biotechnology

 

  • Biotechnology is the research and development in the laboratory using bioinformatics for exploration, extraction, exploitation, and production from any living organisms and
    any source of biomass by means of biochemical engineering where high value-added products could be planned (reproduced by biosynthesis, for example), forecasted, formulated, developed, manufactured, and marketed for the purpose of sustainable
    operations (for the return from bottomless initial investment on R & D) and gaining durable patents rights (for exclusives rights for sales, and prior to this to receive national and international approval from the results on animal experiment
    and human experiment, especially on the pharmaceutical branch of biotechnology to prevent any undetected side-effects or safety concerns by using the products).

  • Jointly biotechnology and synthetic biology play a crucial role in generating cost-effective products with nature-friendly features by using bio-based production instead of
    fossil-based.

  • This can be considered as the use of knowledge from working with and manipulating biology to achieve a result that can improve functions in plants and animals.

  • These techniques have allowed for the introduction of new crop traits as well as a far greater control over a food’s genetic structure than previously afforded by methods
    such as selective breeding and mutation breeding.

  • Another example is the designing of transgenic plants to grow under specific environments in the presence (or absence) of chemicals.

  • [27] It is commonly considered as the next phase of green revolution, which can be seen as a platform to eradicate world hunger by using technologies which enable the production
    of more fertile and resistant, towards biotic and abiotic stress, plants and ensures application of environmentally friendly fertilizers and the use of biopesticides, it is mainly focused on the development of agriculture.

  • [1] The term biotechnology was first used by Károly Ereky in 1919,[2] meaning the production of products from raw materials with the aid of living organisms.

  • The application of biotechnology to basic science (for example through the Human Genome Project) has also dramatically improved our understanding of biology and as our scientific
    knowledge of normal and disease biology has increased, our ability to develop new medicines to treat previously untreatable diseases has increased as well.

  • [90] Regulation varies in a given country depending on the intended use of the products of the genetic engineering.

  • [3] The American Chemical Society defines biotechnology as the application of biological organisms, systems, or processes by various industries to learning about the science
    of life and the improvement of the value of materials and organisms such as pharmaceuticals, crops, and livestock.

  • Regulation[edit] Main articles: Regulation of genetic engineering and Regulation of the release of genetic modified organisms The regulation of genetic engineering concerns
    approaches taken by governments to assess and manage the risks associated with the use of genetic engineering technology, and the development and release of genetically modified organisms (GMO), including genetically modified crops and genetically
    modified fish.

  • [6][7][8] The utilization of biological processes, organisms or systems to produce products that are anticipated to improve human lives is termed biotechnology.

  • Throughout the history of agriculture, farmers have inadvertently altered the genetics of their crops through introducing them to new environments and breeding them with other
    plants — one of the first forms of biotechnology.

  • [59] There is a scientific consensus[60][61][62][63] that currently available food derived from GM crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food,[64][65][66][67][68]
    but that each GM food needs to be tested on a case-by-case basis before introduction.

  • A series of derived terms have been coined to identify several branches of biotechnology, for example: • Bioinformatics (also called “gold biotechnology”) is an interdisciplinary
    field that addresses biological problems using computational techniques, and makes the rapid organization as well as analysis of biological data possible.

  • As crops and fields became increasingly large and difficult to maintain, it was discovered that specific organisms and their by-products could effectively fertilize, restore
    nitrogen, and control pests.

  • Definition The concept of biotechnology encompasses a wide range of procedures for modifying living organisms according to human purposes, going back to domestication of animals,
    cultivation of the plants, and “improvements” to these through breeding programs that employ artificial selection and hybridization.

  • History Although not normally what first comes to mind, many forms of human-derived agriculture clearly fit the broad definition of “‘utilizing a biotechnological system to
    make products”.

  • [81] In the current decades, significant progress has been done in creating genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that enhance the diversity of applications and economical
    viability of industrial biotechnology.

