Intro to Biotechnology

1. History, Scope and Significance
of
Biotechnology
Dr. Habibur Rahman
Associate Professor
J. N. College, Boko

2. Introduction to Biotechnology:
The root words of biotechnology are ancient Greek:• Bios: "life"• Technikos:
“Skillfully made "tool"• Logos: "Study of," "word," "essence"
• Biotechnology- “The study of living tools"- is used in agriculture, food
processing, industrial production, environmental cleanup and medicine.
• A set of modern tools that utilize living organisms or parts of it cell or tissue or
genes/DNA to make or modify or improve plants or animals or develop
microorganisms for specific use or their large scale production.
• "Utilization of organisms or its organelles or biological process to make
product or to solve problems for the welfare of mankind."
• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 2000) biotechnology means
"any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms,
or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific
use".

3. • Biotechnology - production of goods and services
using biological organisms, systems and process.
• Biotechnology, the use of biology to solve problems
and make useful products. The most prominent area
of biotechnology is the production of therapeutic
proteins and other drugs through genetic engineering.

4. Basic Techniques of Biotechnology:
The two basic techniques used in
biotechnology are
1. Tissue culture(Soft Biotechnology)
2. Genetic engineering (Hard Biotechnology)

5. • Biotechnology is "the application of biological organisms, system or
processes to manufacturing and service industries"( British
Biotechnologist).
• Biotechnology is the use of living organisms and their components in
agriculture, food and other industrial processes.
• Biotechnology is "the application of scientific and engineering principles
of the processing of materials by biological agents to provide goods and
services''(Holt and Lilley,1982).

6. CONCEPT:
• The origin of biotechnology is as old as human civilization. As a
science it is little more than 100 years old.
• Fermentation is the oldest biotechnological process discovered by the
people by prolonged soaking of grains or by sorting juices of fruits or
palms.
• Other early processes practiced by man included leavening of bread,
production of alcoholic beverages, production of vinegar, production
of curd, etc.
• Nowadays biotechnology has achieved greatest advancement in the
filed of Recombinant DNA technology, PCR, Cell-culture and fusion,
gene cloning, DNA fingerprinting, environmental engineering,
Immunology etc.

7. HISTORY:
• 6000 B.C., Sumarians and Babylonians Knew the technique of preparing
beer.
• 2500 B.C.,Aryans started preparing curd.
• 2000 B.C., Greeks were probably first to prepare cheese from milk ( cheese
one of the first fermented food).
• 1822-1895 Louis Pasteur, "The father of Microbiology and father of
Industrial Biotechnology'‘ discovered that yeast produced alcohol in wine
and rod-shaped bacteria produced acetic acid, cause souring of wine.
• 1929, Alexander Fleming discovered antibiotic penicillin.
• 1973, First successful genetic engineering experiments were carried out in
famous world laboratories.

8. History of biotechnology
People have been harnessing biological processes to improve their quality of
life for some 10,000 years, beginning with the first agricultural communities.
Approximately 6,000 years ago, humans began to tap the biological
processes of microorganisms in order to make bread, alcoholic beverages,
and cheese and to preserve dairy products. But such processes are not what is
meant today by biotechnology, a term first widely applied to the molecular
and cellular technologies that began to emerge in the 1960s and ’70s. A
fledgling “biotech” industry began to coalesce in the mid- to late 1970s, led
by Genentech, a pharmaceutical company established in 1976 by Robert A.
Swanson and Herbert W. Boyer to commercialize the recombinant DNA
technology pioneered by Boyer, Paul Berg, and Stanley N. Cohen. Early
companies such as Genentech, Amgen, Biogen, Cetus, and Genex began by
manufacturing genetically engineered substances primarily for medical and
environmental uses.

9. For more than a decade, the biotechnology industry was dominated by
recombinant DNA technology, or genetic engineering. This technique
consists of splicing the gene for a useful protein (often a human protein) into
production cells—such as yeast, bacteria, or mammalian cells in culture—
which then begin to produce the protein in volume. In the process of splicing
a gene into a production cell, a new organism is created. At first,
biotechnology investors and researchers were uncertain about whether the
courts would permit them to acquire patents on organisms; after all, patents
were not allowed on new organisms that happened to be discovered and
identified in nature.

10. But, in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty,
resolved the matter by ruling that “a live human-made microorganism is
patentable subject matter.” This decision spawned a wave of new
biotechnology firms and the infant industry’s first investment boom. In 1982
recombinant insulin became the first product made through genetic
engineering to secure approval from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA). Since then, dozens of genetically engineered protein
medications have been commercialized around the world, including
recombinant versions of growth hormone, clotting factors, proteins for
stimulating the production of red and white blood cells, interferons, and clot-
dissolving agents.

11. • Biotechnology at the beginning of the twentieth century began to bring industry
and agriculture together. In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the mold
Penicillium. In 1940, penicillin became available for medicinal use to treat
bacterial infections in humans.
• The biotechnical focus moved to pharmaceuticals. In 1953, James Watson and
Francis Crick's were discovered the structure of DNA. The field of modern
biotechnology is generally thought of as having been born in 1971 when Paul
Berg's experiments in gene splicing had early success.
• Herbert W. Boyer and Stanley N. Cohen significantly advanced the new
technology in 1972 by transferring genetic material into a bacterium, such that
the imported material would be reproduced. In 1978, Boyer was able to take
pieces of human DNA and isolate a gene for insulin using biotechnology. In the
1980s, testing of biotechnology-derived foods began, and after its FDA
approval in 1994, the FlavrSavr® tomato gave consumers a more flavorful
tomato that stays fresh longer. Today's biotechnology has its "roots" in
chemistry, physics, and biology.

12. Significance of Biotechnology :
• The amalgamation of Biology with Technology is termed as
“Biotechnology”.
• This field utilizes cellular and biomolecular processes to create new
technologies and processes that facilitate the development of new products as
well as bringing improvement in existing products.
• Example – Bread, preserved dairy products like cheese, etc. Biotechnology
positively impacts several fields such as Agriculture, Food processing,
Energy and the Environment amongst others.
• The field of biotechnology also plays an extremely crucial role in the
development of medicines and vaccines.
• Areas such as Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaco-Genomics,
Genetics extensively use biotech enabled methods to discover and cure life-
threatening diseases. Example – Human insulin which is used to treat
diabetes is made in genetically engineered bacteria (a biotech process).

13. • The COVID19 pandemic has presented a severe crisis for humanity and
Biotechnology seems to be the only hope to save lives.
• Researchers across the countries are utilizing biotechnology tools to develop
an effective vaccine against infectious disease.
• In the past Biotechnology has helped to eradicate viruses like SARS,
Influenza, Zika amongst others and that’s the reason why biotech companies
and research organizations are optimistic for the COVID19 vaccine as well.
• Apart from its challenges, COVID19 has simultaneously brought several
opportunities. Now, the entire Biotech industry is going through a wave of
evolution. This evolution will definitely bring new job and research
opportunities for the students hence redefining the scope of biotechnology

14. SCOPE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY:
• Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary pursuit that has emerged as a
demanding industry during the recent past.
• Besides being a branch of advance biological sciences, it has attracted
many multinational companies including those are concerned with:
• The production of pharmaceutical products for the cure or control
of many human diseases. These products include antibiotics,
vaccines, life saving drugs and gene therapy.
• Improvement of clinical testing and diagnostic tools.
• Production of novel varieties of crop plants and animals.

15. CONCLUSION
• Biotechnology is the production of interaction between biological science
and modern technology.
• During last two decades biotechnology has achieved greatest
advancements in the fields of recombinant DNA technology, Polymerase
chain reaction(PCR), gene cloning, DNA finger-printing etc.
• Being a branch of advance biological sciences, it has also attracted many
multinational companies.
• Insulin production and production of growth harmones is one of the
greatest blessing of Biotechnology.