Success Factors of Biotechnology Industry Based on Triangular Fuzzy Number

OpenAIRE

Lei, Lei

2013-01-01

Based on the theory of competitive advantage and value chain, this paper establishes the indicator system, and develop the strategic framework using the fuzzy Delphi method. Then the triangular fuzzy number model is established using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, and the key factors influencing biotechnology industry are extracted. The results show that in terms of weight, the key factors influencing the success of biotechnology industry are sequenced as follows: “open innovation capaci...

Halophiles, coming stars for industrial biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Jin; Chen, Jin-Chun; Wu, Qiong; Chen, Guo-Qiang

2015-11-15

Industrial biotechnology aims to produce chemicals, materials and biofuels to ease the challenges of shortage on petroleum. However, due to the disadvantages of bioprocesses including energy consuming sterilization, high fresh water consumption, discontinuous fermentation to avoid microbial contamination, highly expensive stainless steel fermentation facilities and competing substrates for human consumption, industrial biotechnology is less competitive compared with chemical processes. Recently, halophiles have shown promises to overcome these shortcomings. Due to their unique halophilic properties, some halophiles are able to grow in high pH and high NaCl containing medium under higher temperature, allowing fermentation processes to run contamination free under unsterile conditions and continuous way. At the same time, genetic manipulation methods have been developed for halophiles. So far, halophiles have been used to produce bioplastics polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), ectoines, enzymes, and bio-surfactants. Increasing effects have been made to develop halophiles into a low cost platform for bioprocessing with advantages of low energy, less fresh water consumption, low fixed capital investment, and continuous production. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dynamic Externalities, Universities and Social Capital Formation in the EU Biotechnology Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malgorzata RUNIEWICZ-WARDYN

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The paper investigates the role of dynamic externalities, university-industry linkages and role of social networking in the biotechnology industry in the European Union (EU. Universities act as platforms for local knowledge spillovers and university-industry cluster development in the biotechnology field. The R&D activities at universities contribute to successful business innovations. However, the relationship between the universities and the local innovation capabilities is much more complex and therefore requires more in-depth analysis. The following study derives from the knowledge of the new economic geography, endogenous growth theory, biotechnology, as well as theories of social capital and social networks. The quantitative research elaborates contemporary literature and databases to find channels of interdependence between local university-based knowledge flows, social capital, and biotechnology cluster performance. The results of the study show that the biotechnology industry relies very much on university-business R&D partnerships and research mobility (e.g. pharmaceutical firms that performed basic research in close cooperation with academia produced more patents. In addition, social networking and informal contacts seem to be a more important for the diffusion of knowledge, especially at the beginning of R&D process, as they allow for building credibility between potential partners.

Cooperative Learning through Team-Based Projects in the Biotechnology Industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Luginbuhl, Sarah C; Hamilton, Paul T

2013-01-01

We have developed a cooperative-learning, case studies project model that has teams of students working with biotechnology professionals on company-specific problems. These semester-long, team-based projects can be used effectively to provide students with valuable skills in an industry environment and experience addressing real issues faced by biotechnology companies. Using peer-evaluations, we have seen improvement in students' professional skills such as time-management, quality of work, and level of contribution over multiple semesters. This model of team-based, industry-sponsored projects could be implemented in other college and university courses/programs to promote professional skills and expose students to an industry setting.

A European Competence Framework for Industrial Pharmacy Practice in Biotechnology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Atkinson, Jeffrey; Crowley, Pat; De Paepe, Kristien; Gennery, Brian; Koster, Andries|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/070975558; Martini, Luigi; Moffat, Vivien; Nicholson, Jane; Pauwels, Gunther; Ronsisvalle, Giuseppe; Sousa, Vitor; van Schravendijk, Chris; Wilson, Keith

2015-01-01

The PHAR-IN (“Competences for industrial pharmacy practice in biotechnology”) looked at whether there is a difference in how industrial employees and academics rank competences for practice in the biotechnological industry. A small expert panel consisting of the authors of this paper produced a

Biotechnology 2000: a new German R&D programme

OpenAIRE

Ekkehard Warmuth

1991-01-01

Biotechnology 2000 is a German programme to continue the development of biotechnology started in 1982. It includes two new scientific fields for industrial innovation — genome research and neurobiology. Together with industry and the science community, the biotechnology programme will create a basis for future generations of biologically derived products and processes, including the development of safety precautions for the contained use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and of univers...

Biotechnology Industry, 2006

Science.gov (United States)

2006-01-01

for commercial or other purposes. Because it is a process resting on the understanding of genetics, proteomics , and life science, biotechnology has...Luhnow & Samor, 2006). Novel biotechnologies could bring down the costs of making ethanol. Iogen Corporation has genetically modified a fungus to

Biotechnology and industrial ecology: new challenges for a ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Admin

Key words: Biotechnology, industrial ecology, energy, agriculture, biofuels, climate change, desertification, genetic engineering. INTRODUCTION. The human population is growing at an exponential rate and average per capita consumption of natural resources is also increasing. These growth patterns are leading to.

A future perspective on the role of industrial biotechnology for chemicals production

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Woodley, John; Breuer, Michael; Mink, Daniel

2013-01-01

The development of recombinant DNA technology, the need for renewable raw materials and a green, sustainable profile for future chemical processes have been major drivers in the implementation of industrial biotechnology. The use of industrial biotechnology for the production of chemicals is well...... established in the pharmaceutical industry but is moving down the value chain toward bulk chemicals. Chemical engineers will have an essential role in the development of new processes where the need is for new design methods for effective implementation, just as much as new technology. Most interesting...

Biotechnological processes in the Canadian mining industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCready, R.G.L.

1991-01-01

Since the initiation of the Federal Government's National Strategy on Biotechnology in 1983, CANMET has coordinated the development of numerous biotechnological processes both for economical metal recovery and for the protection of the environment. This presentation will give a brief overview of the development of in-place, underground bacterial leaching of uranium, the development of in-situ bacterial leaching of copper and zinc, bio recovery of metallic selenium from smelter effluents, the degradation of an organic pollutant from a metal smelter and biological treatment of acidic mine drainage. (author)

How biotechnology is changing the structure of the seed industry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bijman, W.J.J.

2001-01-01

The seed industry has been in a state of restructuring for many years now. New firms have entered the industry and old players have merged. Firms from various backgrounds now compete in supplying seed to agriculture and horticulture: Traditional seed companies, new biotechnology firms, agrochemical

New challenges and opportunities for industrial biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Guo-Qiang

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Industrial biotechnology has not developed as fast as expected due to some challenges including the emergences of alternative energy sources, especially shale gas, natural gas hydrate (or gas hydrate and sand oil et al. The weaknesses of microbial or enzymatic processes compared with the chemical processing also make industrial biotech products less competitive with the chemical ones. However, many opportunities are still there if industrial biotech processes can be as similar as the chemical ones. Taking advantages of the molecular biology and synthetic biology methods as well as changing process patterns, we can develop bioprocesses as competitive as chemical ones, these including the minimized cells, open and continuous fermentation processes et al.

New challenges and opportunities for industrial biotechnology

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Industrial biotechnology has not developed as fast as expected due to some challenges including the emergences of alternative energy sources, especially shale gas, natural gas hydrate (or gas hydrate) and sand oil et al. The weaknesses of microbial or enzymatic processes compared with the chemical processing also make industrial biotech products less competitive with the chemical ones. However, many opportunities are still there if industrial biotech processes can be as similar as the chemical ones. Taking advantages of the molecular biology and synthetic biology methods as well as changing process patterns, we can develop bioprocesses as competitive as chemical ones, these including the minimized cells, open and continuous fermentation processes et al. PMID:22905695

New challenges and opportunities for industrial biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Guo-Qiang

2012-08-20

Industrial biotechnology has not developed as fast as expected due to some challenges including the emergences of alternative energy sources, especially shale gas, natural gas hydrate (or gas hydrate) and sand oil et al. The weaknesses of microbial or enzymatic processes compared with the chemical processing also make industrial biotech products less competitive with the chemical ones. However, many opportunities are still there if industrial biotech processes can be as similar as the chemical ones. Taking advantages of the molecular biology and synthetic biology methods as well as changing process patterns, we can develop bioprocesses as competitive as chemical ones, these including the minimized cells, open and continuous fermentation processes et al.

Towards a Typology of Business Models in the Biotechnology Industry

OpenAIRE

Segers, Jean Pierre

2018-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to identify a selection of key business models - “typology” - applied in the biotechnology industry. The focus is on the differences between traditional/closed or stand-alone business models opposed to open or networked business models. A number of illustrative case studies and good practices are presented to show that new biotechnology firms are gradually adopting a “best of both worlds” strategy, with both closed business models and open, networked models as ...

The roots--a short history of industrial microbiology and biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Buchholz, Klaus; Collins, John

2013-05-01

Early biotechnology (BT) had its roots in fascinating discoveries, such as yeast as living matter being responsible for the fermentation of beer and wine. Serious controversies arose between vitalists and chemists, resulting in the reversal of theories and paradigms, but prompting continuing research and progress. Pasteur's work led to the establishment of the science of microbiology by developing pure monoculture in sterile medium, and together with the work of Robert Koch to the recognition that a single pathogenic organism is the causative agent for a particular disease. Pasteur also achieved innovations for industrial processes of high economic relevance, including beer, wine and alcohol. Several decades later Buchner, disproved the hypothesis that processes in living cells required a metaphysical 'vis vitalis' in addition to pure chemical laws. Enzymes were shown to be the chemical basis of bioconversions. Studies on the formation of products in microbial fermentations, resulted in the manufacture of citric acid, and chemical components required for explosives particularly in war time, acetone and butanol, and further products through fermentation. The requirements for penicillin during the Second World War lead to the industrial manufacture of penicillin, and to the era of antibiotics with further antibiotics, like streptomycin, becoming available. This was followed by a new class of high value-added products, mainly secondary metabolites, e.g. steroids obtained by biotransformation. By the mid-twentieth century, biotechnology was becoming an accepted specialty with courses being established in the life sciences departments of several universities. Starting in the 1970s and 1980s, BT gained the attention of governmental agencies in Germany, the UK, Japan, the USA, and others as a field of innovative potential and economic growth, leading to expansion of the field. Basic research in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology dramatically widened the field of life

Next generation industrial biotechnology based on extremophilic bacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Guo-Qiang; Jiang, Xiao-Ran

2018-04-01

Industrial biotechnology aims to produce bulk chemicals including polymeric materials and biofuels based on bioprocessing sustainable agriculture products such as starch, fatty acids and/or cellulose. However, traditional bioprocesses require bioreactors made of stainless steel, complicated sterilization, difficult and expensive separation procedures as well as well-trained engineers that are able to conduct bioprocessing under sterile conditions, reducing the competitiveness of the bio-products. Amid the continuous low petroleum price, next generation industrial biotechnology (NGIB) allows bioprocessing to be conducted under unsterile (open) conditions using ceramic, cement or plastic bioreactors in a continuous way, it should be an energy, water and substrate saving technology with convenient operation procedure. NGIB also requires less capital investment and reduces demand on highly trained engineers. The foundation for the simplified NGIB is microorganisms that resist contaminations by other microbes, one of the examples is rapid growing halophilic bacteria inoculated under high salt concentration and alkali pH. They have been engineered to produce multiple products in various scales. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Potential of industrial biotechnology with cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijffels, R.H.; Kruse, O.; Hellingwerf, K.J.

2013-01-01

Both cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae are promising organisms for sustainable production of bulk products such as food, feed, materials, chemicals and fuels. In this review we will summarize the potential and current biotechnological developments. Cyanobacteria are promising host organisms

Potential of industrial biotechnology with cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijffels, R.H.; Kruse, O.; Hellingwerf, K.J.

2013-01-01

Both cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae are promising organisms for sustainable production of bulk products such as food, feed, materials, chemicals and fuels. In this review we will summarize the potential and current biotechnological developments.Cyanobacteria are promising host organisms for

Biotechnological Innovations in Aquaculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mangesh M. Bhosale

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Aquaculture is gaining commendable importance to meet the required protein source for ever increasing human population. The aquaculture industry is currently facing problems on developing economically viable production systems by reducing the impact on environment. Sustainable and enhanced fish production from aquaculture may be better achieved through application of recent biotechnological innovations. Utilisation of transgenic technology has led to production of fishes with faster growth rate with disease resistance. The full advantage of this technology could not be achieved due to concern of acceptance for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs. The biotechnological intervention in developing plant based feed ingredient in place of fish meal which contain high phosphorus is of prime area of attention for fish feed industry. The replacement of fish meal will also reduce fish feed cost to a greater extent. Year round fish seed production of carps through various biotechnological interventions is also need of the hour. This paper discusses technical, environmental and managerial considerations regarding the use of these biotechnological tools in aquaculture along with the advantages of research application and its commercialization.

Biotechnology for renewable chemicals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borodina, Irina; Kildegaard, Kanchana Rueksomtawin; Jensen, Niels Bjerg

2014-01-01

The majority of the industrial organic chemicals are derived from fossil sources. With the oil and gas resources becoming limiting, biotechnology offers a sustainable alternative for production ofchemicals from renewable feedstocks. Yeast is an attractive cell factory forsustainable production...

Cyanobacteria as Chassis for Industrial Biotechnology: Progress and Prospects

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Haj, Lamya; Lui, Yuen Tin; Abed, Raeid M.M.; Gomaa, Mohamed A.; Purton, Saul

2016-01-01

Cyanobacteria hold significant potential as industrial biotechnology (IB) platforms for the production of a wide variety of bio-products ranging from biofuels such as hydrogen, alcohols and isoprenoids, to high-value bioactive and recombinant proteins. Underpinning this technology, are the recent advances in cyanobacterial “omics” research, the development of improved genetic engineering tools for key species, and the emerging field of cyanobacterial synthetic biology. These approaches enabled the development of elaborate metabolic engineering programs aimed at creating designer strains tailored for different IB applications. In this review, we provide an overview of the current status of the fields of cyanobacterial omics and genetic engineering with specific focus on the current molecular tools and technologies that have been developed in the past five years. The paper concludes by giving insights on future commercial applications of cyanobacteria and highlights the challenges that need to be addressed in order to make cyanobacterial industrial biotechnology more feasible in the near future. PMID:27916886

Biotechnology in Turkey: an overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozdamar, Tunçer H

2009-07-01

The term biotechnology first appeared in the programs of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) in 1982. The State Planning Organization (SPO) in 1988 defined biotechnology and the scientific fields. Moreover, it put forward an institutional framework and suggested priority areas for research and development. Turkey has been researching and investing in biotechnology for almost four decades. This review covers the development of science and technology policy with its history, consensus and consequences, bio-industries in Turkey, and research activities in biotechnology at Turkish Universities. Details are provided by the research groups in response to a common request for information on their activities and major publications in the field. The information provided has been grouped under thematic topics within the broad theme of biotechnology, and summarized within these topics. Although many aspects of biotechnological research are being pursued in Turkey, it appears that the most common research activities of the field are in fermentation processes, environmental biotechnology, and biomedical engineering.

Biotechnology 2007

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-12-01

This book deals with Bio-vision 2016 on the meaning and important contents Next, it reveals vision of biotechnology, current condition of biotechnology in the main countries such as the U.S, Japan, Eu and China, promoting nation biotechnology with promotion policy, support policy for biotechnology such as agriculture and forestry and information and communication, competitiveness of biotechnology, research development by fields and related industries and regulation and system on biotechnology.

The translations and the organizing of scientific practices in R&D biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lorena Bezerra de Souza Matos

Full Text Available Abstract Considering the scientific practices related to Research & Development in biotechnology and, based on the assumptions of Actor Network Theory (ANT, this study aimed to describe the main translations that influenced the composition of an actor-networks, reflecting on the organizing practices in a scientific laboratory Research & Development of Northeast Biotechnology Network (Brazil. The methodological procedures were based on the historical approach of biotechnology under study from an ethnographic posture. The composition of the corpus was organized in the form of reports, observing the historical passages. The history of biotechnology has been reported between the plots of design, patenting and commercialization practices, highlighting the creation of heterogeneous actors’ networks. Finally, he emphasized the influence of laboratory scientist's leadership in the way of organizing of scientific practices.

Biotechnological Production of Organic Acids from Renewable Resources.

