Global Biotechnology

Biochemical Engineering   is a highly interdisciplinary field combining biotechnology and chemical engineering. It includes the study of how basic raw materials are changed to the finished products by means of rigorous processes. It mainly deals with the design, construction, and advancement of unit processes that involve biological organisms or organic molecules and has different applications in areas of interest like   biofuels , food, pharmaceuticals,   biotechnology   and water treatment processes. The cells could be from animals, bacteria or single-celled animals like algae each type needs to be treated in a various way to get them to do what is needed. Biofuels Medicines Personal care products Cleaning products Paper Plastic products Oil products Paint products Pesticides

Stem cell   therapy also known as   regenerative medicine , which promotes the repair response of diseased, dysfunctional or injured tissue using stem cells or their derivatives. Regenerative medicine is the bough of medicine that develops methods to regrow, repair or replace damaged or diseased cells, organs or tissues and also includes the generation and use of therapeutic stem cells,   tissue engineering   and the producing of artificial organs. Stem cell research plays a major role in regenerative medicine, which includes the development and use of stem cell treatments. Stem Cell Treatments Cartilage Regeneration Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Prolotherapy

Animal biotechnology   is a branch of biotechnology in which molecular biology techniques are used to genetically engineer animals in order to improve their suitability for agriculture, industrial, or pharmaceutical applications. Animal   biotechnology   has been used to create genetically modified animals that synthesize therapeutic proteins, have improved growth rates or are resistant to disease. It includes all animals: livestock, poultry, fish, insects, companion animals and laboratory animals. Applications evolved through research have led to the emergence of three scientific agricultural  animal biotechnology  sectors- Animal genomics Animal cloning Genetic engineering of animals

Industrial Biotechnology  can be explained as the exploitation of enzymes, microorganisms, and plants to produce energy, industrial chemicals and consumer goods. It is one of the most promising new approaches to pollution prevention, resource conservation and cost reduction. It developed to its full potential, industrial biotechnology may have a larger impact on the world than health care and  agricultural biotechnology . These include pharmaceuticals, enzymes,  biofuels  and solvents, nutrients including vitamins and supplements, and novel polymers. As new technologies are employed, they increase the diversity of products that can be produced through industrial biotechnology.

Environmental Biotechnology   is the branch of biotechnology that addresses environmental problems like the removal of pollution, renewable energy generation or biomass production, by use of biological processes. Environmental Biotechnology used to detect, prevent and remediate the emission of   pollutants   into the   environment   in a number of ways. Environmental biotechnology includes the use of microorganisms and their processes for the clean-up of environmental contamination, specific examples of which include ground-water treatment, treatment of leachates, and clean-up of contaminated soils, sludges and sediments. Biomarkers Biosensor Biofuels Molecular Ecology Biotransformation Phytoremediation Mycoremediation Textiles

Molecular Biology and  Genetics  seek to know how the molecules that make up cells determine the behavior of living things. Biologists use molecular and genetic tools to know the function of those molecules in the complex milieu of the living cell. They study the genetic, chemical and physical attributes of cells, tissues and organisms and identify practical uses for this knowledge. Genetics and  molecular biology  has given rise to the clusters of techniques that we called such names as  genetic engineering . The techniques have rapidly become integral parts of modern biomedical and bio agricultural science, and they promise to transform our world.

Agricultural Biotechnology   is a group of scientific techniques used to improve plants, animals and microorganisms. Based on an understanding of   DNA , scientists have developed solutions to improve agricultural productivity. Starting from the ability to identify genes that may confer advantages on certain crops and the ability to work with such characteristics very precisely,   biotechnology   enhances breeder’s ability to make improvements in crops and livestock. It enables improvements that are not possible with traditional crossing of related species alone. Uses- Genetic engineering Molecular markers Molecular diagnostics Vaccines Tissue culture

