21st century: An era of Biotechnology

“THE REWARDS FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY ARE TREMENDOUS — TO SOLVE DISEASE, ELIMINATE POVERTY, AGE GRACEFULLY. IT SOUNDS SO MUCH COOLER THAN FACEBOOK”

GEORGE M. CHURCH

Made by Ansab

Now a day everyone is familiar about the term biotechnology. Biotechnology is a branch of biology or we can say that it is a broad area of biology that uses living organisms for the welfare of mankind. In simple words we can say that by using living organisms or their parts to make products useful for mankind. Let’s take a simple example of bread and making of yogurt in which yeast and certain bacteria are used respectively. It is derived from two words, Bio and technology. So, by using modern tools and techniques on living organisms or their parts to develop products that are used for well-being of humans. The history of biotechnology goes to 7000BC where Chinese use fermentation for beer making. Let us discus about major eras of biotechnology.

History of Biotechnology

1. Before common era

History begins before common era i.e. 7000BC where Chinese used fermentation to produce beer. In 4000BC Egyptians used to bake breads from yeasts and during 300BC Greeks developed crop rotation technique for maximum crop yield.

2. Before and during 20th century

Pre-20th century has seen a lot of valuable discoveries in the field of biology. These discoveries led the foundation of modern biotechnology. The discovery of living cell by Robert hook in 1663 was the major breakthrough in the field of biology. Since then a lot of important discoveries have been made like discovery of bacteria and protozoa (Antonie van Leeuwenhoek-1677), viral vaccine (Edward Jenner-1798), Bacterial origin of fermentation (Louis pasteur-1862), Identification of DNA by Friedrich Miescher in 1869 and many more.

The word Biotechnology was first used by a Hungarian agriculture engineer Károly Ereky in 1919. During 20th century several major discoveries like first antibiotic penicillin in 1928, hybrid corn 1933, first synthetic antibiotic 1950, structure of DNA by Watson and Crick 1953, first successful recombinant DNA experiment using bacterial genes by Cohen and Boyer in 1973, method for producing monoclonal antibodies by Kohler and Milstein in 1975, Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 1983 and Cloning of dolly sheep in 1997 were made. The most important breakthrough was the rough draft of human genome in Human genome project 2000.

Modern Biotechnology

Advancements in the field of biotechnology are growing enormously since the discovery of cell and genetic engineering. In 2001, Celera genomics and Human genome project has created a first draft of human genome sequence which was the huge progress in the field of biotechnology. This project was completed in 2003 and sequence of entire human gnome came into knowledge. Completion of this project opened several paths to understand different genetic diseases and to develop their cure. Hence, this was one of the most important discovery oh the decade.

Last decade has seen another important discovery named CRISPR/Cas9 technology for editing genes. This is a powerful tool for editing genome. This technique allows researchers to alter DNA and modifying genome for improvement of crops, correcting genetic defects, treating diseases and preventing them form spreading.

Biotechnology is divided into four main categories i.e. Green biotechnology. Red biotechnology, Blue biotechnology and White biotechnology referring to agricultural processes, Medical applications, Aquatic and marine biology and industrial processes respectively. The biotechnology industries are upsurging and it is said that it will reach $775 billion in value within the next four years. The growth not only escalated due to COVID-19 pandemic but also due to emerging financial support due to promising treatments of various illness.

Here are some recent trends of biotechnology in 2021

• UCLA researchers reported new stem cell therapy that will open doors for treating Strokes and dementia (genengnews.com)
• The FDA approved the first-ever gene therapy, a drug called kymriah, in 2017 (https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/biotechnology-trends/)
• Researchers all around the World are developing new ways of making vaccines for COVID-19 and similar diseases.
• Olivier Schwartz, PhD, head of the virus & immunity unit, Institute Pasteur and at the VRI revealed in his study that SARS-CoV-2 induces poly functional antibodies that kills infected cells (https://www.genengnews.com/news/sars-cov-2-induces-polyfunctional-antibodies-that-kill-infected-cells/)
• Researcher has insights into developing DNA robots that will be able to deliver medicine inside our body, detect any pathogen presence and much more. In a paper published (April 19, 2021) in the journal Nature Materials, researchers from The Ohio State University, led by former engineering doctoral student Chao-Min Huang, disclosed new software they call MagicDNA (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210419135731.htm).
• A candidate vaccine has been developed by Virginia Tech’s University Distinguished Professor X.J. Meng and UVA Health’s Professor Steven L. Zeichner which prevents pigs form pig corona virus by targeting spike protein. “Our new platform offers a new route to rapidly produce vaccines at very low cost that can be manufactured in existing facilities around the world, which should be particularly helpful for pandemic response,” said Zeichner (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210416115957.htm)

Hence, biotechnology is revealing its miracles as days are passing and in future we will be able to see more discoveries and miracles.