What is biotechnology? Main directions and achievements

Do you know what biotechnology is? Surely you've heard something about her. This is an important section of modern biology. It became, like physics, one of the main priorities in the world economy and science in the late 20th century. Half a century ago, no one knew what biotechnology was. However, the foundations of it lay the scientist, who lived back in the 19th century. Biotechnology has received a powerful impetus to development thanks to the work of the researcher from France Louis Pasteur (years of life - 1822-1895). He is the founder of modern immunology and microbiology.

In the 20th century, genetics and molecular biology developed rapidly using the achievements of physics and chemistry. At this time, the most important direction was the development of methods by which animals and plants could be cultivated.

Surge of research

In 1980, there was a surge in research in the field of biotechnology. By this time, new methodological and methodological approaches have been created, which provided the transition to the application of biotechnologies in science and practice. There was an opportunity to extract from this a great economic effect. According to forecasts, biotechnological goods were to form at the beginning of the new century a quarter of world production.

Work carried out in our country

Active development of biotechnology took place at this time in our country. In Russia, there has also been a significant expansion of work in this area and the introduction of their results in the 1980s. In our country in this period, the first biotechnology program of a national scale was developed and implemented. Special interdepartmental centers have been set up, specialists in biotechnology have been trained, chairs have been established, and laboratories have been established in universities and research institutions.

Biotechnology today

Today we are so used to this word that few people ask themselves the question: "What is biotechnology?" Meanwhile, it would not be superfluous to get acquainted with her in more detail. Modern processes in this area are based on methods of using recombinant DNA and immobilized enzymes, cellular organelles or cells. Modern biotechnology is a science of cellular and genetically engineered technologies and methods of creating and using transformed genetically biological objects with the aim of intensifying production or creating new types of products. There are three main directions, which we will now talk about.

Industrial Biotechnology

In this direction, we can distinguish as a kind of red biotechnology (medicine). It is considered the most important area of application of biotechnology. They play an increasingly important role in the development of medicines (in particular, for the treatment of cancer). A great importance of biotechnology is also in diagnosis. They are used, for example, to create biosensors, DNA chips. In Austria, red biotechnology today enjoys well-deserved recognition. It is even considered the engine for the development of other industries.

Let's move on to the next variety of industrial biotechnology. This biotechnology is green. It is used when selection is carried out. This biotechnology today provides special methods, with the help of which countermeasures against herbicides, viruses, fungi, insects are developed. All this is also very important, you will agree.

Genetic engineering is of particular importance for the field of green biotechnology. With it, the prerequisites are created for transferring the genes of one plant species to others, and thus scientists can influence the development of stable characteristics and properties.

Gray biotechnology is used to protect the environment. Its methods are used for cleaning sewage, soil sanitation, cleaning of gases and waste air, for waste processing.

But that's not all. There is also white biotechnology, which covers the sphere of use in the chemical industry. Biotechnological methods in this case are used for environmentally safe and efficient production of enzymes, antibiotics, amino acids, vitamins, and also alcohol.

And finally, the last variety. Blue biotechnology is based on the technical application of various organisms, as well as the processes of marine biology. In this case, the center of research is the biological organisms inhabiting the World Ocean.

We proceed to the next direction - cell engineering.

Cell Engineering

She is engaged in the production of hybrids, cloning, the study of cellular mechanisms, "hybrid" cells, the compilation of genetic maps. It began in the 1960s, when a method of hybridizing somatic cells appeared . By this time the methods of cultivation have been improved, and the methods of growing tissues have arisen. Somatic hybridization, in which hybrids are created without the participation of the sexual process, is now performed by cultivating different cells of lines of the same species or using cells of different species.

Hybridomas and their significance

Hybridomas, that is, hybrids between lymphocytes (the usual cells of the immune system) and tumor cells, have the properties of the cell lines of the parents. They are able, like cancerous cells, to divide indefinitely on nutrient artificial media (that is, they are "immortal"), and also, like lymphocytes, they can produce homogeneous (monoclonal) antibodies that have specific specificity. These antibodies are used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, as sensitive reagents for organic substances, etc.

Another area of cellular engineering is the manipulation of cells that do not have nuclei, with free nuclei, as well as with other fragments. These manipulations are reduced to the combination of parts of the cell. Similar experiments, together with microinjection of dyes or chromosomes in the cell, are carried out to find out how the cytoplasm and the nucleus influence each other, what factors regulate the activity of certain genes, and so on.

With the help of a compound in the early stages of development of cells of various embryos, so-called mosaic animals are grown. Otherwise they are called chimeras. They consist of 2 types of cells, differing in genotypes. By these experiments, it is found out how the differentiation of tissues and cells occurs in the course of the development of the organism.

Cloning

Modern biotechnology is inconceivable without cloning. Experiments associated with the transplantation of the nuclei of various somatic cells into enucleated (ie, nucleus-deprived) ovules of animals with further growing into an adult organism of the resulting embryo have been underway for more than a decade. However, they were very widely known from the end of the 20th century. Today we call such experiments the cloning of animals.

Very few people today know Dolly the sheep. In 1996, near Edinburgh (Scotland), the first cloning of a mammal was performed at the Roslin Institute, which was realized from an adult cell. Dolly's sheep was the first such clone.

Genetic Engineering

Emerging in the early 1970s, genetic engineering today has made significant progress. Her methods transform mammalian, yeast, and bacterial cells into real "factories" for the production of any protein. Such an achievement of science provides an opportunity to study in detail the functions and structure of proteins in order to use them as medicines.

The fundamentals of biotechnology are now widely used. The intestinal rod, for example, has become in our time the supplier of important hormones of somatotropin and insulin. Applied genetic engineering aims to design recombinant DNA molecules. When introduced into a specific genetic apparatus, they can give the body useful properties for a person. For example, it is possible to obtain "biological reactors," that is, animals, plants and microorganisms that produce substances that are pharmacologically important to humans. Advances in biotechnology have led to the possibility of breeding breeds of animals and plant varieties with traits that are valuable to humans. With the help of genetic engineering methods it is possible to carry out genetic certification, create DNA vaccines, diagnose various genetic diseases, etc.

Conclusion

So, we answered the question: "What is biotechnology?" Of course, the article gives only basic information about it, briefly lists the directions. This introductory information provides an overview of what modern biotechnologies are and how they are used.