W1:Classical & Modern Biotech

• Biotechnology

  The study and manipulation of living things or their component molecules, cells, tissues, or organs
• Biotechnology


  Application of new technologies to the research and development of products from plants and animal cells
• Biotechnology


  The manufacturing of a variety of products previously unavailable (insulin, antibodies)
• Defining Biotechnology


  • Any technique that uses living organisms or substances from living organisms to make or modify a product, improve plants or animals, or develop microorganisms for specific uses
• Stages of Biotechnology


  • Ancient
  • Classical
  • Modern
• Ancient Biotechnology


  • Begins with early civilization
  • Few records exist
  • History of domestication and agriculture
• The oldest proven records of brewing are about 6,000 years old and refer to the Sumerians (Mesopotamia / Southern Iraq)
• Bread references are as old as 5,000 to 8,000 years
• Classical Biotechnology

  Describes the development that fermentation has taken from ancient times to the present
• Up to the present, classical and modern biotechnology has improved fermentation so that many new and important compounds can be produced
• Brewers began producing alcohol on a large scale in the early 1700s
• Classical Biotechnology - people

  • Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) developed a microscope and was the first to observe and accurately describe bacteria in 1673
  • Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) shows that microorganisms do not arise by spontaneous generation 1861
  • Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) theories of heredity and is considered to be the father of genetics
  • Robert Koch (1843-1910) described 4 criteria establishing relationship between microbes and disease
• Modern Biotechnology

  Still utilizes traditional techniques (e.g., fermentation) but combined with modern knowledge and techniques to modify, create or select the particular biological process or organism
• Modern Biotechnology - people and key events

  • Wendell M. Stanley Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1946 for showing tobacco mosaic virus remains infectious even after crystallization
  • James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1962 for the elucidation of the structure of DNA
• Biotechnology is multidisciplinary

  • Manipulation of genetic material, cloning
  • Recombinant DNA techniques
  • Proteomics
  • Bioinformatics
• Objectives for Biotechnology

  • New varieties of plants, flowers, fruit, vegetables, cereal crops etc
  • Greater resistance to adverse conditions (climate, infectious diseases)
  • Medical and pharmaceutical products (antibiotics, hormones, drugs)
  • Organ growth
  • Fermentation products (beer, wine, foods, bio-ethanol)
• Prerequisites

  1. Research and development

  2. Scale production

  3. Testing and Verification (e.g., clinical phases I, II and III)

  4. Compliance (e.g., FDA)

  5. Ethics
• Biotechnology workers and Biotechnology Workplace

  • Biotechnology Companies - goal is to produce and sell commercial for-profit products
  • Universities and Government Labs - conduct pure science research, nonprofit
• Growth in the Biotechnology industry

  • Medical and pharmaceutical industry
  • Agriculture industry
  • Industrial and environmental industry
  • Diagnostics, instruments and research industry
• Domains of Biotechnology

  • Medical and pharmaceutical industry
  • Agriculture industry
  • Industrial and environmental industry
  • Diagnostics, instruments and research industry
• In the past 100 years, scientists have increased the pace of searching for products that improve the quality of life
• Bioengineered Products

  • Antibiotics (Penicillin, Cephalosporin, Tetracycline)
  • Antibodies
  • Hormones
  • Industrial products such as rubber, turpentine, and maple syrup
• As the methods of manipulating living things have become more sophisticated, the number and variety of biological products have increased at an incredible rate
• Penicillin

  1. 1928 – Alexander Fleming discovered Staphylococci bacteria had burst (cleared) in the area immediately surrounding the mold (fungi) Penicillium, which has contaminated his plates

  2. 1939 - Howard Florey and Edward Abraham of Oxford University were able to purify and stabilize a form of penicillin that enabled demonstration of its therapeutic potential

  3. The first human trial of penicillin took place in 1941 and involved treating a man with osteomyelitis

  4. Early 1940s - Ernst Chain turned to beer-brewing technology to produce the huge amounts of the mouldy liquor, which was needed for penicillin production
• Recombinant DNA

  Artificial DNA engineered through the combination or insertion of one or more DNA strands
• Recombinant DNA combines DNA sequences that would not normally occur together
• Recombinant DNA


  • First engineered by Stanley Norman Cohen and Herbert Boyer in 1973
  • Made possible by the discovery of Restriction endonucleases by Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1978)
  • DNA ligases then seal the cut ends of the two DNA sequences together
• Restriction Enzymes


  • Type II cleave DNA at specific recognition sites
  • Type I and Type III cleave DNA away from recognition sites
• Restriction Enzymes


  • BamHI – Bacillus amyloliquefaciens H
  • EcoRI – Escherichia coli
  • HindIII – Haemophilus influenzae b
• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)


  Organisms that contain DNA from another organism and produce new proteins encoded on the acquired DNA
• Gene Engineered Plant


  Scientists have learned how to extract genes that code for certain traits and transfer them from one species to another. The organism that gets the new genes will have the potential to express the new traits coded in the newly acquired genes
• Bioluminescence

  • Vibrio fischeri – a luminous marine bacterium producing luciferase
• Blood-clot dissolving enzymes

  • Producing Genetically Engineered t-PA By genetically modifying Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, scientists can make large amounts of t-PA for therapeutic purposes, to clear blood vessels in the event of a heart attack or stroke
• The Human Genome Project (HGP)

  The international collaborative research program whose goal was the complete mapping and understanding of all the genes of human beings
• The International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium published the first draft of the human genome in the journal Nature in February 2001 with the sequence of the entire genome's three billion base pairs some 90 percent complete
• The full sequence was completed and published in April 2003
• Our genome encodes 20,000 to 25,000 genes, 5-6 x more than E. coli (~4000 genes) and 1.4 – 1.8 x more than Fruitfly (~14,000 genes)
• How Companies Select Products to Manufacture

  • Plant products
  • Fermentation equipment
  • Viral therapies
  • DNA sequencers for research
  • Enzymes for food processing
• Developing Ideas for new products

  1. Discussions lead to new ideas

  2. Reading literature reviews can lead to new ideas

  3. New ideas are generated at conferences and meetings
• Product Development Plan


  1. Does the product meet a critical need? Who will use the product?

  2. Is the market large enough to produce enough sales? How many customers are there?