  • White biotechnology tends to consume less in resources than traditional processes used to produce industrial goods.

  • This includes biotechnology-based approaches for the control of harmful insects, the characterisation and utilisation of active ingredients or genes of insects for research,
    or application in agriculture and medicine and various other approaches.

  • Another example is using naturally present bacteria by the mining industry in bioleaching.

  • [4] As per the European Federation of Biotechnology, biotechnology is the integration of natural science and organisms, cells, parts thereof, and molecular analogues for products
    and services.

  • [24] Examples Biotechnology has applications in four major industrial areas, including health care (medical), crop production and agriculture, non-food (industrial) uses of
    crops and other products (e.g., biodegradable plastics, vegetable oil, biofuels), and environmental uses.

  • [84] For instance, E. coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a consortium could be used as industrial microbes to produce precursors of the chemotherapeutic agent paclitaxel
    by applying the metabolic engineering in a co-culture approach to exploit the benefits from the two microbes.

  • An example of this is the engineering of a plant to express a pesticide, thereby ending the need of external application of pesticides.

  • [9] By contrast, bioengineering is generally thought of as a related field that more heavily emphasizes higher systems approaches (not necessarily the altering or using of
    biological materials directly) for interfacing with and utilizing living things.

  • For example, one application of biotechnology is the directed use of microorganisms for the manufacture of organic products (examples include beer and milk products).

  • Although the process of fermentation was not fully understood until Louis Pasteur’s work in 1857, it is still the first use of biotechnology to convert a food source into
    another form.

  • One application is the creation of enhanced seeds that resist extreme environmental conditions of arid regions, which is related to the innovation, creation of agriculture
    techniques and management of resources.

  • [17][18] Biosensor MOSFETs were later developed, and they have since been widely used to measure physical, chemical, biological and environmental parameters.

  • [80] However, opponents have objected to GM crops per se on several grounds, including environmental concerns, whether food produced from GM crops is safe, whether GM crops
    are needed to address the world’s food needs, and economic concerns raised by the fact these organisms are subject to intellectual property law.

  • [12] For thousands of years, humans have used selective breeding to improve the production of crops and livestock to use them for food.

  • Modern usage also includes genetic engineering as well as cell and tissue culture technologies.

  • [85] Another example of synthetic biology applications in industrial biotechnology is the re-engineering of the metabolic pathways of E. coli by CRISPR and CRISPRi systems
    toward the production of a chemical known as 1,4-butanediol, which is used in fiber manufacturing.

  • [76][77][78][79] GM crops also provide a number of ecological benefits, if not used in excess.

  • Vallero and others have argued that the difference between beneficial biotechnology (e.g., bioremediation is to clean up an oil spill or hazard chemical leak) versus the adverse
    effects stemming from biotechnological enterprises (e.g., flow of genetic material from transgenic organisms into wild strains) can be seen as applications and implications, respectively.

  • One hope is that green biotechnology might produce more environmentally friendly solutions than traditional industrial agriculture.

  • [33][27] Medicine[edit] In medicine, modern biotechnology has many applications in areas such as pharmaceutical drug discoveries and production, pharmacogenomics, and genetic
    testing (or genetic screening).

  • Through early biotechnology, the earliest farmers selected and bred the best-suited crops (e.g., those with the highest yields) to produce enough food to support a growing
    population.

  • Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues
    for products and services.

  • [11] These processes were introduced in early Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and India, and still use the same basic biological methods.

  • [27] On the other hand, some of the uses of green biotechnology involve microorganisms to clean and reduce waste.

  • [13] In the early twentieth century scientists gained a greater understanding of microbiology and explored ways of manufacturing specific products.

  • [49] Examples in non-food crops include production of pharmaceutical agents,[50] biofuels,[51] and other industrially useful goods,[52] as well as for bioremediation.