Science.gov (United States)

Pleissner, Daniel; Dietz, Donna; van Duuren, Jozef Bernhard Johann Henri; Wittmann, Christoph; Yang, Xiaofeng; Lin, Carol Sze Ki; Venus, Joachim

2017-03-07

Biotechnological processes are promising alternatives to petrochemical routes for overcoming the challenges of resource depletion in the future in a sustainable way. The strategies of white biotechnology allow the utilization of inexpensive and renewable resources for the production of a broad range of bio-based compounds. Renewable resources, such as agricultural residues or residues from food production, are produced in large amounts have been shown to be promising carbon and/or nitrogen sources. This chapter focuses on the biotechnological production of lactic acid, acrylic acid, succinic acid, muconic acid, and lactobionic acid from renewable residues, these products being used as monomers for bio-based material and/or as food supplements. These five acids have high economic values and the potential to overcome the "valley of death" between laboratory/pilot scale and commercial/industrial scale. This chapter also provides an overview of the production strategies, including microbial strain development, used to convert renewable resources into value-added products.

Biotechnology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewanika, Mbikusita Mwananyanda

2005-01-01

The article sets out to explain in simple terms the main concepts of Biotechnology beginning with traditional biotechnology to modern biotechnology. It outlines fundamentals of Recombinant Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA), Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and Genetic Engineering. The article offers a discussion of the benefits, disadvantages and the general public and policy concerns regarding genetically modified organisms

Traditional Chinese Biotechnology

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Yan; Wang, Dong; Fan, Wen Lai; Mu, Xiao Qing; Chen, Jian

The earliest industrial biotechnology originated in ancient China and developed into a vibrant industry in traditional Chinese liquor, rice wine, soy sauce, and vinegar. It is now a significant component of the Chinese economy valued annually at about 150 billion RMB. Although the production methods had existed and remained basically unchanged for centuries, modern developments in biotechnology and related fields in the last decades have greatly impacted on these industries and led to numerous technological innovations. In this chapter, the main biochemical processes and related technological innovations in traditional Chinese biotechnology are illustrated with recent advances in functional microbiology, microbial ecology, solid-state fermentation, enzymology, chemistry of impact flavor compounds, and improvements made to relevant traditional industrial facilities. Recent biotechnological advances in making Chinese liquor, rice wine, soy sauce, and vinegar are reviewed.

Non clinical research at CENTIS supporting biotechnological and pharmaceutical industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hernandez Gonzalez, Ignacio

2012-01-01

Drugs production is a highly demanding industry because the rigor of legislations and guidelines. Standards are applied to manufacturing facilities and also to research and development stage. Our national biotechnological industry is developing and producing important medications for diseases like cancer, some of them in the national and international market. Isotopes Centre is an institution supporting such development by means of a work platform to carry out researches in the field of pharmacokinetic and biodistribution in experimental models. Accumulated experience allows us to contribute to research and development of different kind of molecules as pharmaceuticals, specially the biotechnological ones. We are evolving in direction to new technologies and methodologies more suitable to current standards. Radiolabeling is still a convenient choice considering present and new imaging technologies to investigate distribution and kinetic in living subjects. With the techniques we have and the ones to incorporate in a near future, new and more demanding investigations will be affordable. (author)

Biotechnological valorization of pectinolytics and their industrial applications: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Irshad, Muhammad; Asgher, Muhammad; Anwar, Zahid; Ahmad, Aftab

2014-11-01

In the last several years, in serious consideration of the worldwide economic and environmental issues there has been an increasing research interest in the value of naturally occurring bio-sourced materials. Agro-industrial based biomass comprised of pectin is an inexpensive, renewable, abundant natural resource that could be utilized for large-scale and cost-effective production of natural products i.e., pectinolytics. Pectinolytics are one of the most widely distributed enzymes in bacteria, fungi and plants. From ancient times to date, many methods have been introduced to improve the optimization of pectinolytics to obtain high yields of maximal purity. To expand the range of natural bio-resources the rapidly evolving tools of biotechnology can lower the conversion costs and also enhance target yield of the product of interest. This green biotechnology presents a promising approach to convert most of the agricultural materials into a value-added product with multiple applications. Major advances have already been achieved in recent years in order to obtain high levels of purity with optimal yields. The present review begins with an overview of pectinolytics and their physico-chemical features, and their specific role with classification based on pectic materials. Information is also given on the culture influences and potential sources of pectinolytics, followed by a brief summary of various industrial and biotechnological applications and future considerations.

Biotechnology and the food industry: some potentials for Ghana | Klu ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Biotechnology has played a major role in the traditional food and agriculture industry particularly in the areas of food fermentation, biological control of pests, and conventional animal vaccine production. The need to augment food production to meet the increasing population in Ghana requires that modern techniques be ...

Clusters in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioeconomy: The Roles of the Public Sector.

Science.gov (United States)

Philp, Jim; Winickoff, David E

2017-08-01

Government policies across the world seek to create clusters of companies and other stakeholders that specialise in a particular technology to build an 'industrial ecosystem'. This article looks at some examples of clusters created specifically with industrial biotechnology in mind and examines measures for policymakers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biotechnology of non-Saccharomyces yeasts--the ascomycetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Eric A

2013-01-01

Saccharomyces cerevisiae and several other yeast species are among the most important groups of biotechnological organisms. S. cerevisiae and closely related ascomycetous yeasts are the major producer of biotechnology products worldwide, exceeding other groups of industrial microorganisms in productivity and economic revenues. Traditional industrial attributes of the S. cerevisiae group include their primary roles in food fermentations such as beers, cider, wines, sake, distilled spirits, bakery products, cheese, sausages, and other fermented foods. Other long-standing industrial processes involving S. cerevisae yeasts are production of fuel ethanol, single-cell protein (SCP), feeds and fodder, industrial enzymes, and small molecular weight metabolites. More recently, non-Saccharomyces yeasts (non-conventional yeasts) have been utilized as industrial organisms for a variety of biotechnological roles. Non-Saccharomyces yeasts are increasingly being used as hosts for expression of proteins, biocatalysts and multi-enzyme pathways for the synthesis of fine chemicals and small molecular weight compounds of medicinal and nutritional importance. Non-Saccharomyces yeasts also have important roles in agriculture as agents of biocontrol, bioremediation, and as indicators of environmental quality. Several of these products and processes have reached commercial utility, while others are in advanced development. The objective of this mini-review is to describe processes currently used by industry and those in developmental stages and close to commercialization primarily from non-Saccharomyces yeasts with an emphasis on new opportunities. The utility of S. cerevisiae in heterologous production of selected products is also described.

Public policies influencing innovation in the agrochemical, biotechnology and seed industries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bijman, J.; Tait, J.

2002-01-01

The development and marketing of new products by the agrochemical, biotechnology and seed industries is strongly regulated by government policies. Relevant policies include those on science, technology and innovation, the environment and public health, and farm support. This survey of policies

Biotechnological Applications of Microbial (Per)chlorate Reduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ouwei; Coates, John D

2017-11-24

While the microbial degradation of a chloroxyanion-based herbicide was first observed nearly ninety years ago, only recently have researchers elucidated the underlying mechanisms of perchlorate and chlorate [collectively, (per)chlorate] respiration. Although the obvious application of these metabolisms lies in the bioremediation and attenuation of (per)chlorate in contaminated environments, a diversity of alternative and innovative biotechnological applications has been proposed based on the unique metabolic abilities of dissimilatory (per)chlorate-reducing bacteria (DPRB). This is fueled in part by the unique ability of these organisms to generate molecular oxygen as a transient intermediate of the central pathway of (per)chlorate respiration. This ability, along with other novel aspects of the metabolism, have resulted in a wide and disparate range of potential biotechnological applications being proposed, including enzymatic perchlorate detection; gas gangrene therapy; enhanced xenobiotic bioremediation; oil reservoir bio-souring control; chemostat hygiene control; aeration enhancement in industrial bioreactors; and, biogenic oxygen production for planetary exploration. While previous reviews focus on the fundamental science of microbial (per)chlorate reduction (for example see Youngblut et al., 2016), here, we provide an overview of the emerging biotechnological applications of (per)chlorate respiration and the underlying organisms and enzymes to environmental and biotechnological industries.

The technological, economic and institutional aspects behind the development of biotechnology industry in Turku region, Finland

OpenAIRE

Viljamaa, Kimmo

2003-01-01

This paper examines the recent development of biotechnology related industry in the Finnish city of Turku, where especially pharmaceutical industry has adopted the use of post-1970s molecular biology breakthroughs in ?biotechnology?. Finland is now listed in numbers of biotech firms as the 10th largest in Europe and Turku is the only Finnish city mentioned in the European Commission report among the 20 most significant European biotech centres (2000). The interest of study is to scrutinise th...

Critical Success Factors for Intra-Disciplinary Transformation of the Agricultural Biotechnology Industry in Taiwan based on the Value Chain Concept

OpenAIRE

Meng-Shiunn Lee

2008-01-01

This study examines the agricultural biotechnology industry in the context of value chain theory introduced by Porter (1985). It also compiles opinions on development directions for agricultural biotechnology in Taiwan from numerous national scholars and experts using the fuzzy delphi and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process methods to learn about critical success factors for the agricultural biotechnology industry¡¦s intra-disciplinary transformation in Taiwan. In this way, we seek to contribu...

Generating opportunity : human resources needs in the bioenergy, biofuels and industrial biotechnology subsectors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2009-07-01

Canada has a plentiful resource base and a long history of innovation in bioenergy, biofuels and industrial biotechnology. Success of the industry depends on having the required human resources capacity such as the right number of skilled, job-ready professionals to support companies as they develop and commercialize new solutions. This document presented the results of a human resources survey conducted by BioTalent regarding the national and global bioenergy, biofuels and industrial biotechnology subsectors. It addressed a variety of issues, such as the increasing demand for bioenergy; the near-term perspective; growth factors; and the role of public policy. A subsector snapshot of human resources was also presented, with particular reference to the principal areas of need; types of roles required in the bio-economy; human resources capacity and company size; regional variances; skills gaps; reliance on outsourcing; knowledge, learning and connectedness; recruitment, retention and turnover; and the road ahead. Conclusions and recommendations were also offered. It was concluded that once the economy recovers, demand for bioenergy, biofuels and industrial products and services is expected to increase. 3 tabs., 6 figs.

Risk cognition as a new communication tool for high-tech industries. Comparative analysis between nuclear industry and biotechnology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steinhaeusler, F.; Wieland, P.

2000-01-01

Concerns of political decision makers, the media, and members of the public with regard to high-tech industries focus upon two main issues: safety and socio-economic impact. In this regard the nuclear industry and biotechnology, commonly associated as 'high risk and low trust situation', face the problems of the assessment of potentially dangerous or negative socio-economic consequences of very improbable risks and the communication with the various audiences. It is common for the national authorities in this case to conduct the process of quantified risk analysis (QRA). Unfortunately, hitherto the communication of the results obtained by QRA to the different non-scientific/non-technical target groups listed above is generally dissatisfactory, resulting in the frequent rejection of nuclear- and biotechnology. The main reason is that it has generally not been recognized that QRA is but the final step in the cognition of risk from both real as well as perceived hazards, preceded by risk estimation (RES) and risk evaluation (REV). RES is largely the scientific identification of hazards leading formally to the assessment of mechanisms of harmful consequences, and latterly to the assessment of the probability of its occurrence. Contrary to that, REV deals with the subjective judgment of the significance of assessed individual and societal risks. As such, REV involves individual cognitions of hazards and risks, such as perceptions, knowledge and understanding. In this paper the role of risk cognition in communicating issues associated with high-tech industrial activities, such as nuclear industry and biotechnology, is discussed. Common factors influencing risk perception are dealt with in a comparative manner in order to draw practically applicable lessons from it. This comparative analysis revealed the following results: (1)QRA-derived risk estimation measures used to quantify the risk from potential hazard associated with high-tech industries per se are not suitable

Nonclinical statistics for pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries

CERN Document Server

2016-01-01

This book serves as a reference text for regulatory, industry and academic statisticians and also a handy manual for entry level Statisticians. Additionally it aims to stimulate academic interest in the field of Nonclinical Statistics and promote this as an important discipline in its own right. This text brings together for the first time in a single volume a comprehensive survey of methods important to the nonclinical science areas within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Specifically the Discovery and Translational sciences, the Safety/Toxiology sciences, and the Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls sciences. Drug discovery and development is a long and costly process. Most decisions in the drug development process are made with incomplete information. The data is rife with uncertainties and hence risky by nature. This is therefore the purview of Statistics. As such, this book aims to introduce readers to important statistical thinking and its application in these nonclinical areas. The cha...

Proteomics meets blue biotechnology: a wealth of novelties and opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Hartmann, Erica M; Durighello, Emie; Pible, Olivier; Nogales, Balbina; Beltrametti, Fabrizio; Bosch, Rafael; Christie-Oleza, Joseph A; Armengaud, Jean

2014-10-01

Blue biotechnology, in which aquatic environments provide the inspiration for various products such as food additives, aquaculture, biosensors, green chemistry, bioenergy, and pharmaceuticals, holds enormous promise. Large-scale efforts to sequence aquatic genomes and metagenomes, as well as campaigns to isolate new organisms and culture-based screenings, are helping to push the boundaries of known organisms. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics can complement 16S gene sequencing in the effort to discover new organisms of potential relevance to blue biotechnology by facilitating the rapid screening of microbial isolates and by providing in depth profiles of the proteomes and metaproteomes of marine organisms, both model cultivable isolates and, more recently, exotic non-cultivable species and communities. Proteomics has already contributed to blue biotechnology by identifying aquatic proteins with potential applications to food fermentation, the textile industry, and biomedical drug development. In this review, we discuss historical developments in blue biotechnology, the current limitations to the known marine biosphere, and the ways in which mass spectrometry can expand that knowledge. We further speculate about directions that research in blue biotechnology will take given current and near-future technological advancements in mass spectrometry. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dialogue as a tool for societal valorization of environmental and industrial biotechnology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Metze, T.A.P.; Schuitmaker, Tjerk Jan; Bitsch, Lise; Betten, W.; de Cock Buning, T.; Broerse, J.

2013-01-01

In this project we explored and experimented with how a meaningful dialogue can be operationalized most effectively in the terms of enhancing societal valorisation of environmental and industrial biotechnology. We did so in the context of the Dutch research consortium BE-Basic. The project is

Chemicals manufacture via biotechnology - the prospects for western Europe

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lewis, C.; Kristiansen, B.

1985-09-02

The trend of European chemical and biotechnological companies to move away from low value, high volume bulk chemicals towards the manufacture of high value, low volume, fine and speciality chemicals will continue into the 21st century. The manufacture of fine chemicals (principally antibiotics, biopesticides, enzymes and organic acids) and commodity chemicals (principally butanol and industrial ethanol) necessitates 1.5Mt and 2-3 Mt of carbohydrate feedstocks for their production. Thus it is vital that the Common Agricultural Policy does not interfere with the progress of the biotechnology industry by maintaining carbohydrate feedstock prices at their present high levels.

The use of GMOs (genetically modified organisms): agricultural biotechnology or agricultural biopolitics?

Science.gov (United States)

Nuti, Marco; Felici, Cristiana; Agnolucci, Monica

2007-01-01

Agricultural biotechnologies embrace a large array of conventional and modern technologies, spanning from composting organic by-products of agriculture to innovative improvement of quality traits of about twenty out of the mostly cultivated plants. In EU a rather restrictive legislative framework has been installed for GMOs, requiring a risk assessment disproportionate with respect to conventional agriculture and organic farming products. The latter are far from being proved safe for human and animal health, and for the environment. Biotechnology of GMOs has been overtaken by biopolitics. On one side there are biotechnological challenges to be tackled, on another side there is plenty of ground for biopolitical decisions about GMOs. Perhaps the era of harsh confrontation could be fruitfully replaced by sensible cooperation, in order to get a sustainable agricultural development.

Production of high-quality marketing applications: strategies for biotechnology companies working with contract research organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Hecker, Sandra J; Preston, Christopher; Foote, MaryAnn

2003-01-01

Many biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies use clinical research organizations (CROs) to assist in the writing and preparation of clinical documents intended for submission to health authorities. Start-up companies often require the expertise of a CRO to prepare their first regulatory documents. Larger or more experienced companies often require CRO staff to assist at times of multiple simultaneous submissions. The timely production of high-quality new drug marketing applications requires close collaborations between the drug company and the CRO. The views of both CRO and industry in ensuring best practices are discussed.

Biotechnology worldwide and the 'European Biotechnology Thematic Network' Association (EBTNA).

Science.gov (United States)

Bruschi, F; Dundar, M; Gahan, P B; Gartland, K; Szente, M; Viola-Magni, M P; Akbarova, Y

2011-09-01

The European Biotechnology Congress 2011 held under the auspices of the European Biotechnology Thematic Network Association (EBTNA) in conjunction with the Turkish Medical Genetics Association brings together a broad spectrum of biotechnologists from around the world. The subsequent abstracts indicate the manner in which biotechnology has permeated all aspects of research from the basic sciences through to small and medium enterprises and major industries. The brief statements before the presentation of the abstracts aim to introduce not only Biotechnology in general and its importance around the world, but also the European Biotechnology Thematic Network Association and its aims especially within the framework of education and ethics in biotechnology. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A review on sustainable yeast biotechnological processes and applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nandy, Subir Kumar; Srivastava, R. K.

