[Essay] Biotechnology

Biotechnology defines as the utilization of organisms and biological processes to supply food, chemicals and services to meet up the wants of humans. This definition includes agriculture, horticulture and many other aspects of applied biology (Juma, 1989).

It was not until the nineteenth century that everything was recognized regarding microorganisms and their function in fermentation. Nowadays, several pharmaceutical products are resulting from fermentation and among the services which make use of biotechnology are the handling of manure and other waste matter, control of oil pollution, desulphurization of coal and the mining of metals from their ores (Brenner, 1991).

A more precise meaning of biotechnology is "the commercial application of living organisms or their products, which involves the deliberate manipulation of their DNA molecules". This description implies a set of laboratory techniques developed in the previous 20 years that have been in charge for the wonderful scientific and commercial interest in biotechnology, the beginning of many new companies, and the redirection of research hard work and financial resources among recognized companies and universities. These laboratory techniques give scientists with a fantastic visualization of the plan and purpose of living organisms, and provide technologists in many fields with the tools to employ stimulating commercial applications (Flegel, 1990).

Even though biotechnology is openly related with cloning and genetic engineering, the objective of biotechnology is to progress the tools of medicine and solve problems associated to the production of biologically derived products, not the unusual manipulation of life (Juma, 1989).

Biotechnology has a lot of examples. Here are the most common examples of biotechnology.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Genetic modification, at times called genetic engineering, involves the alteration of distinctiveness of organisms by manipulating their genes. Different usual reproduction methods, GM allows the genetic relocate among diverse species and between plants and animals. Character can therefore be introduced to crops using GM technology to enhance illness resistance, develop nutritional value and increase crop endurance in drought, flood or frost conditions (Brenner, 1992).

Cloning

Cloning is the use of genetic engineering techniques to transfer genetic material from one organism to another. This has distinctively been used to generate a new organism (Juma, 1989). Dolly the sheep was the first organism cloned from an adult, i.e. she has the same set of genes as her mother.

Therefore, cloning is achieved by fusing genes into an undeveloped cell to generate a reconstructed embryo. Reconstructed embryos are placed in culture, and ones that grow successfully are placed in the uterus of an adult female (Juma, 1989).

Community fear about cloning centers on the mistreatment of the technology by society and the implications to ageing of adult genes within a new organism (Juma, 1989).

Stem Cell Research

Stem cells are pluripotent cells that are capable to grow into 300 of the different kind of cells in the human body. They also have the capability to separate for indistinct periods of time in culture before they separate into a specialized cell (Brenner, 1992).

The Human Genome Project

The Human Genome Project is an intercontinental association of scientists to create comprehensive genetic and physical maps of the human genome. This involves localizing the anticipated 50,000 to 100,000 genes of the human genome and to complete similar mapping of several other organisms. The finishing product of the Human Genome Project is a complete basis of information on the arrangement, position and purpose of all human genes (Flegel, 1990).

Personalized Medicine

The sequencing of the human genome has resulted in the classification of regions of the genome related with diseases such as cancer, arthritis and cardiovascular disease. This information can be used to help physicians to recognize individuals most at risk of diseases, and the improvement of therapeutics based on those genes (Archarya, 1991).

Diagnostic tests are also accessible that can discover whether a drug will be effectual on an individual. As the knowledge of the genetic basis of a drug response is understood, genetic profiles will be used to inform drug prescription as a replacement for of trial and error (Archarya, 1991).

Brewing

Beer has been formed for the last 6000 years and is the product of a yeast fermentation procedure which thus makes it the oldest form of biotechnology. The oldest and easiest method of brewing beer used wild yeasts, where beer vats were uncovered to the air so that wild yeast fell in and started the fermentation process. Beer is most possibly the oldest food product of this kind, but wine and cheese are also formed by the fermentation of micro-organisms (Juma, 1989).

Antibiotics

Antibiotics are used for the treatment and prevention of diseases, usually those caused by bacteria. An antibiotic is a chemical produced by micro-organisms in low concentrations that stop the development of or destroys micro-organisms such as other bacteria and fungi. In their natural environment, especially in soil, this helps to prevent these other micro-organisms growing near them and using up their nutrients (Brenner, 1992).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Biotechnology

Modern biotechnology uses this normal procedure to create large quantities of definite antibiotics. Through manipulating the genes of the bacteria, and ensuring they have perfect growth conditions, scientists can make the bacteria focus approximately completely on producing antibiotics with the preferred specificity. Technology itself is usually unbiased. It is function of the technology that is controversial (Chattaway, 1998).

Biotechnology has been with us for many years in the shaper of antibiotics such as penicillin, and vaccines against a number of infectious diseases such as measles, diphtheria and whooping cough. The seeds of biotechnology are embedded in the past, however the fruits of its growth are here for us to pick now and in the future. We are now be aware of how biotechnology works and can use it to produce a massive diversity of materials, from fuels to medicines, from new crop plants to healthier animals and from chemicals to plastics (Flegel, 1990). Biotechnology in practice is not without its problems. Experiments in genetic engineering must be cautiously restricted to guarantee the stability of nature is not upset. Following the improvement of a new product -- for example a medicine -- in the laboratory, there are the problems of scaling up and broad testing before it can be put on the market. For now, there look like to be two major sides to the issue of biotechnology: the group saying it is right and moral and the group saying it is wrong and immoral. There is possibility for disagreement between, on the one hand, the ambitions of biomedical researchers to push the work ahead and to see it implemented in agricultural or medical practice and, on the other hand, the resistance of the public to what might be supposed as an attack on deep-rooted moral values (Archarya, 1991).

Reference:

Acharya, R. (1995), the Impact of New Technologies on Economic Growth and Trade: A Case Study of Biotechnology, Maastricht: Universities Pers.

Brenner, C. (1992), "'Biotechnology and the changing public/private sector balance: developments in rice and cocoa'", OECD Development Centre Technical papers, no. 72, Paris: OECD.

Chattaway, J. (1998), 'Risk Perception, Regulation and the Management of Agro-Biotechnologies', in Senker (ed.), Biotechnology and Competitive Advantage, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Flegel, T., G. Tharun and Y. Yuthavong (eds) ( 1990), Biotechnology for Small Industries in Developing Countries, Proceedings of an International Symposium on Application of Biotechnology for Small Industries in Developing Countries, Bangkok, Thailand, 21-24 September, 1988.

Juma, C. J. (1989), the Gene Hunters: Biotechnology and the Scramble for Seeds, London: Zed Books.