Biotechnology concentrated on the production of food and medicine. It also tried to solve environmental problems. In the nineteenth century, industries linked to the fermentation technology had grown tremendously because of the high demand for various chemicals such as ethanol, butanol, glycerine, acetone, etc. The advancement in fermentation process by its interaction with chemical engineering has given rise to a new area—the bioprocess technology. Large-scale production of proteins and enzymes can be carried out by applying bioprocess technology in fermentation. Applying the principles of biology, chemistry, and engineering sciences, processes are developed to create large quantities of chemicals, antibiotics, proteins, and enzymes in an economical manner. Bioprocess technology includes media and buffer preparation, upstream processing and downstream processing. Upstream processing provides the microorganism the media, substrate, and the correct chemical environment to carry out the required biochemical reactions to produce the product.

Downstream processing is the separation method to harvest the pure product from the fermentation medium. Thus, fermentation technology changed into biotechnology, now known as classical biotechnology. Now if we look at biotechnology, we find its application in various fields such as food, agriculture, medicine, and in solving environmental problems. This has led to the division of biotechnology into different areas such as agricultural biotechnology, medical or pharmaceutical biotechnology, industrial biotechnology, and environmental biotechnology. Modern biotechnology is mainly based on recombinant DNA (rDNA) and hybridoma technology in addition to bioprocess technology. RDNA technology is the main tool used to not only produce genetically-modified organisms, including plants, animals, and microbes, but also to address the fundamental questions in life sciences. In fact, modern biotechnology began when recombinant human insulin was produced and marketed in the United States in 1982.

The effort leading up to this landmark event began in the early 1970s when research scientists developed protocols to construct vectors by cutting out and pasting pieces of DNA together to create a new piece of DNA (recombinant DNA) that could be inserted into the bacterium, e. coli (transformation). If one of the pieces of the new DNA includes a gene for insulin or any other therapeutic protein or enzyme, the bacterium would be able to produce that protein or enzyme in large quantities by applying bioprocess technology. Recombinant microorganisms, plant cells, and animal cells can be cultivated and used for the large-scale production of industrially-important enzymes and chemicals. Examples of such enzymes are protease, amylase, lipase, glucose isomerase, invertase, etc. Amylase is used in the starch industry. Glucose isomerase is used in fructose formation from glucose syrup. Proteases and lipases are incorporated into detergent products to take out stains. Protease is also used in the meat and leather industries to remove hair and soften meat and leather. Since the manufacturing of human insulin using recombinant e. coli began in 1982, many other proteins (for human and veterinary therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostics) have been manufactured. Today, there are a large number of human therapeutic proteins or vaccines made by modern biotechnology methods, approved by the government and marketed in the country.

Best Regards,
Nicola B
Editorial Manager
Journal of Biochemistry & Biotechnology