2018-01-01

Yeast is very well known eukaryotic organism for its remarkable biodiversity and extensive industrial applications. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most widely used microorganisms in biotechnology with successful applications in the biochemical production. Biological conversion with the fo......Yeast is very well known eukaryotic organism for its remarkable biodiversity and extensive industrial applications. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most widely used microorganisms in biotechnology with successful applications in the biochemical production. Biological conversion...... with the focus on the different utilization of renewable feedstocks into fuels and chemicals has been intensively investigated due to increasing concerns on sustainability issues worldwide. Compared with its counterparts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the baker's yeast, is more industrially relevant due to known...... genetic and physiological background, the availability of a large collection of genetic tools, the compatibility of high-density and large-scale fermentation, and optimize the pathway for variety of products. Therefore, S. cerevisiae is one of the most popular cell factories and has been successfully used...

Potentialities of biotechnology for the reduction and utilization for energy purposes of wastes generated by food industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1982-10-19

The study dealt with the present trends in biotechnology related to the methods for the reduction and utilization, for energy purposes, of wastes generated by food industry and to the methods for controlling the emission of pollutants from industrial plants with emphasis on meat industry, dairy industry, food-packing trade, sugar industry, vinification, fatty foods, fish meal, beverage industry.

Biotechnology in Georgia for Various Applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mosulishvili, L.; Tsibakhashvili, N.; Kirkesali, E.; Tsertsvadze, L.; Frontasyeva, M.; Pavlov, S.

2008-01-01

The results of collaborative work carried out in the field of biotechnology at the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics (FLNP) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) (Dubna, Russia) jointly with scientists from Georgia are presented. Using instrumental neutron activation analysis (NAA), significant results were ontained in the following directions - medical biotechnology, environmental biotechnology and industrial biotechnology. In the biomedical experiments a blue-green alga Spirulina platensis biomass has been used as a matrix for the development of pharmaceutical substances containing such vitally important trace elements as selenium, chromium and iodine. The feasibility of target-oriented introduction of these elements into Spirulina platensis biocomplexes retaining its protain composition and natural beneficial properties has been proved. The adsorption of such toxic metal as mercury by Spirulina platensis biomass in dynamics of growth has been studied also. NAA has been successfully applied to investigate the biotechnology of toxic Cr(VI) transformation into less toxic Cr(III) complexes by Cr(VI)-reducer bacteria isolated from polluted basalts in Georgia. This method was used to track accumulation of chromium in the bacterial cells. To monitor and identify Cr(III) complexes in these bacteria, electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometry was employed. For the first time, the elemental composition of Cr(VI)-reducer bacteria has been studied using epithermal NAA. The natural organic mass of vegetal origin - peat - was applied as a source of microorganisms to study the bacterial leaching of some metals from lean ores, rocks and industrial wastes. (author)

The current biotechnology outlook in Malaysia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khairiah Salwa MOKHTAR

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Blessed with extremely rich biodiversity, Malaysia is all geared up to explore new high technology to utilize the advantage it possesses whilst to protect its environment. Biotechnology has been identified as an appropriate driver that can deliver economic gains through research and development, improvement of food security, creation of entrepreneurial opportunities for industrial growth, health and environmental sustainability. This paper attempts to address the evolution of biotechnology institutions and the stumbling blocks in developing the Malaysian biotechnology industry. This paper identifies three main impediments in the current Malaysian biotechnology, namely lack of skilled human capital; weak industrial base; and lack of commercialization effort. Besides, a set of strategies are discussed with aim to further improve and strengthen the Malaysian biotechnology industry. In general, the arguments are presented by mapping out the symbiotic relationship between data from elite interviews, archival data and observations.

Risk assessment for federal regulatory decisions on organisms produced through biotechnology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Payne, John H.; Medley, Terry L.

1992-01-01

This article discusses: 1. Purposes and history of risk assessment: application to biotechnology; 2. Framework in the United States for decisions on organisms produced through biotechnology; 3. Choosing from among potential approaches to assessment: a). exposure assessment does not equate to risk assessment: what are the hazards?; b). Setting risk assessment priorities; c). 'Quantitative' environmental and 'quantitative' ecological risk assessments; d). Ecological risk assessments based on biological and ecological principles. 4. The bases for good regulatory decisions

Risk assessment for federal regulatory decisions on organisms produced through biotechnology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Payne, John H; Medley, Terry L [Biotechnology, Biologics and Environmental Protection Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Hyattsville, MD (United States)

1992-07-01

This article discusses: 1. Purposes and history of risk assessment: application to biotechnology; 2. Framework in the United States for decisions on organisms produced through biotechnology; 3. Choosing from among potential approaches to assessment: a). exposure assessment does not equate to risk assessment: what are the hazards?; b). Setting risk assessment priorities; c). 'Quantitative' environmental and 'quantitative' ecological risk assessments; d). Ecological risk assessments based on biological and ecological principles. 4. The bases for good regulatory decisions.

The role of biotechnology in the socio-economic advancement and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Biotechnology is any technique which involves the application of biological organisms or their components, systems or processes to manufacturing and service industries to make or modify products, to improve plants or animals or to develop micro-organisms for special uses. Since 1953, when James Watson and Francis ...

Biotechnology of non-Saccharomyces yeasts-the basidiomycetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Eric A

2013-09-01

Yeasts are the major producer of biotechnology products worldwide, exceeding production in capacity and economic revenues of other groups of industrial microorganisms. Yeasts have wide-ranging fundamental and industrial importance in scientific, food, medical, and agricultural disciplines (Fig. 1). Saccharomyces is the most important genus of yeast from fundamental and applied perspectives and has been expansively studied. Non-Saccharomyces yeasts (non-conventional yeasts) including members of the Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes also have substantial current utility and potential applicability in biotechnology. In an earlier mini-review, "Biotechnology of non-Saccharomyces yeasts-the ascomycetes" (Johnson Appl Microb Biotechnol 97: 503-517, 2013), the extensive biotechnological utility and potential of ascomycetous yeasts are described. Ascomycetous yeasts are particularly important in food and ethanol formation, production of single-cell protein, feeds and fodder, heterologous production of proteins and enzymes, and as model and fundamental organisms for the delineation of genes and their function in mammalian and human metabolism and disease processes. In contrast, the roles of basidiomycetous yeasts in biotechnology have mainly been evaluated only in the past few decades and compared to the ascomycetous yeasts and currently have limited industrial utility. From a biotechnology perspective, the basidiomycetous yeasts are known mainly for the production of enzymes used in pharmaceutical and chemical synthesis, for production of certain classes of primary and secondary metabolites such as terpenoids and carotenoids, for aerobic catabolism of complex carbon sources, and for bioremediation of environmental pollutants and xenotoxicants. Notwithstanding, the basidiomycetous yeasts appear to have considerable potential in biotechnology owing to their catabolic utilities, formation of enzymes acting on recalcitrant substrates, and through the production of unique primary

Anaerobes in Industrial- and Environmental Biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatti-Kaul, Rajni; Mattiasson, Bo

Anaerobic microorganisms present in diverse ecological niches employ alternative strategies for energy conservation in the absence of oxygen which enables them to play a key role in maintaining the global cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, and the breakdown of persistent compounds. Thereby they become useful tools in industrial and environmental biotechnology. Although anaerobes have been relatively neglected in comparison to their aerobic counterparts, with increasing knowledge about their diversity and metabolic potential and the development of genetic tools and process technologies to utilize them, we now see a rapid expansion of their applications in the society. This chapter summarizes some of the developments in the use of anaerobes as tools for biomass valorization, in production of energy carriers and chemicals, wastewater treatment, and the strong potential in soil remediation. The ability of several autotrophic anaerobes to reduce carbon dioxide is attracting growing attention as a means for developing a platform for conversion of waste gases to chemicals, materials, and biofuels.

Biotechnology and Agriculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Kenney, Martin

Even at this early date in the application of biotechnology to agriculture, it is clear that agriculture may provide the largest market for new or less expensive biotechnologically manufactured products. The chemical and pharmaceutical industries that hold important positions in agricultural inputs are consolidating their positions by purchasing…

Biotechnology in China II. Chemicals, energy and environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tsao, G.T. [Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States). Lab. Renewable Resources Engineering; Ouyang, Pingkai [Nanjing Univ. of Technology (China). College of Life Science and Pharmaceutical Engineering; Chen, Jian (eds.) [Jiangnan Univ., Wuxi (China). School of Biotechnology

2010-07-01

, biochemists, molecular biologists, bioengineers, chemical engineers, and food and pharmaceutical chemists, environmental engineers working in industry, at universities or at public institutions. The volume editors and the authors of the individual chapters have been chosen for their recognized expertise and their contributions to the various fields of biotechnology. Their willingness to impart this knowledge to their colleagues forms the basis of the book and is gratefully acknowledged. Moreover, this work could not have been brought to fruition without the foresight and the constant and diligent support from the Springer. The seven chapters are organized by more than 20 outstanding biotechnological groups in China. The first chapter reviews the general development history and the perspectives of the industrial biotechnology in China. The next two chapters consider the biotechnological production of organic chemicals and biofuels in China. The fourth chapter summarizes the development of bioreactors and bioseparation. The fifth chapter gives a profile on the current status of environmental biotechnology in China. Special attention is given here to traditional Chinese biotechnology. The last chapter describes the new biotechnology in China. A carefully selected and distinguished Editorial Board stands behind the series. Its members come from key institutions representing scientific input from about 20 countries. We are grateful to Springer for publishing Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology with their customary excellence. Special thanks are due to Editorial Board, without whose constant efforts the volumes could not be published. Finally, the editors wish to thank the Chinese researchers working in the field for their diligence, courage and wisdom, which greatly facilitate the development of Chinese biotechnology. We believe that we have tried our best to draw a more comprehensive atlas for the development of biochemical engineering and biotechnology in China

[Innovation in pharmaceutical and health biotechnology industries: challenges for a virtuous agenda].

Science.gov (United States)

Vargas, Marco; Gadelha, Carlos Augusto Grabois; Costa, Laís Silveira; Maldonado, José

2012-12-01

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries comprise a major production subsystem of the health industrial complex in Brazil. It stands out for both its economic importance and its prominent role in developing new technologies in strategic areas. Strengthening the local production of generic drugs in the last decade has significantly increased the number of Brazilian companies in the local pharmaceutical market and has been an important turning point for this industry's growth. However, there remain major structural bottlenecks both in terms of production and continuous innovation. These bottlenecks reveal the high vulnerability of the Brazilian National Health System and point to the need of public policies that promote strengthening the production base and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry and that at the same time meet health-related social demands in health in Brazil.

MPACT OF GENETIC BIOTECHNOLOGIES ON BIOSECURITY AND FOOD SAFETY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

NICA-BADEA DELIA

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Biosecurity is a relatively new area global, being promoted by the significant results, particularly in the last 20 years, fundamental and applied research. Biotechnology is a collection of techniques that can be used in the agro-food, medical and industrial. The paper examines the potential impact of transgenic biotechnology, vulnerabilities, implications, benefits and risks, quality of life and health. Introduction into the environment, cross-border trade and use of GMOs resulting from modern biotechnology can untoward effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, food security and safety. It is openly acknowledged that modern biotechnology has great potential to promote human welfare, in particular, to overcome the critical needs in food, agriculture and human health. Establish appropriate safety measures when using genetically modified organisms (biosecurity policy, regulatory regime, scientific and technical measures is a highly sensitive process, aiming both to maximize the benefits of modern biotechnology and to minimize potential risk

“The Farmer’s Dilemma”—an Interrupted Case Study for Learning Bacterial Genetics in the Context of the Impact of Microbes on the Organic Food Industry and Biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard Stewart

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Case studies are well established pedagogical tools for engaging students in learning and offer the opportunity to use real world examples to give context to student learning. Finding a case study story that meets learning outcomes and resonates with students is a challenge. Our solution was an end-of-semester, capstone project for the honors students in our general microbiology course. “The Farmer’s Dilemma,” an interrupted case study with associated questions, was developed from a story line proposed by the students. The case and associated teaching notes indicate how we actively engage students in learning bacterial genetics via a story about the impact of microbes on the organic food industry and biotechnology.

Reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions: role of biotechnology, organic systems, and consumer behavior

Science.gov (United States)

All agricultural systems have environmental and societal costs and benefits that should be objectively quantified before recommending specific management practices. Agricultural biotechnology, which takes advantage of genetically engineered organisms (GEOs), along with organic cropping systems, econ...

Firms plunge into the sea. Marine Biotechnology Industry, a first investigation

OpenAIRE

Gaia Raffaella eGreco; Marco eCinquegrani

2016-01-01

Marine biology made in the last four decades giant leaps. Several scientific and technological breakthroughs shaped research in the marine environment. Thanks to the revelation of the enormous width and complexity of sea life, marine biotechnology began a fast path of development that involved both the public and the private domain. Although there exist some studies on the dimensions and the evolution of the industry, few and scattered is the knowledge about the firms and the dynamics that ch...

Environmental biotechnologies for the fossil fuel industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, D W; Donald, G M [Hycal Energy Research Labs. Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada)

1997-09-01

Five recent technologies that have been proven to be viable means to mitigate the environmental impact of the fossil fuel industry were described as evidence of the industry`s concern about environmental pollution. The technologies were: bioventing, bioslurping, biofiltration, phytoremediation and the use of genetically engineered organisms. Special attention was paid to genetic modification strategies with reference to improved degradation rates and the regulations in Canada affecting genetically engineered organisms and their use. Case histories were cited to illustrate application of the various processes. 34 refs.

Development of biotechnology in India.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghose, T K; Bisaria, V S

2000-01-01

India has embarked upon a very ambitious program in biotechnology with a view to harnessing its available human and unlimited biodiversity resources. It has mainly been a government sponsored effort with very little private industry participation in investment. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) established under the Ministry of Science and Technology in 1986 was the major instrument of action to bring together most talents, material resources, and budgetary provisions. It began sponsoring research in molecular biology, agricultural and medical sciences, plant and animal tissue culture, biofertilizers and biopesticides, environment, human genetics, microbial technology, and bioprocess engineering, etc. The establishment of a number of world class bioscience research institutes and provision of large research grants to some existing universities helped in developing specialized centres of biotechnology. Besides DBT, the Department of Science & Technology (DST), also under the Ministry of S&T, sponsors research at universities working in the basic areas of life sciences. Ministry of Education's most pioneering effort was instrumental in the creation of Biochemical Engineering Research Centre at IIT Delhi with substantial assistance from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland to make available state-of-the-art infrastructure for education, training, and research in biochemical engineering and biotechnology in 1974. This initiative catalysed biotechnology training and research at many institutions a few years later. With a brief introduction, the major thrust areas of biotechnology development in India have been reviewed in this India Paper which include education and training, agricultural biotechnology, biofertilizers and biopesticides, tissue culture for tree and woody species, medicinal and aromatic plants, biodiversity conservation and environment, vaccine development, animal, aquaculture, seri and food biotechnology, microbial

Recent Advances in Marine Enzymes for Biotechnological Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Lima, R N; Porto, A L M

In the last decade, new trends in the food and pharmaceutical industries have increased concern for the quality and safety of products. The use of biocatalytic processes using marine enzymes has become an important and useful natural product for biotechnological applications. Bioprocesses using biocatalysts like marine enzymes (fungi, bacteria, plants, animals, algae, etc.) offer hyperthermostability, salt tolerance, barophilicity, cold adaptability, chemoselectivity, regioselectivity, and stereoselectivity. Currently, enzymatic methods are used to produce a large variety of products that humans consume, and the specific nature of the enzymes including processing under mild pH and temperature conditions result in fewer unwanted side-effects and by-products. This offers high selectivity in industrial processes. The marine habitat has been become increasingly studied because it represents a huge source potential biocatalysts. Enzymes include oxidoreductases, hydrolases, transferases, isomerases, ligases, and lyases that can be used in food and pharmaceutical applications. Finally, recent advances in biotechnological processes using enzymes of marine organisms (bacterial, fungi, algal, and sponges) are described and also our work on marine organisms from South America, especially marine-derived fungi and bacteria involved in biotransformations and biodegradation of organic compounds. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

International Marine Biotechnology Culture Collection (IMBCC)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zaborsky, O.R.; Baker, K. [Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI (United States)

1996-10-01

The objective of this project is to establish a premier culture collection of tropical marine microorganisms able to generate hydrogen from water or organic substances. Both eukaryotic and prokaryotic microorganisms will serve as the biological reservoir or {open_quotes}library{close_quotes} for other DOE Hydrogen Program contractors, the biohydrogen research community and industry. This project consists of several tasks: (a) transfer of the Mitsui-Miami strains to Hawaii`s International Marine Biotechnology Culture Collection (IMBCC) housed at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI); (b) maintain and distribute Mitsui-Miami strains; (c) characterize key strains by traditional and advanced biotechnological techniques; (d) expand Hawaii`s IMBCC; and (e) establish and operate an information resource (database). The project was initiated only late in the summer of 1995 but progress has been made on all tasks. Of the 161 cyanobacterial strains imported, 147 survived storage and importation and 145 are viable. with most exhibiting growth. Of the 406 strains of other photosynthetic bacteria imported, 392 survived storage and importation and 353 are viable, with many exhibiting growth. This project is linked to cooperative efforts being supported by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) through its Marine Biotechnology Institute (MBI) and Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE).

Presentation of a Novel Model for Evaluation of Commercialization of Research and Development: Case Study of the Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Emami, Hassan; Radfar, Reza

2017-01-01

The current situation in Iran suggests an appropriate basis for developing biotechnology industries, because the patents for the majority of hi-tech medicines registered in developed countries are ending. Biosimilar and technology-oriented companies which do not have patents will have the opportunity to enter the biosimilar market and move toward innovative initiatives. The present research proposed a model by which one can evaluate commercialization of achievements obtained from research with a focus on the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry. This is a descriptive-analytic study where mixed methodology is followed by a heuristic approach. The statistical population was pharmaceutical biotechnology experts at universities and research centers in Iran. Structural equations were employed in this research. The results indicate that there are three effective layers within commercialization in the proposed model. These are a general layer (factors associated with management, human capital, legal infrastructure, communication infrastructure, a technical and executive infrastructures, and financial factors), industrial layer (internal industrial factors and pharmaceutical industry factors), and a third layer that included national and international aspects. These layers comprise 6 domains, 21 indices, 41 dimensions, and 126 components. Compilation of these layers (general layer, industrial layer, and national and international aspects) can serve commercialization of research and development as an effective evaluation package.

Review of biotechnology applications to nuclear waste treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashley, N.V.; Roach, D.J.W.

1990-01-01

This paper gives an overview of the feasibility of the application of biotechnology to nuclear waste treatment. Many living and dead organisms accumulate heavy metals and radionuclides. The controlled use of this phenomenon forms the basis for the application of biotechnology to the removal of radionuclides from nuclear waste streams. An overview of biotechnology areas, namely the use of biopolymers and biosorption using biomass applicable to the removal of radionuclides from industrial nuclear effluents is given. The potential of biomagnetic separation technology, genetic engineering and monoclonal antibody technology is also to be examined. The most appropriate technologies to develop for radionuclide removal in the short term appear to be those based on biosorption of radionuclides by biomass and the use of modified and unmodified biopolymers in the medium term. (author)

Beyond knowledge transfer: The social construction of autonomous academic science in university-industry agricultural biotechnology research collaborations

Science.gov (United States)

Biscotti, Dina Louise

Autonomy is a social product. Although some might view autonomy as the absence of social interference in individual action, it is in fact produced through social institutions. It enables social actors to act; it is the justification for the allocation of enormous public resources into institutions classified as "public" or "nonprofit;" it can lead to innovation; and, significantly, it is key to the public acceptance of new technologies. In this dissertation, I analyze the social construction of autonomy for academic science in U.S. university-industry agricultural biotechnology research collaborations. University-industry relationships (UIRs) are a site of concern about the influence of commercial interests on academic science. Agricultural biotechnology is a contentious technology that has prompted questions about the ecological and public health implications of genetically-modified plants and animals. It has also spurred awareness of the industrialization of agriculture and accelerating corporate control of the global food system. Through analysis of in-depth interviews with over 200 scientists and administrators from nine U.S. research universities and thirty agricultural biotechnology companies, I find that both the academy and industry have a vested interest in the social construction of the academy as an autonomous space from which claims to objective, disinterested scientific knowledge can be made. These claims influence government regulation, as well as grower and public acceptance of agricultural biotechnology products. I argue that the social production of autonomy for academic science can be observed in narratives and practices related to: (1) the framing of when, how and why academic scientists collaborate with industry, (2) the meanings ascribed to and the uses deemed appropriate for industry monies in academic research, and (3) the dissemination of research results into the public domain through publications and patents. These narratives and practices

Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering and Society. Monograph Series: III.

Science.gov (United States)

Kieffer, George H.

New techniques have expanded the field of biotechnology and awarded scientists an unprecedented degree of control over the genetic constitutions of living things. The knowledge of DNA science is the basis for this burgeoning industry which may be a major force in human existence. Just as it is possible to move genetic material from one organism to…

Extracellular Metabolites from Industrial Microalgae and Their Biotechnological Potential

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lu Liu

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Industrial microalgae, as a big family of promising producers of renewable biomass feedstock, have been commercially exploited for functional food, living feed and feed additives, high-value chemicals in nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, and chemical reagents. Recently, microalgae have also been considered as a group that might play an important role in biofuel development and environmental protection. Almost all current products of industrial microalgae are derived from their biomass; however, large amounts of spent cell-free media are available from mass cultivation that is mostly unexploited. In this contribution we discuss that these media, which may contain a remarkable diversity of bioactive substances are worthy to be recovered for further use. Obviously, the extracellular metabolites from industrial microalgae have long been neglected in the development of production methods for valuable metabolites. With the advances in the last ten years, more and more structures and properties from extracellular metabolites have been identified, and the potential utilization over wide fields is attracting attention. Some of these extracellular metabolites can be potentially used as drugs, antioxidants, growth regulators or metal chelators. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the known extracellular metabolites from industrial microalgae which might be of commercial interest. The attention mainly focuses on the reports of extracellular bioactive metabolites and their potential application in biotechnology.

Survey on the Finnsh biotechnology industry: Background and descriptive statistics

OpenAIRE

Hermans, Raine; Kulvik, Martti; Tahvanainen, Antti-Jussi

2005-01-01

ETLA, the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, conducted surveys at the end of 2004 and at the beginning of 2002 on the enterprises listed in the Index of Biotechnology Companies in the Finnish Bioindustries organization. The surveys provide data on financial accounting, R&D activities, intellectual property rights, and sales forecasts. In addition to the updates, the ETLA 2004 Survey also provides detailed linkages to product-level information that incorporates R&D- and sales figures, ...

The Rhetorical Helix of the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries: Strategies of Transformation through Definition, Description and Ingratiation

Science.gov (United States)

Gretton, Linda Burak

2009-01-01

The current pharmaceutical industry, whose origins date from the early 20th century, and the biotechnology industry, which emerged in the 1980s both have foundations built on the modern scientific method and share a mission to develop new drugs for humans and animals. At the same time, they are also made distinct by size (small biotechs versus…

Biotechnology: challenges and prospects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sasson, A.

1985-04-01

Rapidly occurring technological breakthroughs in the wake of numerous discoveries in different fields, such as biochemistry, genetic engineering as well as cellular and molecular biology as described in this paper have a variety of industrial applications, and forcasts covering these and various other fields have been made. The emerging bio-industry, covering diverse industries, such as chemical, food, pharmaceutical, etc., as well as the domains of health, environmental protection and abatement of pollution present challenging prospects. Several biotechnology processes relating to bioenergy, fermentation, waste transformation, vaccines, etc. are of particular interest to the developing countries. The 'functioning systems' resulting from the breakthrouth in genetic engineering, entailing extraordinary refinement of analytical techniques and technological progress, pose the challenging task of harnessing them to the advantage of mankind. Providing effective legal protection, conducive to the development of biotechnologies-their innovative process and technological change-is a matter of serious concern, involving practical and economical considerations. Several other issues and questions, such as risk prevention and management of potential dangers and hazards in genetic recombination operation by way of safety regulations and necessary guidelines, questions relating to the clinical trials of the interferons-the wonder drug-as well as questions of professional ethics are raised by biotechnologies. Industry-funded research in biotechnology, where scientific and commercial imperatives are interlocked, has for instance, its repercussions on the traditional thrust of university system, specially the sanctity of autonomy for basic research.

How can developing countries harness biotechnology to improve health?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Persad Deepa L

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The benefits of genomics and biotechnology are concentrated primarily in the industrialized world, while their potential to combat neglected diseases in the developing world has been largely untapped. Without building developing world biotechnology capacity to address local health needs, this disparity will only intensify. To assess the potential of genomics to address health needs in the developing world, the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, along with local partners, organized five courses on Genomics and Public Health Policy in the developing world. The overall objective of the courses was to collectively explore how to best harness genomics to improve health in each region. This article presents and analyzes the recommendations from all five courses. Discussion In this paper we analyze recommendations from 232 developing world experts from 58 countries who sought to answer how best to harness biotechnology to improve health in their regions. We divide their recommendations into four categories: science; finance; ethics, society and culture; and politics. Summary The Courses' recommendations can be summarized across the four categories listed above: Science - Collaborate through national, regional, and international networks - Survey and build capacity based on proven models through education, training, and needs assessments Finance - Develop regulatory and intellectual property frameworks for commercialization of biotechnology - Enhance funding and affordability of biotechnology - Improve the academic-industry interface and the role of small and medium enterprise Ethics, Society, Culture - Develop public engagement strategies to inform and educate the public about developments in genomics and biotechnology - Develop capacity to address ethical, social and cultural issues - Improve accessibility and equity Politics - Strengthen understanding, leadership and support at the political level for biotechnology

Environmental biotechnologies for the fossil fuel industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, D. W.; Donald, G. M.

1997-01-01

Five recent technologies that have been proven to be viable means to mitigate the environmental impact of the fossil fuel industry were described as evidence of the industry's concern about environmental pollution. The technologies were: bioventing, bioslurping, biofiltration, phytoremediation and the use of genetically engineered organisms. Special attention was paid to genetic modification strategies with reference to improved degradation rates and the regulations in Canada affecting genetically engineered organisms and their use. Case histories were cited to illustrate application of the various processes. 34 refs

The rise (and decline?) of biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinch, Michael S

2014-11-01

Since the 1970s, biotechnology has been a key innovator in drug development. An analysis of FDA-approved therapeutics demonstrates pharmaceutical companies outpace biotechs in terms of new approvals but biotechnology companies are now responsible for earlier-stage activities (patents, INDs or clinical development). The number of biotechnology organizations that contributed to an FDA approval began declining in the 2000s and is at a level not seen since the 1980s. Whereas early biotechnology companies had a decade from first approval until acquisition, the average acquisition of a biotechnology company now occurs months before their first FDA approval. The number of hybrid organizations that arise when pharmaceutical companies acquire biotechnology is likewise declining, raising questions about the sustainability of biotechnology. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Industrial College of the Armed Forces Industry Studies 2003: Biotechnology

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Aichouche, Abdelaziz

2003-01-01

Biotechnology is a discipline that integrates biology, chemistry, physiology, information technology, engineering, and nanotechnology with the potential to revolutionize every aspect of modern life...

Oligosaccharide biotechnology: an approach of prebiotic revolution on the industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Mano, Mario Cezar Rodrigues; Neri-Numa, Iramaia Angélica; da Silva, Juliana Bueno; Paulino, Bruno Nicolau; Pessoa, Marina Gabriel; Pastore, Gláucia Maria

2018-01-01

Oligosaccharides are polymers with two to ten monosaccharide residues which have sweetener functions and sensory characteristics, in addition to exerting physiological effects on human health. The ones called nondigestible exhibit a prebiotic behavior being fermented by colonic microflora or stimulating the growth of beneficial bacteria, playing roles in the immune system, protecting against cancer, and preventing cardiovascular and metabolic issues. The global prebiotics market is expected to grow around 12.7% in the next 8 years, so manufacturers are developing new alternatives to obtain sustainable and efficient processes for application on a large scale. Most studied examples of biotechnological processes involve the development of new strategies for fructooligosaccharide, galactooligosaccharide, xylooligosaccharide, and mannanooligosaccharide synthesis. Among these, the use of whole cells in fermentation, synthesis of microbial enzymes (β-fructofuranosidases, β-galactosidases, xylanases, and β-mannanases), and enzymatic process development (permeabilization, immobilization, gene expression) can be highlighted, especially if the production costs are reduced by the use of agro-industrial residues or by-products such as molasses, milk whey, cotton stalks, corncobs, wheat straw, poplar wood, sugarcane bagasse, and copra meal. This review comprises recent studies to demonstrate the potential for biotechnological production of oligosaccharides, and also aspects that need more investigation for future applications in a large scale.

An Overview on Indian Patents on Biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Mallick, Anusaya; Chandra Santra, Subhas; Samal, Alok Chandra

2015-01-01

The application of biotechnology is a potential tool for mitigating the present and future fooding and clothing demands in developing countries like India. The commercialization of biotechnological products might benefiting the poor`s in developing countries are unlikely to be developed. Biotechnology has the potential to provide a wide range of products and the existing production skills in the industrial, pharmaceuticals and the agricultural sector. Ownership of the intellectual property rights is the key factors in determining the success of any technological invention, which was introduced in the market. It provides the means for technological progress to continue of the industry of the country. The new plans, animal varieties, new methods of treatments, new crops producing food articles as such are the inventions of biotechnology. Biotechnology is the result of the application of human intelligence and knowledge to the biological processes. Most of the tools of biotechnology have been developed, by companies, governments, research in- stitutes and universities in developed nations. These human intellectual efforts deserve protection. India is a developing country with advance biotechnology based segments of pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is not likely to have a significant impact on incentives for innovation creation in the biotechnology sectors. In the recent years, the world has seen the biotechnology sector as one of greatest investment area through the Patent Law and will giving huge profit in future. The Research and Development in the field of biotechnology should be encouraged for explor- ing new tools and improve the biological systems for interest of the common people. Priority should be given to generation, evaluation, protection and effective commercial utilization of tangible products of intellectual property in agriculture and pharmaceuticals. To support the future growth and

Fungal biodiversity to biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Chambergo, Felipe S; Valencia, Estela Y

2016-03-01

Fungal habitats include soil, water, and extreme environments. With around 100,000 fungus species already described, it is estimated that 5.1 million fungus species exist on our planet, making fungi one of the largest and most diverse kingdoms of eukaryotes. Fungi show remarkable metabolic features due to a sophisticated genomic network and are important for the production of biotechnological compounds that greatly impact our society in many ways. In this review, we present the current state of knowledge on fungal biodiversity, with special emphasis on filamentous fungi and the most recent discoveries in the field of identification and production of biotechnological compounds. More than 250 fungus species have been studied to produce these biotechnological compounds. This review focuses on three of the branches generally accepted in biotechnological applications, which have been identified by a color code: red, green, and white for pharmaceutical, agricultural, and industrial biotechnology, respectively. We also discuss future prospects for the use of filamentous fungi in biotechnology application.

Biotechnology Process Engineering Center at MIT - Overview

Science.gov (United States)

| Facsimile (617) 253-2400 | e-mail: bpec-www@mit.edu THERAPEUTIC GENE BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIAL CONSORTIUM Board (ICAB) in Therapeutic Gene Biotechnology. ICAB Member Representatives review our research progress

Environmental biotechnology: concepts and applications

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Winter, Josef; Jördening, Hans-Joachim

2005-01-01

... for the - development of new and environmentally improved production technologies with less purified substrates and generation of fewer by-products - bioproducts as non-toxic matters, mostly recyclable. Some impressive studies on industrial applications of biotechnology are published in two OECD reports, which summarized, that biotechnology has the potential o...

Biotechnological production of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals in plant cell and organ cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Hidalgo, Diego; Sanchez, Raul; Lalaleo, Liliana; Bonfill, Mercedes; Corchete, Purificacion; Palazon, Javier

2018-03-09

Plant biofactories are biotechnological platforms based on plant cell and organ cultures used for the production of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, although to date only a few of these systems have successfully been implemented at an industrial level. Metabolic engineering is possibly the most straightforward strategy to boost pharmaceutical production in plant biofactories, but social opposition to the use of GMOs means empirical approaches are still being used. Plant secondary metabolism involves thousands of different enzymes, some of which catalyze specific reactions, giving one product from a particular substrate, whereas others can yield multiple products from the same substrate. This trait opens plant cell biofactories to new applications, in which the natural metabolic machinery of plants can be harnessed for the bioconversion of phytochemicals or even the production of new bioactive compounds. Synthetic biological pipelines involving the bioconversion of natural substrates into products with a high market value may be established by the heterologous expression of target metabolic genes in model plants. To summarize the state of the art of plant biofactories and their applications for the pipeline production of cosme-, pharma- and biopharmaceuticals. In order to demonstrate the great potential of plant biofactories for multiple applications in the biotechnological production of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, this review broadly covers the following: plant biofactories based on cell and hairy root cultures; secondary metabolite production; biotransformation reactions; metabolic engineering tools applied in plant biofactories; and biopharmaceutical production. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

From maturity to value-added innovation: lessons from the pharmaceutical and agro-biotechnology industries.

