Evolution and Advancement in Biotechnology Education:

The word “Biotechnology” has received massive importance during last two decades, which was
unpredictable. The cause behind this kind of attention towards biotechnology was its unlimited
potential to serve and to benefit the humanity. Biotechnology has touched our lives in all zones
of life from the improvement of taste, texture, yield and disease resistance of crops, cleaning up
of oil spills, removal of hazardous substances from environment through bioremediation,
production of eco-friendly biofuels, introducing new ways of diagnosis and treatment of life-
threatening and chronic diseases, industrial production of healthcare products like enzymes,
metabolites, therapeutic proteins, growth factors, interferons, clotting factors, vaccines,
hormones etc.
Rationally, the word ‘biotechnology’ has been derived from two simple words of science, i.e.,
‘Biology’ and ‘Technology’. The term biotechnology was used for the first time by Karl Erkey, a
Hungarian Engineer, in 1919. Like the unlimited potential of biotechnology, ways to define this
word is limitless too. One simplest definition of biotechnology is “The utilization of biological
processes, organisms or systems to produce products that are anticipated to improve human lives
is termed biotechnology”. Largely, this can be defined as the engineering of organisms for the
purpose of human usage.
Development of biotechnology includes many stages from the fermentation and domestication of
plants and animals to human genome project (HGP) and post HGP era introducing genome
editing, metabolic engineering, stem-cell therapy, CRISPR-CAS technology and much more. In
short, humans have been practicing biotechnology for centuries and it is the major driving factor
in the betterment of life on this planet.

Figure: History of the development of biotechnology

As biotechnology is an inter-disciplinary field, that’s why it is divided in many branches. Four
main branches of biotechnology are:
Green Biotechnology
Red Biotechnology
White Biotechnology
Blue Biotechnology

Figure: Branches of Biotechnology

Evolution and Advancement of Green Biotechnology:
Agriculture biotechnology is called as green biotechnology. Green biotechnology deals with the
use of environmentally-friendly solutions as an alternative to traditional agriculture, horticulture,
and animal breeding processes. Introduction of plant tissue culture and micropropagation allows
to produce a large number of progeny plants with characteristics such as disease resistant,
herbicide resistant, drought tolerant, enhanced neutraceuticals, improved taste and more
importantly increased yield in a limited time and space. In the past decade, several crops have
been genetically engineered to introduce Bt toxin genes isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis.
This gene codes for the insecticidal Bt protein that kills insects such as tobacco budworm, flies,
mosquitoes, beetles, etc. One of the earliest examples of Bt toxin engineered crop is Bt cotton.
Genetically enhanced crops are one tool that could contribute to a more harmonious balance
between food production and our surrounding environment. Phytoremediation allows the use of
plants for the removal of toxic wastes from the polluted or contaminated land, air and water.
Phytoremediation is eco-friendly and economical process. Biofuels are the eco-friendly
alternative of conventional fuels. Although they are expensive than conventional fuels till date,
still regulatory bodies are trying to breach the gap between producers and traders with the help of
subsidies granted by government. Potential biofuel products are butanol as a direct replacement
for gasoline, bioethanol, biomethanol, biogas, and biodiesel. More than 80% of the biomass
supply is used for direct heating and cooking (Bioenergy) predominantly in Asia and African
continents. Advancement in the field of biofertilizers allowed to reduce the use of conventional
and harmful chemical fertilizers.
Evolution and Advancement of Red Biotechnology:
The term “Red Biotechnology” includes use of living systems or molecular engineering to create
and manufacture biologic therapies and products for patient care. For more than thirty years red
biotech industry has made extraordinary advances in both therapeutics and business. Major
product categories include large-molecule proteins; peptides; monoclonal antibodies; cell, tissue,
and genetic therapies; liposomes; polymers and molecularly engineered vaccines. Red
biotechnology also includes pharmacogenomics and genetic testing. Due to recent advancements
in red biotechnology, doctors can operate on patients in surgical rooms remotely from their
computer screens, guiding robotic arms to an accuracy of a few nanometers. Stem cell therapy
now allows to repair the diseased, injured or dysfunctional cells by using regenerative cells
grown in vitro. Genome editing by CRISPR-CAS (Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short
Palindromic Repeats- CRISPR associated proteins) allows biotechnologists to treat diseases that
were previously considered as not curable. Research is ongoing to target HIV through CRISPR-
CAS technology. Researchers in Sweden developed a blood test that can detect cancer at an early
stage from a single drop of blood in 2015. In 2016, bioengineers created a completely 3D-
printed ‘heart on a chip’. Scientists at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA, said they’re one step
closer to being able to grow human organs inside pigs. The Global Red Biotechnology Market is
estimated to grow at CAGR above 5.6 % over the forecast time frame 2019 to 2026 and reach
the market value around USD 500 billion by 2026.
Evolution and Advancement of White Biotechnology:
White biotechnology means industrial biotechnology. It uses microorganisms and their enzymes
to manufacture the goods for industry, such as chemicals, plastics, pharmaceutical, food, and
energy carriers. Biotechnology is evolving in the fourth industrial revolution through the
production of human insulin, enzymes, biofuels, eco-friendly bio plastics, paper production,
vitamins, growth factors, vaccines etc. Hopeful visionaries have already started to talk about a
'carbohydrate economy' replacing the old 'hydrocarbon economy'
Evolution and Advancement of Blue Biotechnology:
Blue biotechnology is the application of molecular biological methods to marine and fresh water
organisms. Marine biotechnology is securing human health through production of marine derived
anticancer drugs, painkillers, antibiotics, and cosmetics. GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) is
serving molecular biology as a marker-protein. Alkaline Phosphatase due to its heat labile
properties is widely used in molecular biology. Marine derived biopolymers, enzymes and
biomaterials are revolutionizing the industrial processes.
Thus in conclusion, there is going to be an even larger number of biotech companies, both big
and small, along with an increasing number of venture companies. Biotechnology will become
as common as having a cellphone or going online.

Figure: Development of biotechnology by 2030.

PREPARED BY:
JANNAT TAHIR
BIOTECHNOLOGIST
DEPARTMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY