Friday, November 14, 2008

Keep Up With Biotechnology

By Glyn R Russell

The biotechnology industry is a continuously developing, often controversial, heavily demanding and profitable sector. For as long as the desire for better things and a thirst of more knowledge exists, biotechnology will maintain its steady growth pace and be a crucial part of the world changes in every way.

The industry of biotechnology consists of many diverse fields and quite often, each of the separate fields have sub-fields too. Some instances of day-to-day biotechnology include agriculture, biopharmaceuticals, antibody technologies, gene therapy, molecular biology, industrial and environmental biology, biomaterials, enzymes, informatics, genomics, genetic engineering etc.

There over 90 biotechnology products in various capacities today, including in the field of medicine. Several drugs and vaccines, as approved by the relevant authorities, are now in used worldiwde because of the progress made in biotechnology. In addition, there are approximately 350 more biotechnology drugs and vaccines in the testing stage, with human clinical trials underway for most of them. Research and development of over 500 more such substances for use in other fields, such as gene therapy and agriculture, are still being considered.

Biotechnology experiments and clinical trials give hope to many who suffer from fatal illnesses and gives the world in general the possibility of an eventual treatment and perhaps even a complete cure. Some of the drugs under testing are for AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.

Aside from the progress in the medical field, biotechnology has also made fascinating developments in other field, such as general biology and agriculture. We are now aware how specific genes create specific problems in a child and in some instances, how to reduce the effects caused by them too. While DNA was discovered in the 1970s and recorded a major breakthrough in scientific history, there's yet to be another such milestone. However, the progress in science so far is impressive and biotechnology is a key factor in it all.

Agriculturally, introducing biopesticides is a great achievement in biotechnology. Replacing the harmful chemicals used in traditional agricultural processes, the biopesticides ensure only the pests are weeded out and no harm comes to either humans or the surroundings. Biotechnology is commonly used as a key science in energy, chemical and environmental management procedures too.

The biotechnology industry as a whole is an extremely profitable sector, because biotech companies generate over $50 billion every year. Used in almost every field where living beings are concerned, biotechnology will continue to evolve and give more to the community, hopefully always for the society's betterment.

How is your knowledge on biotechnology? If you feel you haven't kept up with the developments, make sure you read more biotechnology news and do more research to keep abreast with all the new things coming up. - 15437

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