Science.gov (United States)

Mittra, James; Tait, Joyce; Wield, David

2011-03-01

The pharmaceutical and agro-biotechnology industries have been confronted by dwindling product pipelines and rapid developments in life sciences, thus demanding a strategic rethink of conventional research and development. Despite offering both industries a solution to the pipeline problem, the life sciences have also brought complex regulatory challenges for firms. In this paper, we comment on the response of these industries to the life science trajectory, in the context of maturing conventional small-molecule product pipelines and routes to market. The challenges of managing transition from maturity to new high-value-added innovation models are addressed. Furthermore, we argue that regulation plays a crucial role in shaping the innovation systems of both industries, and as such, we suggest potentially useful changes to the current regulatory system. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Approaches to education of pharmaceutical biotechnology in faculties of pharmacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Calis, S; Oner, F; Kas, S; Hincal, A A

2001-06-01

Pharmaceutical biotechnology is developing rapidly both in academic institutions and in the biopharmaceutical industry. For this reason, FIP Special Interest Group of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology decided to develop a questionnaire concerning pharmaceutical biotechnology education. After preliminary studies were completed, questionnaires were sent to the leading scientists in academia and research directors or senior managers of various Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Companies in order to gather their views about how to create a satisfactory program. The objectives of this study were as follows: -To review all of the graduate and undergraduate courses which are presently available worldwide on pharmaceutical biotechnology in Faculties of Pharmacy. -To review all of the text books, references and scientific sources available worldwide in the area of pharmaceutical biotechnology. When replying to the questionnaires, the respondents were asked to consider the present status of pharmaceutical biotechnology education in academia and future learning needs in collaboration with the biotechnology industry. The data from various pharmacy faculties and biotechnology industry representatives from Asia, Europe and America were evaluated and the outcome of the survey showed that educational efforts in training qualified staff in the rapidly growing field of pharmaceutical biotechnology is promising. Part of the results of this questionnaire study have already been presented at the 57th International Congress of FIP Vancouver, Canada in 1997.

[The past 30 years of Chinese Journal of Biotechnology].

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Ning

2015-06-01

This review addresses the association of "Chinese Journal of Biotechnology" and the development of biotechnology in China in the past 30 years. Topics include relevant awards and industrialization, development of the biotechnology discipline, and well know scientists in biotechnology, as well as perspectives on the journal.

Healthcare biotechnology in India.

Science.gov (United States)

Srivastava, L M

2005-01-01

Biotechnology in India has made great progress in the development of infrastructure, manpower, research and development and manufacturing of biological reagents, biodiagnostics, biotherapeutics, therapeutic and, prophylactic vaccines and biodevices. Many of these indigenous biological reagents, biodiagnostics, therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines and biodevices have been commercialized. Commercially when biotechnology revenue has reached $25 billions in the U.S. alone in 2000 excluding the revenues of biotech companies that were acquired by pharmaceutical companies, India has yet to register a measurable success. The conservative nature and craze of the Indian Industry for marketing imported biotechnology products, lack of Government support, almost non-existing national healthcare system and lack of trained managers for marketing biological and new products seem to be the important factors responsible for poor economic development of biotechnology in India. With the liberalization of Indian economy, more and more imported biotechnology products will enter into the Indian market. The conditions of internal development of biotechnology are not likely to improve in the near future and it is destined to grow only very slowly. Even today biotechnology in India may be called to be in its infancy.

FACTORS INFLUENCING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE IN THE FOOD MANUFACTURING, CHEMICAL, AGRICULTURAL WHOLESALING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIES

OpenAIRE

Maude Roucan-Kane

2009-01-01

The objective of this study is to identify factors determining a business investment strategy (i.e., the choice of investment commitment and form of organizational structure) in the food manufacturing, chemical, agricultural wholesaling and biotechnology industries. Propositions regarding strategic alliance theories are tested on over 400 inter-firm collaborative agreements using secondary data from major US and European companies for the 1994-97 period. Results suggest that transactions with...

Termites as targets and models for biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Scharf, Michael E

2015-01-07

Termites have many unique evolutionary adaptations associated with their eusocial lifestyles. Recent omics research has created a wealth of new information in numerous areas of termite biology (e.g., caste polyphenism, lignocellulose digestion, and microbial symbiosis) with wide-ranging applications in diverse biotechnological niches. Termite biotechnology falls into two categories: (a) termite-targeted biotechnology for pest management purposes, and (b) termite-modeled biotechnology for use in various industrial applications. The first category includes several candidate termiticidal modes of action such as RNA interference, digestive inhibition, pathogen enhancement, antimicrobials, endocrine disruption, and primer pheromone mimicry. In the second category, termite digestomes are deep resources for host and symbiont lignocellulases and other enzymes with applications in a variety of biomass, industrial, and processing applications. Moving forward, one of the most important approaches for accelerating advances in both termite-targeted and termite-modeled biotechnology will be to consider host and symbiont together as a single functional unit.

Reverse osmosis for water purification and reuse in the biotechnological industry: Process design, operation and economic guidelines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mansouri, Seyed Soheil; S.B.A. Udugama, Isuru; Mitic, Aleksandar

2017-01-01

to implementation through the systematic analysis of economic potential, technology availability and readiness as well as comprehensive net present value analysis. The application of the framework is demonstrated through a case study from the biotechnological industry where the objective was to reduce the hydraulic...

Future Public Policy and Ethical Issues Facing the Agricultural and Microbial Genomics Sectors of the Biotechnology Industry: A Roundtable Discussion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Diane E. Hoffmann

2003-09-12

On September 12, 2003, the University of Maryland School of Law's Intellectual Property and Law & Health Care Programs jointly sponsored and convened a roundtable discussion on the future public policy and ethical issues that will likely face the agricultural and microbial genomics sectors of the biotechnology industry. As this industry has developed over the last two decades, societal concerns have moved from what were often local issues, e.g., the safety of laboratories where scientists conducted recombinant DNA research on transgenic microbes, animals and crops, to more global issues. These newer issues include intellectual property, international trade, risks of genetically engineered foods and microbes, bioterrorism, and marketing and labeling of new products sold worldwide. The fast paced nature of the biotechnology industry and its new developments often mean that legislators, regulators and society, in general, must play ''catch up'' in their efforts to understand the issues, the risks, and even the benefits, that may result from the industry's new ways of conducting research, new products, and novel methods of product marketing and distribution. The goal of the roundtable was to develop a short list of the most significant public policy and ethical issues that will emerge as a result of advances in these sectors of the biotechnology industry over the next five to six years. More concretely, by ''most significant'' the conveners meant the types of issues that would come to the attention of members of Congress or state legislators during this time frame and for which they would be better prepared if they had well researched and timely background information. A concomitant goal was to provide a set of focused issues for academic debate and scholarship so that policy makers, industry leaders and regulators would have the intellectual resources they need to better understand the issues and concerns at stake. The

Biotechnology's foreign policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Feldbaum, Carl

2002-01-01

From its inception, biotechnology has been a uniquely international enterprise. An American and an Englishman working together elucidated the structure of DNA almost 50 years ago; more recently, the Human Genome Project linked researchers around the world, from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to the Beijing Human Genome Center. Today our industry's researchers hail from African villages and Manhattan high rises; from Munich and Melbourne; from London, Ontario, and London, England; from Scotland and Nova Scotia--New Scotland; from Calcutta and Calgary. But in the beginning, the infrastructure that supported these efforts--intellectual property, venture capital, streamlined technology transfer--was less widely dispersed and the world's brightest biotech researchers clustered in only half a dozen scientific Meccas. Previous technological revolutions have spread around the world. Following in their footsteps, biotechnology's global diaspora seems inevitable, especially since governments are promoting it. But as our science and business emigrate from early strongholds in the United States, Canada and Europe across oceans and borders and into new cultures, international tensions over biotechnology continue to grow. In just the last few years, controversies have rolled over R&D spending priorities, genetic patents, bioprospecting, transgenic agriculture and drug pricing. My premise today is that our industry needs to formulate its first foreign policy, one which is cognizant of the miserable judgments and mistakes of other industries--and avoids them.

Vermicomposting of organic wastes from olive oil, winery and alcohol industries; Vermicompostaje de residuos organicos generados por industrias oleicolas, vitivinicolas y alcoholeras

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nogales, R.; Melgar, R.; Cifuentes, C.; Romero, E.; Benitez, E.

2004-07-01

The olive oil, winery and alcohol industries produce large amounts of organic waste that need suitable management in order to reduce their potential impact on the environment. This paper briefly describes the use of vermicomposting, at microcosm, laboratory and pilot scale, as an efficient and low-cost biotechnological process to obtain safe,mature and stabilised organic amendments, which can be feasibly used in conventional, integrated and organic agriculture. (Author) 26 refs.

Plant synthetic biology: a new platform for industrial biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Fesenko, Elena; Edwards, Robert

2014-05-01

Thirty years after the production of the first generation of genetically modified plants we are now set to move into a new era of recombinant crop technology through the application of synthetic biology to engineer new and complex input and output traits. The use of synthetic biology technologies will represent more than incremental additions of transgenes, but rather the directed design of completely new metabolic pathways, physiological traits, and developmental control strategies. The need to enhance our ability to improve crops through new engineering capability is now increasingly pressing as we turn to plants not just for food, but as a source of renewable feedstocks for industry. These accelerating and diversifying demands for new output traits coincide with a need to reduce inputs and improve agricultural sustainability. Faced with such challenges, existing technologies will need to be supplemented with new and far-more-directed approaches to turn valuable resources more efficiently into usable agricultural products. While these objectives are challenging enough, the use of synthetic biology in crop improvement will face public acceptance issues as a legacy of genetically modified technologies in many countries. Here we review some of the potential benefits of adopting synthetic biology approaches in improving plant input and output traits for their use as industrial chemical feedstocks, as linked to the rapidly developing biorefining industry. Several promising technologies and biotechnological targets are identified along with some of the key regulatory and societal challenges in the safe and acceptable introduction of such technology.

Perspectives on biotechnological applications of archaea

Science.gov (United States)

Schiraldi, Chiara; Giuliano, Mariateresa; De Rosa, Mario

2002-01-01

Many archaea colonize extreme environments. They include hyperthermophiles, sulfur-metabolizing thermophiles, extreme halophiles and methanogens. Because extremophilic microorganisms have unusual properties, they are a potentially valuable resource in the development of novel biotechnological processes. Despite extensive research, however, there are few existing industrial applications of either archaeal biomass or archaeal enzymes. This review summarizes current knowledge about the biotechnological uses of archaea and archaeal enzymes with special attention to potential applications that are the subject of current experimental evaluation. Topics covered include cultivation methods, recent achievements in genomics, which are of key importance for the development of new biotechnological tools, and the application of wild-type biomasses, engineered microorganisms, enzymes and specific metabolites in particular bioprocesses of industrial interest. PMID:15803645

Biotechnology: reality or dream

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Konstantinov Kosana

2002-01-01

Full Text Available The development of molecular biology and molecular genetics, especially of the recombinant DNA technology enabled improvement of experimental methods that provide manipulation within a cell-free system, such as cell and tissue cultures. Such methods resulted in the development of different new technologies with specific properties in relation to the conventional definitions. According to PERSLEY and lantin (2000 the following components are essential for the contemporary biotechnology: (i genomics - a molecular characterization of all genes and gene products of an organism (ii bioinformatics - the assembly of data from genomic analysis into accessible forms; (iii transformation - the introduction of genes controlling a trait of interest into a genome of a desired organism (micro organisms, plants, animal systems. By the application of cotemporary biotechnology new methods in the field of diagnostic are developed such as rapid and more accurate identification of the presence and absence of genes in the genome of the organism of interest (identification of pathogens prenatal diagnostics, molecular markers assisted breeding for plants, etc. The traits of an organism are determined by its genetic material, i.e. by a molecule of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA. watson and crick (1953 were the first scientists to describe the structure of DNA as a double-stranded helix. Higher organisms contain a set of linear DNA molecules - chromosomes and a full set of chromosomes of an organism is a genome. Each genome is divided into a series of functional units, i.e. genes. The traits of an organism depend on genes, but their expression depends not only on genes but also on many other factors, including whether a gene, controlling the trait, expresses, specific cells in which it expresses and specially the mode by which the gene and its product interact with the environment. A special aspect within the application of biotechnology occurs as an interaction of a

Potential of industrial biotechnology with cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae.

Science.gov (United States)

Wijffels, René H; Kruse, Olaf; Hellingwerf, Klaas J

2013-06-01

Both cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae are promising organisms for sustainable production of bulk products such as food, feed, materials, chemicals and fuels. In this review we will summarize the potential and current biotechnological developments. Cyanobacteria are promising host organisms for the production of small molecules that can be secreted such as ethanol, butanol, fatty acids and other organic acids. Eukaryotic microalgae are interesting for products for which cellular storage is important such as proteins, lipids, starch and alkanes. For the development of new and promising lines of production, strains of both cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae have to be improved. Transformation systems have been much better developed in cyanobacteria. However, several products would be preferably produced with eukaryotic microalgae. In the case of cyanobacteria a synthetic-systems biology approach has a great potential to exploit cyanobacteria as cell factories. For eukaryotic microalgae transformation systems need to be further developed. A promising strategy is transformation of heterologous (prokaryotic and eukaryotic) genes in established eukaryotic hosts such as Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Experimental outdoor pilots under containment for the production of genetically modified cyanobacteria and microalgae are in progress. For full scale production risks of release of genetically modified organisms need to be assessed. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Comprehensive biotechnology education and rural economic development

OpenAIRE

Holmes, L.; Brooks, J.

2006-01-01

North Carolina is home to the third largest biotechnology industry in the United States. With over 200 companies involved in manufacturing, research, testing or services and growing at a rate of 12 % per year, this North Carolina industry is aggressively expanding its biotechnology efforts in all domains: pharmaceuticals, agriculture, environment, foods and energy. The North Carolina Department of Commerce along with other state and regional entities are developing strategies to attract new c...

Progress towards the 'Golden Age' of biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Gartland, K M A; Bruschi, F; Dundar, M; Gahan, P B; Viola Magni, M p; Akbarova, Y

2013-07-01

Biotechnology uses substances, materials or extracts derived from living cells, employing 22 million Europeans in a € 1.5 Tn endeavour, being the premier global economic growth opportunity this century. Significant advances have been made in red biotechnology using pharmaceutically and medically relevant applications, green biotechnology developing agricultural and environmental tools and white biotechnology serving industrial scale uses, frequently as process feedstocks. Red biotechnology has delivered dramatic improvements in controlling human disease, from antibiotics to overcome bacterial infections to anti-HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals such as azidothymidine (AZT), anti-malarial compounds and novel vaccines saving millions of lives. Green biotechnology has dramatically increased food production through Agrobacterium and biolistic genetic modifications for the development of 'Golden Rice', pathogen resistant crops expressing crystal toxin genes, drought resistance and cold tolerance to extend growth range. The burgeoning area of white biotechnology has delivered bio-plastics, low temperature enzyme detergents and a host of feedstock materials for industrial processes such as modified starches, without which our everyday lives would be much more complex. Biotechnological applications can bridge these categories, by modifying energy crops properties, or analysing circulating nucleic acid elements, bringing benefits for all, through increased food production, supporting climate change adaptation and the low carbon economy, or novel diagnostics impacting on personalized medicine and genetic disease. Cross-cutting technologies such as PCR, novel sequencing tools, bioinformatics, transcriptomics and epigenetics are in the vanguard of biotechnological progress leading to an ever-increasing breadth of applications. Biotechnology will deliver solutions to unimagined problems, providing food security, health and well-being to mankind for centuries to come. Copyright © 2013

An industrial perspective on environmental benefits of biotechnology on legal controls. Ein industrieller Ausblick: Nutzen der Biotechnologie fuer die Umwelt und gesetzliche Kontrollen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brauer, D [Hoechst AG, Frankfurt am Main (Germany)

1991-10-01

Modern biotechnology was 'invented' in 1972/73. New technologies typically require a fifteen to twenty year incubation period of research and development before their commercial, industrial and other economic impacts begin to become significant. Biotechnology holds the key to many problems from environmental management to major savings for the consumer through improved performance of products and processes as well as from entirely new products and services. Simultaneously, environmental applications of biotechnology will produce enormous savings in the economic costs of pollution. Modern biotechnology, its current applications and its potential to reduce pressure on the environment, will be discussed in respect to biosafety, regulatory approaches, new processes, R and D, 'after processes' waste treatment and bioremediation. (orig.).

