From making your favorite cheddar cheese to looking after your health, biotechnology has an indelible impression on your life!
The concept of biotechnology involves tailoring nature’s gifts and incorporating them with technology to serve human needs. It is heavily used in terms of medical, agricultural, and environmental betterment.
So, the theories of engineering and biochemistry are involved in this. This gift of technology is used to harness living organisms in order to achieve better yields. An example of this is getting more milk from domestic animals. It means that gene editing is done to enhance an organism’s natural functionalities.
Now, if you feel connected to this concept, then tag along!
The Basic Concepts of Biotechnology
From the instant we take our very first breath to our demise, biotechnology is intertwined with our lives. Some of the concepts of biotechnology include:
Fermentation Technology
Biotechnology has been widely applied in the fermentation process to develop new antibiotics or simply for making cheese.
Here, tiny microorganisms are utilized for their genetic materials and cells. Different kinds of microorganisms include bacteria or yeast – each of them is used to produce different varieties of products.
This is especially essential in the pharmaceutical and food production industries. As a result, a large number of enzymes and other acids are produced for medicinal purposes.
In fact, the production of lactic acid helps to transform milk into cheese! Fermented vegetables called kimchis are also used in Asian cuisine. This is how biotechnology has been helping fermentation technology to develop food or medicines.
Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering is one of the many modern concepts of biotechnology. This concept helps to mutate genes for a more enhanced result. It is also related to Recombinant DNA Technology where genes are transported from one species to another.
However, most of the time this sector faces ethical issues. But by regulating it properly, one could achieve better wool production in sheep or even more offspring produced by plants and animals.
Genetic engineers are also working on curing Down Syndrome and other genetic diseases by modifying chromosomes. It means that biotechnology helped to shape our world through advanced genetic engineering.
Stem cell research
Stem cell research helps to analyze how the body can heal itself just by modifying its dead cells. Dead facial cells, red blood cells, and others can be replaced by artificially generating new cells. Stem cells are generally used for drug testing purposes in the medicinal field.
In terms of research, stem cells are involved to study different kinds of diseases or damages. Other uses of stem cells include plastic surgery which is extremely popular nowadays.
Normal people and burn victims can reconstruct their entire faces thanks to stem cell research. So, biotechnology used for stem cell research is now used in clinical applications.
Cloning
Cloning has to be the most intriguing concept of biotechnology. It sounds crazy how you can manipulate genes in order to make an exact duplicate of an organism. However, the concept of cloning humans is still a myth. But scientists have been successful in cloning animals, for example, Dolly the Sheep.
The cloning technique involves reproductive cloning where the fetus is genetically edited and then implanted inside the surrogate. The end result is giving birth to an identical offspring.
Cloning has helped in creating a better quality of livestock animals as well as crops. Finally, cloning can rescue endangered animals from becoming extinct in the future. As a result, biotechnology improved our agriculture with the help of cloning.
Bioinformatics
Nowadays, the healthcare sector uses bioinformatics. It combines statistics, genetics, and computer science in order to keep track of research facilities. It means that it holds records of genetic data and analysis.
Bioinformatics raised to fame when it could predict the entire sequence of the human genome. This application not only helps to integrate data but also to visualize data to develop hypotheses.
It means that new emerging diseases can be figured out by recording symptoms collected from different patients. Along with this, new drugs can be developed to combat those diseases. Therefore, bioinformatics can keep track of biological data due to biotechnology.
Bioremediation
To control our waste management system, microbes are used. They use their enzymes to dissolve organic molecules present in our waste.
Not only it can get rid of the pollutants but can transform them into a more weakened version. So, bioremediation helps to save our environment from pollutants.
Bioremediation is useful in treating contaminated groundwater by removing toxins and other dirt present. It is also used to treat soil by using different kinds of bacteria for different yet successful results.
So, the adverse effects on our environment became minimal. Also, it has been proved that bioremediation along with biotechnology helped to restore our ecosystem.
Marine Biotechnology
Marine biotechnology has boosted coral reefs and our overall underwater ecosystem. A lot of rare whales and other marine animals have been saved.
Plastic-eating bacteria have been introduced which helps to dissolve plastic. It prevents sea turtles from choking on the disposed plastic left in the seashore. Advanced breeding techniques and disease control have been developed in this field.
This highly improves our aquaculture as well. New pharmaceutical drugs and other important products can be developed from marine biotechnology. Hence, marine biotechnology helps us to create a sustainable environment.
Bottom Line
If you’re still with us, then you should agree that biotechnology helped to benefit different fields of modern technology. It incorporated biology and technology to serve humanity.
In short, from saving us and our environment, biotechnology has definitely taken an oath to benefit human beings. Starting with making beverages to cloning, biotechnology is required in every aspect of human life.
Genetic engineering and stem cell research harnessed the way we live by customizing the genes of organisms for better results. Bioinformatics keeps records of the human genome as a whole.
Again, bioremediation and marine biotechnology take very good care of our surroundings. Because of biotechnology, we are being able to live a healthy life. Therefore, this amazing gift from science contributes significantly to human well-being and a sustainable environment.
