Karabuts

Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary scientific field of technical utilization of the properties and abilities of living organisms, cells or their components. Earlier descriptions of this work direction were "Zymotechnik" or "Technical Biology.

Biotechnology in the classical sense includes centuries-old methods such as the use of microorganisms for the production of wine and cheese. This contrasts with the modern biotechnology, flow together in the knowledge of various sciences such as biochemistry, microbiology, cell biology and chemical engineering. Accordingly, difficult at present is the definition of what comprises biotechnology. Biotechnology enables the manufacture of products for the pharmaceutical, food and chemical industry. Microorganisms are also used for sustainable Schadstoffab-and used in land reclamation or conversion of wastewater treatment. In biotechnology, genetic engineering and molecular biology methods now used. Genetic engineering is therefore a part of the biotechnology dar. More broadly, sometimes the modern diagnostic and therapeutic methods of medicine will be added to biotechnology.

In the biotechnological production of enzymes are the one, pharmaceuticals, food additives produced by microorganisms or animal cells, for other important steps are carried out using enzymes derived from such organisms. Compared to chemical processes by enzymatic reactions both energy and raw material savings and waste and by-products reduced. The relevant in the biotech organisms are mostly bacteria and fungi that can be genetically modified and are grown in bioreactors or fermenters under optimized conditions. This is done in special nutrient solutions, with key parameters such as temperature sensors, oxygen and pH document. Meanwhile, mammals or plants are genetically engineered (transgenic animals and plants) that they as "bioreactors" economically interesting proteins, such as drugs, produce (Gene-Farming).

Biotechnological processes have been used for thousands of years. In the 5th Millennium BC. took advantage of the inhabitants of Mesopotamia cereals or cereal products to the brewing of beer, a first use of the fermentation, the enzymatic conversion of organic substances. Around 3900 BC, was known in ancient Egypt more able to appreciate wine. The cultivation of acetic acid and lactic acid bacteria for vinegar production and preservation of milk was known in ancient times, as the acidification of bread dough. The first "biotech industry" for vinegar production was in the 14th Century in Orleans was founded. Only much later, in 1680, A. van Leeuwenhoek demonstrated the existence of microorganisms. Based on work by T. Schwann in 1837, could eventually provide 1857 L. Pasteur proved that fermentation is not purely chemical nature, but based on the activity of microorganisms.

End of the 19th Century a wide industrial application of fermentation process: From 1880, lactic acid produced as a first organic acid on an industrial scale, developed 1912, the fermentation process for acetone and butanol. With the discovery of penicillin by A. Fleming in 1928 and its biotechnological production starting in 1943 began a new era of biotechnology. The sterile production on a scale of about 100 m³ placed high demands on technical chemistry and chemical engineering. Since the 1950s, increasingly, vitamins, amino acids and enzymes produced by means of biotechnology. The structure elucidation of the DNA by JD Watson and FHC Crick in 1953 was a rapid development of molecular biology one that was also momentous for biotechnology. The introduction of genetic engineering in 1973 with the possibility of transferring genes across species boundaries into another organism paved the way for new microbial benefits. Marked cornerstone of this development was in the early 1980s, the marketing of insulin, genetically modified to its production Escherichia coli bacteria were used. Through genetic engineering and new cell culture techniques, the classical biotechnology has undergone a tremendous expansion of its possibilities. The decoding of the human genome gave further impetus for new developments in the field of medicine. Future developments will be of further networking of biotechnology fields marked with new technology, such as in bioelectronics, neuroscience and computer science in biomaterials.