What affects the innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the biotechnology industry? An empirical study on Korean biotech SMEs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Kyung-Nam; Lee, Yoon-Sik

2008-10-01

Research-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in the advancement of the biotechnology industry. This paper explored the impacts of internal and contextual variables on innovative activity in Korea and compared the results of this analysis with previous studies of other countries. Our analysis of 149 Korean biotech SMEs showed that the ratio of R&D expenditure to sales, the ratio of R&D employees to total employees, CEO characteristics, governmental support and international networking are positively correlated with a firm's innovation performance. The results may help decision makers to better foster SMEs in the Korean biotechnology industry.

Patenting Biotechnological Inventions in Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Raspor

2002-01-01

Full Text Available The patent system has been able to provide the protection for the achievements of different technologies and in that way it has supported further development and growth of the industry where those achievements were implemented. Modern technologies like information technology and biotechnology with genetic engineering that appeared in the 70s have overgrown the frames of the existing patent system because of their exponential development during the last thirty years. Industry that invests a huge amount of money in these technologies, especially in the field of biotechnology, where the results are very uncertain, has started to claim changes in the patent system.

Canadian biotechnology start-ups, 1991-1997: the role of incumbents' patents and strategic alliances in controlling competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Calabrese, T; Baum, J A; Silverman, B S

2000-12-01

Fligstein (1996) contends that organizations act to exploit the institutional context in which they are embedded so as to stabilize the competition they face. Drawing on Fligstein's theoretical analysis, we conceptualize incumbent biotechnology firms' patent-ing and alliance-building activities as attempts to stabilize and control potential competition and analyze how these activities shape rates of founding in the Canadian biotechnology industry. We find that increases in the level and concentration of incumbents' patenting discourage founding, particularly in human application sectors of the industry where development and approval processes are more costly and time consuming. Incumbents' horizontal alliances depress start-ups; vertical alliances stimulate start-ups. Our findings highlight how technology appropriation and strategic alliances structure the competitive dynamics and evolution of high-technology, knowledge-intensive industries.

Biotechnology for site restoration: scope of the problem

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bitchaeva, O

1996-09-18

The potential of modern biotechnology for solving problems related with the nuclear industry, especially site restoration, are investigated. The advantages of biotechnology, the current applications in Russia, main points of international collaboration, and political considerations are discussed.

High substrate uptake rates empower Vibrio natriegens as production host for industrial biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffart, Eugenia; Grenz, Sebastian; Lange, Julian; Nitschel, Robert; Müller, Felix; Schwentner, Andreas; Feith, André; Lenfers-Lücker, Mira; Takors, Ralf; Blombach, Bastian

2017-09-08

The productivity of industrial fermentation processes is essentially limited by the biomass specific substrate consumption rate (q S ) of the applied microbial production system. Since q S depends on the growth rate (μ), we highlight the potential of the fastest growing non-pathogenic bacterium, Vibrio natriegens , as novel candidate for future biotechnological processes. V. natriegens grows rapidly in BHIN complex medium with a μ of up to 4.43 h -1 (doubling time of 9.4 min) as well as in minimal medium supplemented with various industrially relevant substrates. Bioreactor cultivations in minimal medium with glucose showed that V. natriegens possesses an exceptionally high q S under aerobic (3.90 ± 0.08 g g -1 h -1 ) and anaerobic (7.81 ± 0.71 g g -1 h -1 ) conditions. Fermentations with resting cells of genetically engineered V. natriegens under anaerobic conditions yielded an overall volumetric productivity of 0.56 ± 0.10 g alanine L -1 min -1 (i.e. 34 g L -1 h -1 ). These inherent properties render V. natriegens a promising new microbial platform for future industrial fermentation processes operating with high productivity. Importance Low conversion rates are one major challenge to realize microbial fermentation processes for the production of commodities operating competitively to existing petrochemical approaches. For this reason, we screened for a novel platform organism possessing superior characteristics to traditionally employed microbial systems. We identified the fast growing Vibrio natriegens which exhibits a versatile metabolism and shows striking growth and conversion rates, as a solid candidate to reach outstanding productivities. Due to these inherent characteristics V. natriegens can speed up common laboratory routines, is suitable for already existing production procedures, and forms an excellent foundation to engineer next generation bioprocesses. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

Biotechnology of marine fungi

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Damare, S.R.; Singh, P.; Raghukumar, S.

Filamentous fungi are the most widely used eukaryotes in industrial and pharmaceutical applications. Their biotechnological uses include the production of enzymes, vitamins, polysaccharides, pigments, lipids and others. Marine fungi are a still...

STRENGTHENING BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH IN INDONESIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Sastrapradja

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The wave of biotechnology promises has struck not only the developed countries but the developing countries as well. The scientific community in Indonesia is aware of the opportunities and is eager to take an active part in this particular endeavour. Meanwhile resources are required to welcoming the biotech­nology era. The need of trained manpower, appropriate infrastructure and equipment, operational and maintenance costs requires serious consideration if a unit or a laboratory is expected to be functional in biotechnology. There is a good opportunity of applying biotechnology in the field of agriculture and industry considering the availability of biological resources in Indonesia. This paper outlines what have been done so far, the difficulties encountered and the efforts made to strengthening biotechnology research in Indonesia.

Preparing Science-Trained Professionals for the Biotechnology Industry: A Ten-Year Perspective on a Professional Science Master’s Program

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul T. Hamilton

2012-02-01

Full Text Available The biotechnology industry has a need for business-savvy scientists; however, this is not the way scientists are traditionally trained at universities and colleges. To address this need, universities have developed Professional Science Master’s (PSM degree programs that offer advanced training in a technical field along with professional skills development through team-based projects and internships. Nearly ten years ago, the Department of Microbiology at NCSU started a PSM program in Microbial Biotechnology (MMB. This article provides an overview of the MMB program, and shares some of the lessons that we have learned.

Undergraduate Biotechnology Students' Views of Science Communication

Science.gov (United States)

Edmondston, Joanne Elisabeth; Dawson, Vaille; Schibeci, Renato

2010-01-01

Despite rapid growth of the biotechnology industry worldwide, a number of public concerns about the application of biotechnology and its regulation remain. In response to these concerns, greater emphasis has been placed on promoting biotechnologists' public engagement. As tertiary science degree programmes form the foundation of the biotechnology…

Medical Biotechnology: Problems and Prospects in Bangladesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shaikh Mizan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Biotechnology is the knowledge and techniques of developing and using biological systems for deriving special products and services. The age-old technology took a new turn with the advent of recombinant DNA techniques, and boosted by the development of other molecular biological techniques, cell culture techniques and bioinformatics. Medical biotechnology is the major thrust area of biotechnology. It has brought revolutions in medicine – quick methods for diagnosing diseases, generation of new drugs and vaccines, completely novel approach of treatment are only a few to mention. The industrial and financial bulk of the industry mushroomed very rapidly in the last three decades, led by the USA and western advanced nations. Asian countries like China, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore joined late, but advancing forward in a big way. In all the Asian countries governments supported the initiatives of the expert and entrepreneur community, and invested heavily in its development. Bangladesh has got great potential in developing biotechnology and reaping its fruits. However, lack of commitment and patriotism, and too much corruption and irresponsibility in political and bureaucratic establishment are the major hindrance to the development of biotechnology in Bangladesh.

Editorial: Latest methods and advances in biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Sang Yup; Jungbauer, Alois

2014-01-01

The latest "Biotech Methods and Advances" special issue of Biotechnology Journal continues the BTJ tradition of featuring the latest breakthroughs in biotechnology. The special issue is edited by our Editors-in-Chief, Prof. Sang Yup Lee and Prof. Alois Jungbauer and covers a wide array of topics in biotechnology, including the perennial favorite workhorses of the biotech industry, Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell and Escherichia coli. Copyright © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Biotechnological production of vanillin.

Science.gov (United States)

Priefert, H; Rabenhorst, J; Steinbüchel, A

2001-08-01

Vanillin is one of the most important aromatic flavor compounds used in foods, beverages, perfumes, and pharmaceuticals and is produced on a scale of more than 10 thousand tons per year by the industry through chemical synthesis. Alternative biotechnology-based approaches for the production are based on bioconversion of lignin, phenolic stilbenes, isoeugenol, eugenol, ferulic acid, or aromatic amino acids, and on de novo biosynthesis, applying fungi, bacteria, plant cells, or genetically engineered microorganisms. Here, the different biosynthesis routes involved in biotechnological vanillin production are discussed.

Recent Major Advances of Biotechnology and Sustainable Aquaculture in China

Science.gov (United States)

Xiang, Jianhai

2015-01-01

Background: Global aquaculture production has increased continuously over the last five decades, and particularly in China. Its aquaculture has become the fastest growing and most efficient agri-sector, with production accounting for more than 70% of the world’s aquaculture output. In the new century, with serious challenges regarding population, resources and the environment, China has been working to develop high-quality, effective, healthy, and sustainable blue agriculture through the application of modern biotechnology. Sound knowledge related to the biology and ecology of aquatic organisms has laid a solid foundation and provided the innovation and technology for rapid development of the aquaculture industry. Marine biotechnology, which is enabling solutions for ocean productivity and sustainability, has been promoted since the last decades of the 20th Century in China. Objective: In this article, priority areas of research, mainly genetic breeding, omics studies, novel production systems, biosecurity, bioprocesses and biorefinery, as well as the major progress of marine biotechnology R&D in China are reviewed. Conclusion: Current innovative achievements in China are not enough and the level and frequency of academic advancements must be improved. International cooperation and assistance remain crucial for the success of marine biotechnology. PMID:28553577

Contemporaneous Peer Effects, Career Age and the Industry Involvement of Academics in Biotechnology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aschhoff, Birgit; Grimpe, Christoph

2014-01-01

This study explores the role of contemporaneous peer effects in driving an academic's involvement with industry. Specifically, we examine the influence of workplace peers and personal collaborators and how these effects are moderated by the career age of the scientist. Moreover, we look...... that a scientist's involvement increases with the industry orientation of the scientist's co-authors (“personal peer effect”), irrespective of the scientist's age. In case both types of social influence are incongruent, younger scientists will revert to localized norms while more experienced scientists will orient...... at situations in which both types of social influence are incongruent and the academic is faced with “dissonance”. Based on survey data of 355 German academics in the field of biotechnology and publication data from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), we find that the scientist's involvement...

Ethical perception of modern biotechnology

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Jane

2011-09-30

Sep 30, 2011 ... 1Social Impact of Biotechnology Development in Malaysia Research ... purpose of this paper is to examine the ethical perception of modern ... and social benefits of modern biotechnology, consumer .... Company or organisation directly involved in the production of ...... Food safety battle: organic vs. biotech.

Sectoral Innovation Watch Biotechnology Sector. Final sector report

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Enzing, C.

2011-01-01

Biotechnology has evolved from a single set of technologies in the mid 1970s into a full grown technological field that is the driving force in innovation processes in many industrial sectors (pharmaceutical, medical, agriculture, food, chemical, environment, instruments). Nowadays, biotechnology is

Chronological development avenues in biotechnology across the world

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prashant Y Mali

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Biotechnology is expected to be a great technological revolution followed by information technology. It is an application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of material by biological agents to provide better goods and services to mankind. Commercially its techniques are applied long back in 6 th century in the art of brewing, wine making and baking. It has progressed there after crossing different land marks. Modern biotechnology has developed significantly in the late 19 th century with groundbreaking discoveries applicable in medicine, food, agriculture, chemistry, environmental protection and many more industries. It is widely used in the development of high-yielding, disease-resistant, better quality varieties by applying tissue culture and recombinant DNA techniques. It has wide application in animal breeding using techniques such as artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. Specific enzymes used in laundry, fuel and leather industries for better quality, economically feasible and environmental friendly production. Biotechnology in healthcare system uses body′s own tools and weapons to fight against diseases, manufacturing of targeted therapeutic proteins, gene therapy and so on. Novel approaches such as proteomics and structural biology are contributing to understanding the chemistry of life and diseases. Malfunctioning gene replaced with correctly functioning gene by using gene therapy. Tissue engineering has opened up the use of in vitro developed tissue or organ in repairing wounded tissue and system biology which is a computer-based approach to understand cell functions. Although every new discovery related to biology and its implications is significant and has taken the technology ahead. This includes applications, commercialization, controversies, media exposure and so on. Hence, we have enlisted some of the chronological development avenues in biotechnology across the world.

BIOTECHNOLOGIES OF MEAT PRODUCTS MANUFACTURE. CURRENT STATE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bal-Prilipko L. V.

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The analysis of literature and patents related to the possibilities of biotechnology for optimizing the domestic meat processing plants was the aim of the article. The analysis of the results of the use of biotechnological methods in the meat processing industry is given. The prospects for their implementation are evaluated. The main development strategy of technological meat processing to develop the methods of obtaining high quality and safe meat products is highlighted. Targeted use of special strains of microorganisms in production of functional meat products offers some opportunities. Thus, such action is associated with formation of the following specific dietary components: organic acids, bactericins, enzymes, vitamins and others. They promote to improve the sanitary microbiological, organoleptic, functional and technological parameters of meat products. Using of denitrifying microbial strains could reduce the residual content of sodium nitrite in the finished product, minimizing the possible carcinogenic and mutagenic impact of this compound on a human body, producing functional safe products while maintaining its high organoleptic characteristics.

Microbial lipases: Production, properties and biotechnological applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Josana Maria Messias

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Lipases belong to the group of hydrolases that catalyze the hydrolysis of triacylglycerol lipids to free fatty acids and glycerol. They have significant potential biotechnological applications in catalyzing organic synthesis reactions in non-aqueous solvents using simplified procedures resulting in conversions of high yields. Lipase production has conventionally been performed by submerged fermentation; however, solid-state fermentation processes have been prominent when residues are used as substrates because they serve as low-cost nutrient sources. Microbial lipases can be used as additives in foods to modify and enhance organoleptic properties, as well as in detergents to hydrolyse fats in the treatment of oily effluents, and also have value for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agrochemical, and oil chemical industries. More recently, they are used in transesterification reactions to convert plant seed oils into biodiesel. The objective of this work was to review the published literature on the production, properties and applications of microbial lipases, and its biotechnological role in producing biodiesel.

Agave biotechnology: an overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Nava-Cruz, Naivy Y; Medina-Morales, Miguel A; Martinez, José L; Rodriguez, R; Aguilar, Cristóbal N

2015-01-01

Agaves are plants of importance both in Mexican culture and economy and in other Latin-American countries. Mexico is reported to be the place of Agave origin, where today, scientists are looking for different industrial applications without compromising its sustainability and preserving the environment. To make it possible, a deep knowledge of all aspects involved in production process, agro-ecological management and plant biochemistry and physiology is required. Agave biotechnology research has been focusing on bio-fuels, beverages, foods, fibers, saponins among others. In this review, we present the advances and challenges of Agave biotechnology.

Role of biotechnology in future agriculture. Korekarano nogyo to biotechnology eno kitai

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Komano, T. (Kyoto Univ., Kyoto (Japan). Faculty of Agriculture)

1992-09-01

In comparison with ancient times when everything is handled empirically, biological matter suitable for purposes can be produced and utilized faster and more reliably these days when life science has made a great advance. The advancement is related to new breeding technology and production means, and those means offer the point of contact between biotechnology and agriculture. The application fields of biotechnology are microbiology, cell technology, enzyme technology (bioreactor), and gene engineering. High yield, high content of high value ingredients as foods, adaptability to environment, resistance to disease and insect damage, etc. may be the subjects expected for future agricultural organisms. There may be many areas where biotechnology is related to those organisms, but a discussion is made in this report centering around the problem in breeding. Outlines are given on the applied cases of cell technological method, gene engineering method, and recombinant DNA technology, as well as on gene engineering for plants and animals. 10 refs., 7 figs.

