Bio-technology - Indispensable to health, well-being

By Nilma DOLE

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Bio-technology is considered to be the science of the century. It is a research oriented science that combines biology and technology. This ground breaking field of research science concerns a wide variety of subjects that include genetics, biochemistry, virology, engineering in addition to topics such as agriculture, animal husbandry, ecology, cell biology and much more.

The list is endless because bio-technology is the study of the use of organisms by humans.

Moreover, bio-technology is also an industry of great scope and immense career opportunities. Applications of bio-technology include developing various medicines, vaccines and diagnostics that help to increase productivity, improve energy production, conservation and much more.

Although the term 'bio-technology' is modern, humans have been using bio-technology to produce staple food or in layman terms, genetically modified foods and beverages. From beer made out of fermentation to the brewer's yeast that puts the fizz into the beverages, to food that is geared to feed billions with the present food crisis, bio-technology is important.

Today, bio-technology is indispensable to our health and well-being. And every society on earth uses and depends on it in one form or another.

The nature of bio-technology has undergone dramatic changes in the past 50 years and continues to develop more. Modern bio-technology is based on recent developments in molecular biology, especially those in genetic engineering.

Organisms from bacteria to cows are being genetically modified to produce food and pharmaceuticals. New methods of disease gene isolation, analysis, and detection, as well as gene therapy, promises to revolutionize medicine making is indispensable for us. Bio-technology is also used to recycle, treat waste, cleans up sites contaminated by industrial activities (bio-remediation) and can produce biological weapons.

There are also applications of bio-technology that do not use living organisms but rely on artificial means. Examples include DNA micro-arrays used in genetics and radioactive tracers used in medicine. Using gene technology which is another branch of bio-tech, scientists can now explore the genetic blueprints of species and catalogue and clone (copy) their genes. They can analyse the proteins and enzymes that result from gene activity, and study the mechanisms that control genes and manipulate them.

There are number of terms for sub-fields of bio-technology:

Red bio-technology - Bio-technology applied to medical processes. An example would include an organism designed to produce an antibiotic, or engineering genetic cures to diseases through genomic manipulation.

White bio-technology - also known as grey bio-technology is bio-technology applied to industrial processes.

An example would include an organism designed to produce a useful chemical. White bio-technology tends to consume fewer resources than traditional processes when used to produce industrial goods.

Green bio-technology - Bio-technology applied to agricultural processes. An example would include an organism designed to grow under specific environmental conditions or in the presence (or absence) of certain agricultural chemicals.

Green bio-technology tends to produce more environmentally friendly solutions than traditional industrial agriculture.

An example of this would include a plant engineered to express a pesticide, thereby eliminating the need for external application of pesticides.

Each of these sub fields of bio-technology are inter-linked in some way or another and all share similar foundations starting from biology and integration into technology.

Bio-tech is not a new field of science but it is getting much attention from science and research enthusiasts over its exciting fields of study, wide ranging options and immense possibilities.