Marine Biotechnology   exploits the diversity found in marine environments in terms of the form, structure, physiology and chemistry of marine organisms, many of which have no equivalent on land, in ways which enable new materials to be realised. Marine   biotechnology   is a knowledge generation and conversion process: it unlocks access to biological compounds and provides novel uses for them. By exploring and harnessing   marine materials , entirely new uses in areas far from the marine are likely to be found. Marine biotechnology techniques- Bioprocessing Bioharvesting Bioprospecting Bioremediation

Medical biotechnology   is a branch of medicine that uses living cells and cell materials to research and then produce pharmaceutical and diagnosing products. These products help treat and prevent diseases. The main aim of medical biotechnology is the Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of diseases. Medical Biotechnology principles are applied in   pharmacology , gene therapy, stem cells and tissue engineering. It is a rapidly evolving field integrating knowledge obtained in molecular, cell biological, genetic and immunological scientific areas. The medical biotechnology field has helped bring to market microbial pesticides, insect-resistant crops, and environmental clean-up techniques. This discovery was the result of research studies related to deoxyribonucleic acid. Many scientists in the medical   biotechnology   field study genetic engineering which involves isolating, identifying and sequencing the human genes to determine their functions. Advancements- CRISPR ...

Agricultural Biotechnology   is a group of scientific techniques used to improve plants, animals and microorganisms. Based on an understanding of   DNA , scientists have developed solutions to improve agricultural productivity. Starting from the ability to identify genes that may confer advantages on certain crops and the ability to work with such characteristics very precisely,   biotechnology   enhances breeder’s ability to make improvements in crops and livestock. It enables improvements that are not possible with traditional crossing of related species alone. Uses- Genetic engineering Molecular markers Molecular diagnostics Vaccines Tissue culture

Biotechnology  is technology which utilizes biological systems, living organisms or parts of this to develop or create different products. Biotechnology is especially important in the field of medicine, where it facilitates the producing of therapeutic proteins and other drugs. Synthetic insulin and synthetic growth hormone and diagnostic tests to find various diseases are just some examples of how biotechnology is impacting medicine. It also proved helpful in refining industrial processes, in environmental clean-up and in agricultural production. Modern technology can also include  genetic engineering  as well as cell and tissue culture technologies. It 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. In medicine, modern biotechnology has many applications in areas such as pharmaceutical drug discoveries and production, pharmacog...

Tissue engineering is a relatively new and emerging branch of biotechnology . The development of advanced techniques in bioprinting and microfluidics now allow formation of autologous tissue grafts for various purposes such as organ transplantation, treating burns and regenerative medicine. Furthemore, tissue engineering provides alternatives to surgical reconstruction, transplants and other medical devices that are used to repair damaged tissues. Previously, tissue engineering was only limited to biomedical applications, plant  tissue cultures, but now these days some companies have also started to engineer  tissues on a small scale as an alternative to direct animal products such as  laboratory meat and laboratory leather etc. However, this area is still in development  and it needs to first reach a larger scale for products to be competitive in price with  directly obtained animal based products. Tissue engineering can be done by four types of biomaterials na...

Haem is an iron-containing tetrapyrrole that is critical for a variety of cellular and physiological processes. Haem binding proteins are present in almost all cellular compartments, but the molecular mechanisms that regulate the transport and use of haem within the cell remain poorly understood. Here we show that haem-responsive gene 9 (HRG-9) (also known as transport and Golgi organization 2 (TANGO2)) is an evolutionarily conserved haem chaperone with a crucial role in trafficking haem out of haem storage or synthesis sites in eukaryotic cells. Loss of Caenorhabditis elegans hrg-9 and its paralogue hrg-10 results in the accumulation of haem in lysosome-related organelles, the haem storage site in worms. Similarly, deletion of the hrg-9 homologue TANGO2 in yeast and mammalian cells induces haem overload in mitochondria, the site of haem synthesis. We demonstrate that TANGO2 binds haem and transfers it from cellular membranes to apo-haemoproteins. Notably, homozygous tango2−/− zebrafis...

Researchers from the University of Kent's School of Biosciences have designed and built equipment that can be used to investigate bacterial biofuel production at a fraction of the cost of commercial systems. This technology was then used to demonstrate that bacterial genetic engineering could be used to enhance biofuel production. Commercial equipment used to study biofuel-producing bacteria can be prohibitively expensive, which prompted the team to build their own bioreactors that are accessible to most research laboratories. The researchers then used this equipment to verify that one of their genetically engineered variants of Clostridium bacteria could produce the biofuel butanol more rapidly. These research findings, which have been published in the journals Access Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology, reveal that a subtle change to a single gene can result in remarkable changes to how sugars are converted to biofuel products. It is expected that this work will improve acc...

Immunoassays Examples of immunoassay include titer of antibodies directed against Epstein-Barr virus or Lyme disease estimated from the blood. In absence of these antibodies it is presumed that either the person is not infected, or the infection occurred a ''very'' long time ago, and the B cells generating these specific antibodies have naturally decayed. For immunoassays, levels of individual classes of immunoglobulins are measured by nephelometry (or turbidimetry) to characterize the antibody profile of patient.  The Coombs test is also used for antibody screening in blood transfusion preparation. This test is used for antibody screening in antenatal women as well. Immunoassays are used in multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and many forms of cancer including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer and breast cancer. Then there is the use of radiolabelled antibodies that can be used in the diagnosis of diseases as well. These radiolabelled antib...

Immunization requires minimal protein expression levels, while mRNA therapeutics requires a 1,000-fold-higher protein level to reach a therapeutic threshold. Efficient delivery to solid organs remains challenging. Even the tissue bioavailability, circulatory half-life, and efficiency of the LNP-based carrier could be rate-limiting when it is delivered to the target tissue. Even with optimized mRNA chemical modifications and advanced LNPs, chronic dosing eventually activates innate immunity, parallelly attenuating therapeutic protein expression. An individual mRNA has a cap, 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs), an open reading frame (ORF), and a polyadenylated (poly(A)) tail. There have been advancements in the design of each of these components. Most notable of these are: i) improved 5′ cap analogs that enhance translational capacity, but more importantly, the capping efficiency from 70% to 95%. ii) the poly(A) tail length optimization has proven critical for balancing the synthetic ...

The respiratory mucosa is the primary site of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in humans. However at this site, parenteral vaccination regimens cannot induce adequate protective immunity. Relying on intramuscular administration, these vaccines have been shown to induce high levels of circulating antibodies, memory B cells, and circulating effector cluster of differentiation (CD)4+ and CD8+ T cells in preclinical and clinical models. However, they fail to induce tissue-resident memory B (BRM) cells and T (TRM) cells and mucosal immunoglobulin G (IgG) and dimeric IgA. Recent preclinical assessments of vaccines delivered intranasally (IN) induced adequate mucosal immunogenicity at respiratory mucosa. They also conferred immune protection and reduced viral shedding in mice, hamsters, and nonhuman primates. Further, they induced cross-reactive immunity against sarbecoviruses. Researchers hypothesized systemic priming with messenger ribonucleic acid (mRN...

CRISPR based detection systems are poised to emerge as the next-generation point-of-care (POC) diagnostic platform, and have the potential to marry the advantages of RT-PCR (sensitive/specific) and rapid test kits (RTKs) (fast turnaround, user-friendly). These systems also circumvent the deficiencies of both RT-PCR (long turnaround, equipment/trained user requirement) and RTKs (low sensitivity). These POC platforms play a crucial role for effective medical intervention and transmission control of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. For these systems to be widely adopted clinically, developments have been made to enhance the thermal compatibility of CRISPR with isothermal amplification assays, towards a one-step, one-pot platform. The COVID-19 pandemic has strained healthcare systems. Sensitive, specific, and timely COVID-19 diagnosis is crucial for effective medical intervention and transmission control. RT-PCR is the most sensitive/specific, but requires costly equipment and trai...