlds.
• In 1975, the first hybridomas were produced.
• A B-lymphocyte that secretes an antibody against a particular antigen is united with a myeloma cell in hybridoma technology.
• If injected into a mouse's abdomen or grown in a bioreactor using bioprocess technology, the resultant (cancerous B-lymphocyte) cell will grow and divide endlessly, generating vast quantities of the antibody, which may then be collected.
• Monoclonal antibodies (MAb) are the proteins that result, and they're commonly seen in diagnostic tests.

3. Bioprocess Engineering

• Bioprocess Technology is a sub-discipline of biotechnology that involves combining living materials, such as organisms or enzymes, with nutrients under specified optimum circumstances to produce a desired product.
• Bioprocess technology in fermentation may be used to produce large amounts of proteins and enzymes on a large scale.
• The following are examples of bioprocess technology:
• Preparation of the media and buffer
• Upstream and downstream processing are two different types of processing.
• Upstream processing offers the medium, substrate, and chemical environment for the microorganism to carry out the biochemical processes necessary to generate the product.
• The separation procedure for harvesting the purified product from the fermentation medium is known as downstream processing.
• As a result, fermentation technology evolved into biotechnology, which is today referred to as traditional biotechnology.

Biotechnology has gained a new branch as a result of the incorporation of information technology and the internet.
Bioinformatics and computational biology are two fields of study.

Historical Perspective

• Biotechnology is a relatively recent science (approximately 200 years), yet it is a very old technology.
• The term "biotechnology" was originally used in 1919 to describe a large-scale fermentation process for the manufacture of industrial chemicals.
• Biotechnology may be traced back to prehistoric civilizations such as the Egyptian and Indus valley civilizations, when man first began to farm and domesticate animals.
• They had learnt to perform biotechnology even before they were aware of the presence of microbes.

1. ANCIENT CIVILIZATION AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Primitive man became domesticated enough to breed plants and animals, manufacture bread, wine, and beer, as well as a variety of fermented foods such as yoghurt and cheese, and develop vaccinations to protect themselves against illnesses.
• Archaeologists continue to uncover older evidence of man's usage of microbes.
• Most of these processes have been documented since 5000 BC.

• Fermented foods, drinks, and medications were made and used by the ancient Indus people.
• As early as 4000 BC, the Egyptians and Sumerians employed yeast to make wine and bake bread.
• Bacteria were employed in Mesopotamia to turn wine into vinegar.
• Crop rotation was used by the ancient Greeks to enhance crop output by using microscopic creatures that reside in the ground.
• Drying, smoking, curing, salting, and other methods of food preservation were also utilised by the Greeks.
• Mummification in Egypt was accomplished by the application of a salt combination to dehydrate the body.

2. Fermentation and Microorganisms

• When Dutch experimentalist Anton Van Leeuwenhoek discovered microbes using his microscope in the seventeenth century, he provided clues to understanding fermentation.
• Using analytical techniques for carbon dioxide measurement, he deduced the chemical foundation of the fermentation process.
• Louis Pasteur, a French scientist, provided the first study on the production of lactic acid from sugar via fermentation in 1857.
• Later in 1860, he released a thorough study on alcohol fermentation.
• He demonstrated in this study that fermentation is a result of anaerobic life.
• Eduard Buchner observed the production of ethanol and carbon dioxide when cell-free yeast extract was introduced to an aqueous solution of sugars near the end of the nineteenth century.
• He demonstrated that cells are not required for the fermentation process, and that the active ingredients are dissolved in the extract.
• Zymase was the name he gave to the drug.
• During World War I, the fermentation process was adapted in Germany to create glycerine for the explosive nitroglycerine.
• Military armament projects also found new technology in the food and chemical sectors, which helped them win battles throughout WWI.
• For example, they made explosive cordite using microorganisms that convert maize or molasses to acetone.
• While biotechnology assisted in the killing of troops, it also assisted in the healing of those same soldiers.
• The first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming and proved to be extremely effective in treating injured troops.