Innovator Organizations in New Drug Development: Assessing the Sustainability of the Biopharmaceutical Industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinch, Michael S; Moore, Ryan

2016-06-23

The way new medicines are discovered and brought to market has fundamentally changed over the last 30 years. Our previous analysis showed that biotechnology companies had contributed significantly to the US Food and Drug Administration approval of new molecular entities up to the mid-1980s, when the trends started to decline. Although intriguing, the focus on biotechnology necessarily precluded the wider question of how the biopharmaceutical industry has been delivering on its goals to develop new drugs. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of all biopharmaceutical innovators and uncover unexpected findings. The present biopharmaceutical industry grew steadily from 1800 to 1950 and then stagnated for two decades, before a burst of growth attributable to the biotechnology revolution took place; but consolidation has reduced the number of active and independent innovators to a level not experienced since 1945. The trajectories and trends we observe raise fundamental questions about biopharmaceutical innovators and the sustainability of the drug-development enterprise. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Religious voices in biotechnology: the case of gene patenting.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanson, M J

1999-01-01

On 18 May 1995, nearly 200 religious leaders joined with leading biotechnology critic Jeremy Rifkin in a press conference named the "Joint Appeal against Human and Animal Patenting," a move that many within the biotechnology industry could only interpret as seeking to inhibit biotechnological advance. What moral and religious concerns motivated this challenge to patenting? How could the biotechnology industry understand and respectfully attend to these concerns? What values were at play in the debates that followed the joint appeal? What lessons for future dialogue can be learned from attempts at conversation between the opposing positions? This essay is a report from a Hastings Center research project that accepted the task of addressing these questions. Specifically, the project focused on the patenting of human genetic material, a subset of the issues raised by the joint appeal.

Biotechnology--Biotechnical Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruggles, Stanford

1990-01-01

The perspective of biotechnology and its development in the K-12 technology education curriculum are described. The content curriculum development and implications for activities are discussed. The difference between a curriculum focused on the activities of industry compared to one that addresses technology as it pervades all human endeavors is…

Oleochemical industry future through biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdelmoez, Wael; Mustafa, Ahmad

2014-01-01

Lipases are the most widely used class of enzymes in organic synthesis. Enzymatic processes have been implemented in a broad range of industries as they are specific, save raw materials, energy and chemicals, environmentally friendly and fast in action compared to conventional processes. The most notable benefit is the moderate process temperature and pressure with no unwanted side reactions. In the past two decades, intensive research was carried out towards enzymatic synthesis of oleochemicals. This review has a sharp focus on the current implemented enzymatic processes for producing different oleochemicals such as fatty acids, glycerin, biodiesel, biolubricant and different alkyl esters via different processes including hydrolysis, esterification, transesterification and intraesterification.

Measuring the Contribution of Modern Biotechnology to the Canadian Economy

OpenAIRE

Ricardo de Avillez

2011-01-01

The role of modern biotechnology in agriculture, medicine, and industry has increased dramatically since the 1970s. Despite its growing importance, few efforts have been made so far to estimate the economic contribution of modern biotechnology to the Canadian economy. This report provides an overview of biotechnology activities in Canada, and, using an income-based approach, estimates that biotechnology activities accounted for approximately $15 billion in 2005, equivalent to 1.19 per cent of...

Biotechnological applications of functional metagenomics in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Science.gov (United States)

Coughlan, Laura M; Cotter, Paul D; Hill, Colin; Alvarez-Ordóñez, Avelino

2015-01-01

Microorganisms are found throughout nature, thriving in a vast range of environmental conditions. The majority of them are unculturable or difficult to culture by traditional methods. Metagenomics enables the study of all microorganisms, regardless of whether they can be cultured or not, through the analysis of genomic data obtained directly from an environmental sample, providing knowledge of the species present, and allowing the extraction of information regarding the functionality of microbial communities in their natural habitat. Function-based screenings, following the cloning and expression of metagenomic DNA in a heterologous host, can be applied to the discovery of novel proteins of industrial interest encoded by the genes of previously inaccessible microorganisms. Functional metagenomics has considerable potential in the food and pharmaceutical industries, where it can, for instance, aid (i) the identification of enzymes with desirable technological properties, capable of catalyzing novel reactions or replacing existing chemically synthesized catalysts which may be difficult or expensive to produce, and able to work under a wide range of environmental conditions encountered in food and pharmaceutical processing cycles including extreme conditions of temperature, pH, osmolarity, etc; (ii) the discovery of novel bioactives including antimicrobials active against microorganisms of concern both in food and medical settings; (iii) the investigation of industrial and societal issues such as antibiotic resistance development. This review article summarizes the state-of-the-art functional metagenomic methods available and discusses the potential of functional metagenomic approaches to mine as yet unexplored environments to discover novel genes with biotechnological application in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Biotechnological applications of functional metagenomics in the food and pharmaceutical industries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura M Coughlan

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Microorganisms are found throughout nature, thriving in a vast range of environmental conditions. The majority of them are unculturable or difficult to culture by traditional methods. Metagenomics enables the study of all microorganisms, regardless of whether they can be cultured or not, through the analysis of genomic data obtained directly from an environmental sample, providing knowledge of the species present and allowing the extraction of information regarding the functionality of microbial communities in their natural habitat. Function-based screenings, following the cloning and expression of metagenomic DNA in a heterologous host, can be applied to the discovery of novel proteins of industrial interest encoded by the genes of previously inaccessible microorganisms. Functional metagenomics has considerable potential in the food and pharmaceutical industries, where it can, for instance, aid (i the identification of enzymes with desirable technological properties, capable of catalysing novel reactions or replacing existing chemically synthesized catalysts which may be difficult or expensive to produce, and able to work under a wide range of environmental conditions encountered in food and pharmaceutical processing cycles including extreme conditions of temperature, pH, osmolarity, etc; (ii the discovery of novel bioactives including antimicrobials active against microorganisms of concern both in food and medical settings; (iii the investigation of industrial and societal issues such as antibiotic resistance development. This review article summarizes the state-of-the-art functional metagenomic methods available and discusses the potential of functional metagenomic approaches to mine as yet unexplored environments to discover novel genes with biotechnological application in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Trends in industrial and environmental biotechnology research in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

SERVER

2007-12-28

Dec 28, 2007 ... Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Dar es Salaam P. O. Box 35179, Dar es .... digestion of bagasse, maize bran, coconut fibres, water ..... bacterium formicicum has shown nitrogen fixing abilities.

Development of health biotechnology in developing countries: can private-sector players be the prime movers?

Science.gov (United States)

Abuduxike, Gulifeiya; Aljunid, Syed Mohamed

2012-01-01

Health biotechnology has rapidly become vital in helping healthcare systems meet the needs of the poor in developing countries. This key industry also generates revenue and creates employment opportunities in these countries. To successfully develop biotechnology industries in developing nations, it is critical to understand and improve the system of health innovation, as well as the role of each innovative sector and the linkages between the sectors. Countries' science and technology capacities can be strengthened only if there are non-linear linkages and strong interrelations among players throughout the innovation process; these relationships generate and transfer knowledge related to commercialization of the innovative health products. The private sector is one of the main actors in healthcare innovation, contributing significantly to the development of health biotechnology via knowledge, expertise, resources and relationships to translate basic research and development into new commercial products and innovative processes. The role of the private sector has been increasingly recognized and emphasized by governments, agencies and international organizations. Many partnerships between the public and private sector have been established to leverage the potential of the private sector to produce more affordable healthcare products. Several developing countries that have been actively involved in health biotechnology are becoming the main players in this industry. The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of the private sector in health biotechnology development and to study its impact on health and economic growth through case studies in South Korea, India and Brazil. The paper also discussed the approaches by which the private sector can improve the health and economic status of the poor. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Designer Yeasts for the Fermentation Industry of the 21st Century

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isak S. Pretorius

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has enjoyed a long and distinguished history in the fermention industry. Owing to its efficiency in producing alcohol, S. cerevisiae is, without doubt, the most important commercial microorganism with GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe status. By brewing beer and sparkling wine, mankind’s oldest domesticated organism made possible the world’s first biotechnological processes. With the emergence of modern molecular genetics, S. cerevisiae has again been harnessed to shift the frontiers of mankind’s newest revolution, genetic engineering. S. cerevisiae is at the forefront of many of these developments in modern biotechnology. Consequently, the industrial importance of S. cerevisiae has extended beyond traditional fermentation. Today, the products of yeast biotechnologies impinge on many commercially important sectors, including food, beverages, biofuels, chemicals, industrial enzymes, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and the environment. Nevertheless, since ethyl alcohol produced by yeast fermentation is likely to remain the foremost worldwide biotechnological commodity for the foreseeable future, this review focuses on advances made with respect to the development of tailor- made yeast strains for the fermented beverage and biofuel industries.

Application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to the analysis of algal biomass for industrial biotechnology

Science.gov (United States)

Pořízka, P.; Prochazka, D.; Pilát, Z.; Krajcarová, L.; Kaiser, J.; Malina, R.; Novotný, J.; Zemánek, P.; Ježek, J.; Šerý, M.; Bernatová, S.; Krzyžánek, V.; Dobranská, K.; Novotný, K.; Trtílek, M.; Samek, O.

2012-08-01

We report on the application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to the determination of elements distinctive in terms of their biological significance (such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, and sodium) and to the monitoring of accumulation of potentially toxic heavy metal ions in living microorganisms (algae), in order to trace e.g. the influence of environmental exposure and other cultivation and biological factors having an impact on them. Algae cells were suspended in liquid media or presented in a form of adherent cell mass on a surface (biofilm) and, consequently, characterized using their spectra. In our feasibility study we used three different experimental arrangements employing double-pulse LIBS technique in order to improve on analytical selectivity and sensitivity for potential industrial biotechnology applications, e.g. for monitoring of mass production of commercial biofuels, utilization in the food industry and control of the removal of heavy metal ions from industrial waste waters.

Current status of biotechnology in Slovakia.

Science.gov (United States)

Stuchlík, Stanislav; Turna, Ján

2013-07-01

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity defines biotechnology as: 'Any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.' In other words biotechnology is 'application of scientific and technical advances in life science to develop commercial products' or briefly 'the use of molecular biology for useful purposes'. This short overview is about different branches of biotechnology carried out in Slovakia and it shows that Slovakia has a good potential for further development of modern biotechnologies. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agenda 21: biotechnology at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylhardat, A R; Zilinskas, R A

1992-04-01

Preparation has yet to be completed for the 1992 Earth Summit, UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Nonetheless, it has been planned as a forum in which recommendations will be made to governments and international organizations on how to alleviate environmental damage caused by human activities and how to prevent future damage without retarding development in the Third World. It will declare basic principles for national and individual conduct regarding environmental preservation and sustainable development; adopt international conventions to protect biodiversity and manage climatic change; lay out Agenda 21 activities as specified by UNCED; provide an agenda to help Third World governments manage environmental matters; and provide an agenda for improving the transfer of technology to developing countries. Where biotechnology is concerned, scientists and policy makers in developing countries have shown their interest. Limited resources and capabilities, however, constrain their abilities to engage in serious research and development. International organizations such as the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) may help UNCED and developing countries with biotechnology. Since 1986, UNIDO has held the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) as a special project. The ICGEB conducts research and development (R&D) on high priority topics in developing countries; trains scientific and technical personnel from member countries in advanced biotechnology techniques; helps member countries implement and operate ICGEB-affiliated R&D and training centers; and manages an information exchange for internationally affiliated centers. To maximize the potential of biotechnology to help Third World nations clear their environments of pollutants while safely exploiting natural resources, organizations should promote full use of available training resources; promote biosafety and the dissemination of

Keystone conference on environmental biotechnology. Summary -- Results of conference

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-12-31

This symposium brought together a unique mix of scientists, engineers and policy makers to discuss the latest applications of biotechnology to in situ bioremediation and ex situ biodegradation of pollutants and industrial wastes. Several new topics were prominent in the discussions. Chief among these were issues related to environmentally acceptable endpoints, command and control versus incentive driven regulations, bioavailability of pollutants to microbial action, delivery of biodegrading organisms to pollutant plumes, value added production, and genetic probes for monitoring the status of soil consortia. These new issues gave a new perspective to the more traditional topics of the molecular genetics of microorganisms, marine bioremediation, bioprocessing of industrial and agricultural wastes, and engineered bioremediation systems which were featured.

Gateway to the Future. Skill Standards for the Bioscience Industry for Technical Workers in Pharmaceutical Companies, Biotechnology Companies, and Clinical Laboratories.

Science.gov (United States)

Education Development Center, Inc., Newton, MA.

The Bioscience Industry Skills Standards Project (BISSP) is developing national, voluntary skill standards for technical jobs in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and clinical laboratories in hospitals, universities, government, and independent settings. Research with employees and educators has pinpointed three issues underscoring the…

Nutrition by design: a review of biotechnology in functional food

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Reynolds

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Medical institutions in industrial and developing countries are increasingly turning to functional foods as intervention in chronic disease. Advances in genetic engineering have provided methods of purposefully designing functional foods and bioactive compound-producing organisms. This literature review examines the recent history of biotechnological applications in functional food, the state of bioagricultural engineering for high-value compound production, and the challenges that developers face in promulgatingfunctional foods from biotechnological sources. Based on the literature reviewed, it is predicted that adding biotechnologically-produced compounds will be more successful in producing novel functional foods. Conclusion: Current functional food application is frequently hampered by a dearth of foods suitable to the purpose. The concurrent advent of biotechnology means that producers and clinicians are not constrained by limited and precarious natural development. Biotechnology has already produced altered dietary staples that can safely induce real health benefits, but the social approval of genetically modified foodstuffs is inconsistent at best. Modifying microalgae to produce micro and macronutrients, for harvest and incorporation into functional food products, provides the ideal specificity and reliability for bioactive compound use. However, its application in biomedical science is impeded by technical difficulty. It remains to be seen if microorganism engineering willbe able to meet the needs of its many stakeholders, including the functional food community. Nonetheless,the prospect of a flourishing functional food market, and the healthier population it will bring about, certainly makes it worth a try.

Biotechnology education as social and cultural production/reproduction of the biotechnology community

Science.gov (United States)

Andrée, Maria

2014-03-01

This paper is a commentary to a paper by Anne Solli, Frank Bach and Björn Åkerman on how students at a technical university learn to argue as biotechnologists. Solli and her colleagues report from an ethnographic study performed during the first semester of a 5-year program in biotechnology at a technical university in Sweden. Their study demonstrates how students begin to acquire `the right way' of approaching the controversial issue of producing and consuming genetically modified organisms. In my response I discuss the ethnographic account of this particular educational practice in terms of social and cultural production/reproduction of a biotechnology community and how the participants (students and teaching professors) deal with the dialectic of individual and collective transformation. In the perspective of the biotechnology community, the work done by the teaching professor becomes a way of ensuring the future of the biotechnology community in terms of what values and objectives are held highly in the community of practice.

Biotechnology opportunities on Space Station

Science.gov (United States)

Deming, Jess; Henderson, Keith; Phillips, Robert W.; Dickey, Bernistine; Grounds, Phyllis

1987-01-01

Biotechnology applications which could be implemented on the Space Station are examined. The advances possible in biotechnology due to the favorable microgravity environment are discussed. The objectives of the Space Station Life Sciences Program are: (1) the study of human diseases, (2) biopolymer processing, and (3) the development of cryoprocessing and cryopreservation methods. The use of the microgravity environment for crystal growth, cell culturing, and the separation of biological materials is considered. The proposed Space Station research could provide benefits to the fields of medicine, pharmaceuticals, genetics, agriculture, and industrial waste management.

Life Cycle Risks for Human Health: A Comparison of Petroleum Versus Bio-Based Production of Five Bulk Organic Chemicals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roes, A.L.; Patel, M.K.

2007-01-01

This article describes the development and application of a generic approach to the comparative assessment of risks related to the production of organic chemicals by petrochemical processes versus white biotechnology. White biotechnology, also referred to as industrial biotechnology, typically uses

Some like it hot, some like it cold: Temperature dependent biotechnological applications and improvements in extremophilic enzymes.

Science.gov (United States)

Siddiqui, Khawar Sohail

2015-12-01

The full biotechnological exploitation of enzymes is still hampered by their low activity, low stability and high cost. Temperature-dependent catalytic properties of enzymes are a key to efficient and cost-effective translation to commercial applications. Organisms adapted to temperature extremes are a rich source of enzymes with broad ranging thermal properties which, if isolated, characterized and their structure-function-stability relationship elucidated, could underpin a variety of technologies. Enzymes from thermally-adapted organisms such as psychrophiles (low-temperature) and thermophiles (high-temperature) are a vast natural resource that is already under scrutiny for their biotechnological potential. However, psychrophilic and thermophilic enzymes show an activity-stability trade-off that necessitates the use of various genetic and chemical modifications to further improve their properties to suit various industrial applications. This review describes in detail the properties and biotechnological applications of both cold-adapted and thermophilic enzymes. Furthermore, the review critically examines ways to improve their value for biotechnology, concluding by proposing an integrated approach involving thermally-adapted, genetically and magnetically modified enzymes to make biocatalysis more efficient and cost-effective. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Biotechnological Applications of Marine Enzymes From Algae, Bacteria, Fungi, and Sponges.