  • [37][38] Computer-generated image of insulin hexamers highlighting the threefold symmetry, the zinc ions holding it together, and the histidine residues involved in zinc binding
    Biotechnology has contributed to the discovery and manufacturing of traditional small molecule pharmaceutical drugs as well as drugs that are the product of biotechnology – biopharmaceutics.

  • For example, a crop not intended for food use is generally not reviewed by authorities responsible for food safety.

  • Biotechnology is also used to recycle, treat waste, clean up sites contaminated by industrial activities (bioremediation), and also to produce biological weapons.

  • [82] Synthetic biology is considered one of the essential cornerstones in industrial biotechnology due to its financial and sustainable contribution to the manufacturing sector.

  • The genetically engineered bacteria are able to produce large quantities of synthetic human insulin at relatively low cost.

  • [55] Genetically modified foods are foods produced from organisms that have had specific changes introduced into their DNA with the methods of genetic engineering.

  • Indeed, the cultivation of plants may be viewed as the earliest biotechnological enterprise.

 

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matured since GE plants became widely cultivated worldwide, and we can conclude that the scientific research conducted so far has not detected any significant hazard directly connected with the use of GM crops.

The literature about Biodiversity
and the GE food/feed consumption has sometimes resulted in animated debate regarding the suitability of the experimental designs, the choice of the statistical methods or the public accessibility of data. Such debate, even if positive and part of
the natural process of review by the scientific community, has frequently been distorted by the media and often used politically and inappropriately in anti-GE crops campaigns.
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Meeting the Needs of the Poor. Health and environmental impacts of transgenic crops”. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved August 30, 2019. Currently available transgenic crops and foods derived from them have been judged
safe to eat and the methods used to test their safety have been deemed appropriate. These conclusions represent the consensus of the scientific evidence surveyed by the ICSU (2003) and they are consistent with the views of the World Health Organization
(WHO, 2002). These foods have been assessed for increased risks to human health by several national regulatory authorities (inter alia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, the United Kingdom and the United States) using their national food safety procedures
(ICSU). To date no verifiable untoward toxic or nutritionally deleterious effects resulting from the consumption of foods derived from genetically modified crops have been discovered anywhere in the world (GM Science Review Panel). Many millions of
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Plants, National Research Council and Division on Earth and Life Studies 2002). Both the U.S. National Research Council and the Joint Research Centre (the European Union’s scientific and technical research laboratory and an integral part of the European
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63. ^
But see also:
Domingo, José L.; Bordonaba, Jordi Giné (2011). “A literature review on the safety assessment of genetically modified
plants” (PDF). Environment International. 37 (4): 734–742. doi:10.1016/j.envint.2011.01.003. PMID 21296423. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. In spite of this, the number of studies specifically focused on safety assessment of GM
plants is still limited. However, it is important to remark that for the first time, a certain equilibrium in the number of research groups suggesting, on the basis of their studies, that a number of varieties of GM products (mainly maize and soybeans)
are as safe and nutritious as the respective conventional non-GM plant, and those raising still serious concerns, was observed. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that most of the studies demonstrating that GM foods are as nutritional and safe as those
obtained by conventional breeding, have been performed by biotechnology companies or associates, which are also responsible of commercializing these GM plants. Anyhow, this represents a notable advance in comparison with the lack of studies published
in recent years in scientific journals by those companies.
Krimsky, Sheldon (2015). “An Illusory Consensus behind GMO Health Assessment”. Science, Technology, & Human Values. 40 (6): 883–914. doi:10.1177/0162243915598381. S2CID 40855100. I began
this article with the testimonials from respected scientists that there is literally no scientific controversy over the health effects of GMOs. My investigation into the scientific literature tells another story.
And contrast:
Panchin, Alexander
Y.; Tuzhikov, Alexander I. (January 14, 2016). “Published GMO studies find no evidence of harm when corrected for multiple comparisons”. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology. 37 (2): 213–217. doi:10.3109/07388551.2015.1130684. ISSN 0738-8551. PMID 26767435.
S2CID 11786594. Here, we show that a number of articles some of which have strongly and negatively influenced the public opinion on GM crops and even provoked political actions, such as GMO embargo, share common flaws in the statistical evaluation
of the data. Having accounted for these flaws, we conclude that the data presented in these articles does not provide any substantial evidence of GMO harm.