3. Genetics' Beginnings

• When Gregor John Mendel published his results as the "rules of genetics" in 1906, biotechnology made a giant leap ahead.
• He anticipated the existence of 'units of heredity' (later dubbed genes) that remained the same from generation to generation.
• It was formerly thought that each gene corresponded to a distinct characteristic.
• Genetics was assisting plant breeders in improving their crops by the 1920s.
• Genetics had revolutionised agriculture by the 1940s, paving the way for the Green Revolution in the 1960s.

4. The Origins of Modern Biotechnology: DNA and Genetic Engineering

• In 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson, together with Rosalind Franklin, determined that the DNA structure was a double helix, revolutionising the field of genetics.
• DNA is nearly same in structure, function, and content in all living creatures.
• The precise arrangement of the chemical bases in the DNA molecule is what distinguishes and distinguishes each organism.
• This gave scientists the idea that they might alter the ordering of lifeforms by doing so.
• Soon after, scientists and manufacturers began transferring particular genes from one creature to another, altering the genetic make-up of living organisms.
• Genentech, a biotech firm based in the United States, was the first to discover methods to rearrange DNA in 1976.
• In 1982, the first recombinant human medicinal protein, insulin (humulin), was created, as well as monoclonal antibodies for diagnostic purposes.
• To investigate cancer, transgenic animals were produced, such as the unlucky onco mouse, which was intended to get cancer 10 months after birth.
• Approximately 600 pharmaceutical firms across the world are working on genetically modified products.
• Companies were inspired to do research after the United States Supreme Court permitted genetically modified microbes to be patented in 1980.
• This means that, potentially, every lifeform on the earth can become the private property of the corporation or person that ‘creates' it.
• However, one of the greatest dangers of the emerging biosciences is that life will be monopolised by a few large corporations.
• Because of the increasing demand for different compounds such as ethanol, butanol, glycerine, acetone, and other chemicals in the nineteenth century, companies related to fermentation technology grew significantly.
• The progress of fermentation technology as a result of its interaction with chemical engineering has spawned a new field known as bioprocess technology.

SCOPE AND IMPORTANCE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Biotechnology has enabled life scientists to develop:

• new drugs
• new diagnostic techniques
• vaccines
• food products
• cosmetics
• industrially useful chemicals
• Genetically-altered crop plants which can resist the stress of pests, diseases, and environmental extremes
• New tools and techniques to extend the studies on genomics and proteomics of all organisms
• to solve environmental problems
• Protease, amylase, lipase, glucose isomerase, invertase, and other industrially essential enzymes are produced on a massive scale using recombinant microbes, plant cells, and animal cells.
• Amylase is a protein that is utilised in the starch business.
• The enzyme glucose isomerase is involved in the production of fructose from glucose syrup.
• Proteases and lipases are used in detergents to help remove stains.
• Protease is also used to remove hair and soften meat and leather in the meat and leather industries.
• Recombinant E. coli has also been used to make a variety of different proteins (for human and veterinary medicines, vaccinations, and diagnostics).
• More than 200 additional human therapeutic and vaccine proteins are now being tested in clinical trials.
• Cancer, AIDS, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, herpes, rheumatoid arthritis, and viral illnesses are among the disorders being researched.

Areas in Biotechnology:
Due to the applications of Biotechnology in various fields of science, it is divided in to following areas:

• Agricultural biotechnology
• Medical or pharmaceutical biotechnology
• Industrial biotechnology
• Environmental biotechnology
• Plant biotechnology
• Animal biotechnology
• Genetic Engineering, etc.

The future of this intriguing new subject of contemporary biotechnology is impossible to predict.
There is no question that it has the potential to improve human lives and the global economy.
However, advances in life science and biotechnology research and development have resulted in a slew of societal, environmental, and ethical issues.
Several groups are investigating a variety of topics and addressing common concerns.
Biotechnology has taken us to this point of comfort, but where will it lead us next?