Biotechnology Introduction

Biotechnology: A Collection of Technologies

What Is Biotechnology?

At its simplest, biotechnology is technology based on biology. From that perspective, the use of biological processes is hardly noteworthy. We began growing crops and raising animals 10,000 years ago to provide a stable supply of food and clothing. We have used the biological processes of microorganisms for 6,000 years to make useful food products, such as bread and cheese, and to preserve dairy products. Crops? Cheese? That doesn’t sound very exciting. So why does biotechnology receive so much attention?

The answer is that in the last 40 years we’ve gone from practicing biotechnology at a macro level—breeding animals and crops, for example—to working with it at a micro level. It was during the 1960s and ’70s that our understanding of biology reached a point where we could begin to use the smallest parts of organisms—the biological molecules of which they are composed—in addition to using whole organisms.

An appropriate modern definition of biotechnology would be “the use of cellular and biomolecular processes to solve problems or make useful products.”

We can get a better handle on the meaning of the word biotechnology by thinking of it in its plural form, biotechnologies. That’s because biotechnology is a collection of technologies that capitalize on the attributes of cells, such as their manufacturing capabilities, and put biological molecules, such as DNA and proteins, to work for us.


Cells and Biological Molecules

Cells are the basic building blocks of all living things. The simplest living things, such as yeast, consist of a single, self-sufficient cell. Complex creatures more familiar to us, such as plants, animals and humans, are made of many different cell types, each of which performs very specific tasks.

In spite of the extraordinary diversity of cell types in living things, what is most striking is their remarkable similarity. It turns out that all cells have the same basic design, are made of the same materials and operate using essentially the same processes. Almost all cells have a nucleus, which contains DNA that directs cell construction and operation. Cells share other structures as well, including those that manufacture proteins. This unity of life at the cellular level provides the foundation for biotechnology.

What Is DNA?

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in another part of the cell called the mitochondria (mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) and thymine (T). Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people. The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism, similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet appear in a certain order to form words and sentences. No two people, except for identical twins, share the exact same DNA sequences.

DNA bases pair up with each other, A with T and C with G, to form units called base pairs. Each base is also attached to a sugar molecule and a phosphate molecule. Together, a base, sugar, and phosphate are called a nucleotide. Nucleotides are arranged in two long strands that form a spiral called a double helix. Long, continuous strands of DNA are organized into chromosomes. Human cells (except for the sex, or germ, cells) have 46 chromosomes, arranged in 23 pairs. Half come from the mother, half from the father.

Specific sections of DNA that carry the code for particular proteins are called genes. When a particular protein is needed, the DNA base pairs split, and RNA (ribonucleic acid) bases attach to the open DNA bases, forming a strand of mRNA (messenger RNA). The mRNA travels to other parts of the cell where the sequence of the mRNA is “read” by other cell structures that make the protein.


Why Is DNA the Cornerstone of Biotechnology?

Because virtually all cells speak the same genetic language, DNA from one cell can be read and acted on in another one—even a different cell type from a different species. This feature is what makes DNA the cornerstone of modern biotechnology. Scientists can,for example, use a yeast cell to make human insulin by inserting the human insulin gene into the yeast.

DNA is also the foundation for hundreds of diagnostic tests for genetic diseases and predisposition to disease. Some new tests can even identify which treatment, and what dosage, is best for a particular patient.

Because DNA and related cellular processes are so specific, biotechnology products can often solve problems with fewer unintended consequences than other approaches. In fact, the best words to describe today’s biotechnology are specific, precise and predictable.

biotechnology: Industry Facts

Emerged in the 1970s, based largely on a new recombinant DNA technique whose details were published in 1973 by Stanley Cohen of Stanford University and Herbert Boyer of the University of California, San Francisco. Recombinant DNA is a method of making proteins— such as human insulin and other therapies—in cultured cells under controlled manufacturing conditions. Boyer went on to co-found Genentech, which today is biotechnology’s largest company by market capitalization.

Biotechnology has created more than 200 new therapies and vaccines, including products to treat cancer, diabetes, HIV/ AIDS and autoimmune disorders.

There are more than 400 biotech drug products and vaccines currently in clinical trials targeting more than 200 diseases, including various cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and arthritis.

Biotechnology is responsible for hundreds of medical diagnostic tests that keep the blood supply safe from HIV and detect other conditions early enough to be successfully treated. Home pregnancy tests are also biotechnology diagnostic products.

Agricultural biotechnology benefits farmers, consumers and the environment—by increasing yields and farm income, decreasing pesticide applications and improving soil and water quality, and providing healthful foods for consumers.

Environmental biotech products make it possible to clean up hazardous waste more efficiently by harnessing pollution eating microbes.

Industrial biotech applications have led to cleaner processes that produce less waste and use less energy and water in such industrial sectors as chemicals, pulp and paper, textiles, food, energy, and metals and minerals. For example, most laundry detergents produced in the United States contain biotechnology-based enzymes.

DNA fingerprinting, a biotech process, has dramatically improved criminal investigation and forensic medicine. It has also led to significant advances in anthropology and wildlife management.