Last Update: January 24, 2007

Part - I
Biotechnology M - 28
Q. What is biotechnology? What are the scopes of recent biotechnology? Give some example of applications of
biotechnology.

What is biotechnology?
Biotechnology is a very broad term, as: any technological application that uses biological systems, living
organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.
It relates to the applied forms of biological science, and generally speaking refers to the technological use of
organisms and organic processes to produce outcomes which have economic or industrial value. Fermentation
techniques and traditional plant cross breeding are examples of historically important forms of biotechnology
(many of which remain highly important economically). In its broadest sense, biotechnology has been used by
humankind since before recorded history, for example baking bread and brewing beverages, cheesemaking,
and conventional breeding of plants and animals.

More recently, biotechnology has come to refer to the processes and products associated with manipulation of
DNA, and the technologies resulting from gene sequencing. Biotechnology includes the more specific term
genetic engineering. Genetic engineering itself has a broad sense, including modifying or manipulating
organisms by controlling reproductive processes (for example, in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination),
and a more recent, specific sense of recombinant DNA technology the techniques of joining or recombining
DNA material to create new genetic combinations which then can be propagated to produce a desired new
outcome. It is also sometimes referred to as genetic modification, gene technology, or genetic manipulation.

In distinguishing the general background of biotechnology from these significant recent technologies, the
Biosafety Protocol (The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity) defines
modern biotechnology as the application of: in vitro nucleic acid techniques, including recombinant
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and direct injection of nucleic acid into cells or organelles, or fusion of cells
beyond the taxonomic family, that overcome natural physiological reproductive or recombination barriers and
that are not techniques used in traditional breeding and selection.

The scope of recent biotechnology includes:

genetics and genomics, genetic engineering, cloning;
gene therapy, detection, replacement, tagging, sequencing and product analysis etc;
proteomic, protein engineering, detection, sequencing, product analysis etc;
enzyme technologies, replacement, analysis etc;
molecular biology;
cell and tissue culture;
monoclonal antibodies;
bio-sensors; and
bioinformatics
Other more traditional applications of biotechnology (such as isolation, breeding, and selection) remain
economically and technologically important and still continue to attract intellectual property protection but
it is these modern biotechnologies that have attracted the most attention in terms of their impact and
relationship with the intellectual property system.
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Applications of biotechnology
The applications of biotechnology are increasingly diverse: it may contribute to the manufacture or
modification of existing products, create modified plants and animals with particular traits, or develop new
strains of micro-organism with especial functions. Biotechnology can therefore create existing products in new,
more efficient ways, produce new substances that cannot be created by conventional technologies, and create
new processes. All these applications are potentially the subject of intellectual property claims. A great deal of
research and patenting activity has covered new genetic engineering methods such as the recombinant DNA
technology, monoclonal antibody production and cloning, developed in the 1970s allowing the controlled
addition or deletion of genetic material to or from organisms, and used for manufacture of diagnostics or
therapeutics as well as many other applications. One report cites the following current and future applications
of biotechnology:
waste disposal through the action of micro-organisms;
large-scale fermentation to produce specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals;
pharmaceuticals and other human therapeutics, including natural products;
human diagnostic products;
diagnostic services;
cosmetics;
animal breeding, veterinary medicines and diagnostics;
agriculture, plant breeding;
environmental management, pollution control and remediation, water treatment;
minerals processing and leaching;
food production and processing; and
biomass for the production of fuels and energy.

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