Is large scale, industrial use of living organisms (normally microorganisms) and enzymes for food production, drugs and other useful products
Biotechnology products have been around for thousands of years e.g. beer, wine, cheese, yoghurt, bread and vinegar
Modern biotechnology is involved in many industries and has attempted to solve many problems; energy crisis, food shortages, pollution and disease
Many biotechnological processes use microorganisms, e.g. bacteria, archaeans and fungi, as they have several useful features for large scale industrial processes
Reproduce rapidly in favourable conditions, short generation (doubling) time (e.g. 30mins) and can be genetically modified/engineered
Useful products can be harvested from surrounding culture medium, which are relatively pure (need little downstream processing)
Grow anywhere (climate independent), on waste nutrients which are useless or even toxic to humans and at low temperature
Microorganism products are either primary metabolites (made in normal growth) or secondary metabolites (made when growth slows or stops)
