The use of biology to develop new products, methods and organisms for the welfare of human health and society.
Any method that uses live creatures (or portions of organisms) to create or alter goods, enhance plants and animals, or create microbes with particular purposes is referred to as biotechnology. This is relatively recent biological understanding, but it has already significantly improved human health and welfare. However, few people are aware that the life sciences provide more than 30% of the world’s economic output in the areas of health care, food and energy, agriculture, and forestry. Furthermore, this economic influence is expected to increase as biotechnology develops new methods for influencing the processing of raw materials. All life science domains will see an increase in efficiency as a result of biotechnology. It is now acknowledged that it will actually contribute trillions of dollars in the twenty-first century.
With its rapid advancement, biotechnology will soon be viewed as more than just a means of profit—rather, it will be considered as an essential component of the advancement of modern life. Biotechnology encompasses a wide range of applications, from highly complex molecular processes, like recombinant DNA (deoxy ribonucleic acid) technologies to produce new medicines and therapeutics or to introduce new traits into commercial crops and animals, to very simple and traditional processes, like the production of beer, wine, and cheese. The growing trend of linking modern genetic engineering with traditional industries like brewing is not without precedent, as seen by the significant investments made in biotechnology research by major corporations like Guinness, Carlsberg, and Bass.
Although the term “biotechnology” has many different meanings, it generally refers to the application of living things and their byproducts to improve human health and the environment. The integration of natural sciences with organisms, cells, and components thereof, as well as molecular counterparts for goods and services, is what the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) defines as biotechnology. The definition of EFB holds true for both contemporary and conventional biotechnology. While modern biotechnology encompasses all methods of genetic modification by recombinant DNA and cell fusion techniques, along with the modern development of these processes, traditional biotechnology refers to the conventional techniques that have been used for many centuries to produce beer, wine, cheese, and many other foods. The challenge of characterizing biotechnology and
Unlike microelectronics, biotechnology is not a producer in and of itself; rather, it should be viewed as a set of enabling technologies with broad applications across numerous industrial sectors. It is a technology that is looking for new uses, as you will see in later parts, and its primary advantages are yet to come. Many of these new processes will operate at low temperatures, with low energy requirements, and primarily rely on cheap substrates for biosynthesis. The earliest recorded history of biotechnology dates back to the time when prehistoric humans were sufficiently domesticated to breed plants and animals, gather and prepare herbs for medicinal purposes, make bread, wine, and beer, create a variety of fermented food products like yogurt, cheese, and different soy products, build septic systems to handle their waste products from digestion and excretion, and more.
Archaeologists continue to find older instances of every process by which humans have used organisms, with the majority of these processes dating back to 5000–10,000 B.C. In 1919, the Hungarian engineer Karl Ereky first used the word “biotechnology.” During that period, the phrase encompassed all professions where goods are created from raw materials using living things as intermediaries. Like the stone and iron ages, Ereky imagined a biochemical age. It appears that biotechnology is spearheading an unexpected new biological revolution. We are now on the verge of a world where products are “engineered” and not dependent on industrial and chemical processes, but rather on the natural world. “Janus-faced” has been used to describe biotechnology. This suggests that there are two On the one hand, methods exist for manipulating DNA to transfer genes from one organism to another; nevertheless, this process includes relatively new technology, the effects of which are unknown and should be approached with caution.
Vaccine discovered by Biotechnology:
The use of biotechnology gives information about vaccine formation by approving FDA.
There are 4 human therapeutic or vaccine proteins made by modern biotechnology methods.
| No. | Product | Use | Year |
| 1 | Actimmune | to treat Chronic Granulomatous Disease, or CGD | 1990 |
| 2 | Activase | acute myocardial infarction | 1990 |
| 3 | Alferon N | treat genital warts in adults | 1989 |
| 4 | Betaseron | treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis | 1993 |