The presented articles suggesting possible harm of GMOs received high public attention.
However, despite their claims, they actually weaken the evidence for the harm and lack of substantial equivalency of studied GMOs. We emphasize that with over 1783 published articles on GMOs over the last 10 years it is expected that some of them
should have reported undesired differences between GMOs and conventional crops even if no such differences exist in reality.
and
Yang, Y.T.; Chen, B. (2016). “Governing GMOs in the USA: science, law and public health”. Journal of the Science of
Food and Agriculture. 96 (4): 1851–1855. doi:10.1002/jsfa.7523. PMID 26536836. It is therefore not surprising that efforts to require labeling and to ban GMOs have been a growing political issue in the USA (citing Domingo and Bordonaba, 2011). Overall,
a broad scientific consensus holds that currently marketed GM food poses no greater risk than conventional food… Major national and international science and medical associations have stated that no adverse human health effects related to GMO food
have been reported or substantiated in peer-reviewed literature to date.

Despite various concerns, today, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the World Health Organization, and many independent international science organizations
agree that GMOs are just as safe as other foods. Compared with conventional breeding techniques, genetic engineering is far more precise and, in most cases, less likely to create an unexpected outcome.
64. ^ “Statement by the AAAS Board of Directors
On Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods” (PDF). American Association for the Advancement of Science. October 20, 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2019. The EU, for example, has invested more than €300
million in research on the biosafety of GMOs. Its recent report states: “The main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research and involving more than 500 independent
research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies.” The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences,
the British Royal Society, and every other respected organization that has examined the evidence has come to the same conclusion: consuming foods containing ingredients derived from GM crops is no riskier than consuming the same foods containing ingredients
from crop plants modified by conventional plant improvement techniques.

Pinholster, Ginger (October 25, 2012). “AAAS Board of Directors: Legally Mandating GM Food Labels Could “Mislead and Falsely Alarm Consumers”” (PDF). American Association for
the Advancement of Science. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
65. ^ European Commission. Directorate-General for Research (2010). A decade of EU-funded GMO research (2001–2010) (PDF). Directorate-General
for Research and Innovation. Biotechnologies, Agriculture, Food. European Commission, European Union. doi:10.2777/97784. ISBN 978-92-79-16344-9. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
66. ^ “AMA Report on
Genetically Modified Crops and Foods”. American Medical Association. January 2001. Retrieved August 30, 2019 – via International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications.”REPORT 2 OF THE COUNCIL ON SCIENCE AND PUBLIC HEALTH (A-12):
Labeling of Bioengineered Foods” (PDF). American Medical Association. 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 7, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
67. ^ “Restrictions on Genetically Modified Organisms: United States. Public and Scholarly
Opinion”. Library of Congress. June 30, 2015. Retrieved August 30, 2019. Several scientific organizations in the US have issued studies or statements regarding the safety of GMOs indicating that there is no evidence that GMOs present unique safety
risks compared to conventionally bred products. These include the National Research Council, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Medical Association. Groups in the US opposed to GMOs include some environmental
organizations, organic farming organizations, and consumer organizations. A substantial number of legal academics have criticized the US’s approach to regulating GMOs.
68. ^ National Academies Of Sciences, Engineering; Division on Earth Life Studies;
Board on Agriculture Natural Resources; Committee on Genetically Engineered Crops: Past Experience Future Prospects (2016). Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (US).
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commercialized GE with non-GE foods in compositional analysis, acute and chronic animal toxicity tests, long-term data on health of livestock fed GE foods, and human epidemiological data, the committee found no differences that implicate a higher
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