Science.gov (United States)

Parte, S; Sirisha, V L; D'Souza, J S

Diversity is the hallmark of all life forms that inhabit the soil, air, water, and land. All these habitats pose their unique inherent challenges so as to breed the "fittest" creatures. Similarly, the biodiversity from the marine ecosystem has evolved unique properties due to challenging environment. These challenges include permafrost regions to hydrothermal vents, oceanic trenches to abyssal plains, fluctuating saline conditions, pH, temperature, light, atmospheric pressure, and the availability of nutrients. Oceans occupy 75% of the earth's surface and harbor most ancient and diverse forms of organisms (algae, bacteria, fungi, sponges, etc.), serving as an excellent source of natural bioactive molecules, novel therapeutic compounds, and enzymes. In this chapter, we introduce enzyme technology, its current state of the art, unique enzyme properties, and the biocatalytic potential of marine algal, bacterial, fungal, and sponge enzymes that have indeed boosted the Marine Biotechnology Industry. Researchers began exploring marine enzymes, and today they are preferred over the chemical catalysts for biotechnological applications and functions, encompassing various sectors, namely, domestic, industrial, commercial, and healthcare. Next, we summarize the plausible pros and cons: the challenges encountered in the process of discovery of the potent compounds and bioactive metabolites such as biocatalysts/enzymes of biomedical, therapeutic, biotechnological, and industrial significance. The field of Marine Enzyme Technology has recently assumed importance, and if it receives further boost, it could successfully substitute other chemical sources of enzymes useful for industrial and commercial purposes and may prove as a beneficial and ecofriendly option. With appropriate directions and encouragement, marine enzyme technology can sustain the rising demand for enzyme production while maintaining the ecological balance, provided any undesired exploitation of the marine

Avian Biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakamura, Yoshiaki

2017-01-01

Primordial germ cells (PGCs) generate new individuals through differentiation, maturation and fertilization. This means that the manipulation of PGCs is directly linked to the manipulation of individuals, making PGCs attractive target cells in the animal biotechnology field. A unique biological property of avian PGCs is that they circulate temporarily in the vasculature during early development, and this allows us to access and manipulate avian germ lines. Following the development of a technique for transplantation, PGCs have become central to avian biotechnology, in contrast to the use of embryo manipulation and subsequent transfer to foster mothers, as in mammalian biotechnology. Today, avian PGC transplantation combined with recent advanced manipulation techniques, including cell purification, cryopreservation, depletion, and long-term culture in vitro, have enabled the establishment of genetically modified poultry lines and ex-situ conservation of poultry genetic resources. This chapter introduces the principles, history, and procedures of producing avian germline chimeras by transplantation of PGCs, and the current status of avian germline modification as well as germplasm cryopreservation. Other fundamental avian reproductive technologies are described, including artificial insemination and embryo culture, and perspectives of industrial applications in agriculture and pharmacy are considered, including poultry productivity improvement, egg modification, disease resistance impairment and poultry gene "pharming" as well as gene banking.

Yeast biotechnology: teaching the old dog new tricks.

Science.gov (United States)

Mattanovich, Diethard; Sauer, Michael; Gasser, Brigitte

2014-03-06

Yeasts are regarded as the first microorganisms used by humans to process food and alcoholic beverages. The technology developed out of these ancient processes has been the basis for modern industrial biotechnology. Yeast biotechnology has gained great interest again in the last decades. Joining the potentials of genomics, metabolic engineering, systems and synthetic biology enables the production of numerous valuable products of primary and secondary metabolism, technical enzymes and biopharmaceutical proteins. An overview of emerging and established substrates and products of yeast biotechnology is provided and discussed in the light of the recent literature.

Historicism and Industry Emergence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kirsch, David; Moeen, Mahka; Wadhwani, Dan

2014-01-01

Management and organization scholars have increasingly turned to historical sources to examine the emergence and evolution of industries over time. This scholarship has typically used historical evidence as observations for testing theoretically relevant processes of industry emergence....... In this chapter, an alternative approach is explored that focuses on reconstructing causes and processes that time and theory have erased. The emergence of three industries—plant biotechnology, savings banking, and the automobile—shows how time, along with prevailing functional models of industry evolution, leads...... excluded phenomena and explanations, reconstructing uncertainty and alternative paths of industry emergence, and studying the processes of information elision and exclusion in the formation of industry knowledge....

Practicing environmental biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruce E.Rittmann

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Environmental biotechnology involves ″managing microbial communities to provide services to society″.Its success comes from partnering with prokaryotic microorganisms,whose wideranging metabolic capabilities can be harnessed to destroy pollutants and to generate renewable materials.Partnering with microorganisms requires that we understand them well,and important advances in molecular microbial ecology,analytical chemistry,and mathematical modeling are making it possible to look inside the black box of microbial communities.Also crucial is translating the understanding to biotechnological processes that ″work for the microorganisms so that they work for us″.Successful translation demands novel reactor designs,application of advanced materials,and partnering with practitioners and users.The Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology,founded in at Arizona State University in 2005,brings together the science and engineering tools in an interdisciplinary environment.The Center emphasizes teamwork and collaborations with research and practice partners around the world.Three new technologies illustrate how the Center applies these principles to ″work for the microorganisms″:the H2-based membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR for reducing many oxidized contaminants in water,the microbial electrochemical cells (MXCs for converting organic wastes into renewable products,and Intimately Coupled PhotoBioCatalysis (ICPBC to detoxify very difficult to biodegrade organic pollutants.

Environmental Biotechnology in China

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Shuang Jiang; Liu, Lei; Chaudhry, Muhammad Tausif; Wang, Lei; Chen, Ying Guang; Zhou, Qi; Liu, He; Chen, Jian

Environmental biotechnology has emerged as an important measure to tackle the environmental pollution as China experiences great economic success. Over the past decade, much emphasis has been paid to the following fields in environmental biotechnology: microbial degradation of toxic and organic chemicals, bio-treatment of wastewater, waste recycling. The Chinese researchers have done a lot of work to understand the natural degradation processes for organic and toxic compounds and finally to clean these compounds from polluted environments. For the treatment of wastewater, many new processes were proposed and optimized to meet the more strict effluent standards in China. Finally, more and more attention has been paid to the reuse of discharged wastes. In this chapter we review the development in the above fields.

Advancing biotechnology with CRISPR/Cas9: recent applications and patent landscape

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ferreira, Raphael; David, Florian; Nielsen, Jens

2018-01-01

for manipulating a broad range of living organisms. From the different elucidated types of CRISPR mechanisms, the type II system adapted from Streptococcus pyogenes has been the most exploited as a tool for genome engineering and gene regulation. In this review, we describe the different applications of CRISPR/Cas......9 technology in the industrial biotechnology field. Next, we detail the current status of the patent landscape, highlighting its exploitation through different companies, and conclude with future perspectives of this technology....

Latin-American Co-operation in Biotechnology Programme: Industrial penicillin amidase for 6 amino penicillanic acid production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dolly Montoya C.

2001-07-01

Full Text Available This work evaluates technological and economic transference related to the Production of Penicillin Amidase for use in 6 Amine Penicillanic acid (6-APA Production Project, wich is a part of the United Nations1 Regional Biotechnology Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean. This paper analyses the evolution of international cooperation by looking at the project's development. The methodology used includes analysis of: the project's development; participant and budgetary goals; results; copyright; project conditions; and sale of biocatalyst and 6-APA. All technical objectives were achieved; international co-operation, as well as co-operation between Industry and University were successful. Technological transference to the pilot plant was effective; many students involved in the project were simultaneously taking M.Sc. and Ph.D's courses. Nevertheless, neither the technology necessary for the biocatalyst's manufacture nor the biocatalyst itself were used. Analysis of the project has provided some orientation concerning those internal and external problems which arose during the development and sale of biotechnology in our countries and has tried to propose some alternatives for taking advantage of international co-operation.

Yeast biotechnology: teaching the old dog new tricks

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Yeasts are regarded as the first microorganisms used by humans to process food and alcoholic beverages. The technology developed out of these ancient processes has been the basis for modern industrial biotechnology. Yeast biotechnology has gained great interest again in the last decades. Joining the potentials of genomics, metabolic engineering, systems and synthetic biology enables the production of numerous valuable products of primary and secondary metabolism, technical enzymes and biopharmaceutical proteins. An overview of emerging and established substrates and products of yeast biotechnology is provided and discussed in the light of the recent literature. PMID:24602262

Conference report: Bioanalysis highlights from the 2012 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists National Biotechnology Conference.

Science.gov (United States)

Crisino, Rebecca M; Geist, Brian; Li, Jian

2012-09-01

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) is an international forum for the exchange of knowledge among scientists to enhance their contributions to drug development. The annual National Biotechnology Conference, organized by the AAPS on 21-23 May 2012 in San Diego, CA, USA, brings together experts from various disciplines representing private industry, academia and governing institutions dedicated toward advancing the scientific and technological progress related to discovery, development and manufacture of medical biotechnology products. Over 300 scientific poster presentations and approximately 50 oral presentation and discussion sessions examined a breadth of topics pertaining to biotechnology drug development, such as the advancement of vaccines and biosimilars, emerging and innovative technologies, nonclinical and clinical bioanalysis, and regulatory updates. This conference report highlights the existing challenges with ligand-binding assays, emerging challenges, innovative integration of various technology platforms and applicable regulatory considerations as they relate to immunogenicity and pharmacokinetic bioanalytical assessments.

BIOTECHNOLOGIES OF MEAT PRODUCTS MANUFACTURE. CURRENT STATE

OpenAIRE

Bal-Prilipko L. V.; Leonova B. I.

2014-01-01

The analysis of literature and patents related to the possibilities of biotechnology for optimizing the domestic meat processing plants was the aim of the article. The analysis of the results of the use of biotechnological methods in the meat processing industry is given. The prospects for their implementation are evaluated. The main development strategy of technological meat processing to develop the methods of obtaining high quality and safe meat products is highlighted. Targeted use of spe...

Applications of Carbon Nanotubes in Biotechnology and Biomedicine

Science.gov (United States)

Bekyarova, Elena; Ni, Yingchun; Malarkey, Erik B.; Montana, Vedrana; McWilliams, Jared L.; Haddon, Robert C.; Parpura, Vladimir

2009-01-01

Due to their electrical, chemical, mechanical and thermal properties, carbon nanotubes are one of the most promising materials for the electronics, computer and aerospace industries. Here, we discuss their properties in the context of future applications in biotechnology and biomedicine. The purification and chemical modification of carbon nanotubes with organic, polymeric and biological molecules are discussed. Additionally we review their uses in biosensors, assembly of structures and devices, scanning probe microscopy and as substrates for neuronal growth. We note that additional toxicity studies of carbon nanotubes are necessary so that exposure guidelines and safety regulations can be established in a timely manner. PMID:19763242

Management in biophotonics and biotechnologies

Science.gov (United States)

Meglinski, I. V.; Tuchin, V. V.

2005-10-01

Biophotonics, one of the most exciting and rapidly growing areas, offers vast potential for changing traditional approaches to meeting many critical needs in medicine, biology, pharmacy, food, health care and cosmetic industries. Follow the market trends we developed new MSc course Management in Biophotonics and Biotechnologies (MBB) that provide students of technical disciplines with the necessary training, education and problem-solving skills to produce professionals and managers who are better equipped to handle the challenges of modern science and business in biophotonics and biotechnology. A major advantage of the course is that it provides skills not currently available to graduates in other Master programs.

Evolution of Biotechnology and Information Technology and Its Impact on Human Security

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena S. Zinovieva

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract: The development of post-industrial society initiates profound economic, technological and cultural change in the way of life of all mankind. The revolutionary breakthroughs in the field of new technologies such as biotechnology and information technology are reflected in all spheres of human activity, directly affecting the human security. The article analyzes the consequences of widespread usage biotechnology and information technology in the foreign policy practice on the basis of the human security theory. The detailed description of the main directions of the use of biometric technology in the foreign policy and consular practices is provided, the challenges and threats to information security associated with biometrics are analyzed, arising from widespread biotechnology are the main challenges and threats to as well as human security threats arising at the present stage of development and application of these technologies. Human security threats associated with the use of biotechnology are placed in the broader context of global trends in scientific and technological development. The recommendations are formulated in the field of foreign policy and international cooperation, which would neutralize new threats to international and personal safety arising at the present stage of development of biotechnology. The authors conclude that in order to ensure ethical regulation of new technologies that address issues of human security, it is necessary to organize multi-stakeholder partnerships at national and international level with the participation of states, representatives of civil society, business and the research community.

BIOFAC-An investment in space infrastructure for biotechnology

Science.gov (United States)

Deuser, Mark S.; Vellinger, John C.

2000-01-01

During the last half century, biotechnology has contributed to the development of many important new and useful products that have improved our quality of life. To a large extent, these contributions are attributable to advances in cellular and molecular biology that can be traced to the discovery of DNA. What began as a science involved with manipulations of whole organisms has transcended into an ability to influence organisms at the cellular and molecular levels with greater speed, flexibility and precision than ever before. This has produced significantly improved pharmaceutical, textile, diagnostic, and environmental products, to name just a few. Early in this new century, biotechnology research is expected to literally explode with exciting new and promising opportunities. More importantly, biotechnology research in the low gravity environment of space is expected to play a significant part in this biotechnology revolution by expediting the discovery of important new medical, agricultural and environmental products. .

Metabolic Capabilities of the Members of the Order Halanaerobiales and Their Potential Biotechnological Applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roush, Daniel W [Missouri University of Science and Technology; Elias, Dwayne A [ORNL; Mormile, Dr. Melanie R. [Missouri University of Science and Technology

2014-01-01

The order Halanaerobiales contains a number of well-studied halophiles that possess great potential for biotechnological applications. The unique halophilic adaptations that these organisms utilize, such as salting-in mechanisms to increase their intercellular concentration of KCl, combined with their ability to ferment simple sugars, provides an excellent platform for biotechnological development over a wide range of salt levels and possible other extreme conditions, such as alkaline conditions. From fermented foods to oil reservoirs, members of Halanaerobiales are found in many environments. The environmental conditions many of these organisms grow are similar to industrially important processes, such as alkaline pre-treated biomass stocks, treatment of crude glycerol from biodiesel production, salty fermented foods, as well as bioremediation of contaminants under extreme conditions of salinity and in some cases, alkalinity. From salt stable enzymes to waste fermentations, bioremediation options, bioenergy, and microbially enhanced oil recovery (MEOR), Halanaerobiales can provide a wide spectrum of environmentally friendly solutions to current problems.

Biosurfactants: Promising Molecules for Petroleum Biotechnology Advances

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DARNE GERMANO DE ALMEIDA

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The growing global demand for sustainable technologies that improves the efficiency of petrochemical processes in the oil industry has driven advances in petroleum biotechnology in recent years. Petroleum industry uses substantial amounts of petrochemical-based synthetic surfactants in its activities as mobilizing agents to increase the availability or recovery of hydrocarbons as well as many other applications related to extraction, treatment, cleaning and transportation. However, biosurfactants have several potential applications for use across the oil processing chain and in the formulations of petrochemical products such as emulsifying/demulsifying agents, anticorrosive, biocides for sulphate-reducing bacteria, fuel formulation, extraction of bitumen from tar sands and many other innovative applications. Due to their versatility and proven efficiency, biosurfactants are often presented as valuable versatile tools that can transform and modernise petroleum biotechnology in an attempt to provide a true picture of state of the art and directions or use in the oil industry. We believe that biosurfactants are going to have a significant role in many future applications in the oil industries and in this review therefore, we highlight recent important relevant applications, patents disclosures and potential future applications for biosurfactants in petroleum and related industries.

Biosurfactants: Promising Molecules for Petroleum Biotechnology Advances.

Science.gov (United States)

De Almeida, Darne G; Soares Da Silva, Rita de Cássia F; Luna, Juliana M; Rufino, Raquel D; Santos, Valdemir A; Banat, Ibrahim M; Sarubbo, Leonie A

2016-01-01

The growing global demand for sustainable technologies that improves the efficiency of petrochemical processes in the oil industry has driven advances in petroleum biotechnology in recent years. Petroleum industry uses substantial amounts of petrochemical-based synthetic surfactants in its activities as mobilizing agents to increase the availability or recovery of hydrocarbons as well as many other applications related to extraction, treatment, cleaning, and transportation. However, biosurfactants have several potential applications for use across the oil processing chain and in the formulations of petrochemical products such as emulsifying/demulsifying agents, anticorrosive, biocides for sulfate-reducing bacteria, fuel formulation, extraction of bitumen from tar sands, and many other innovative applications. Due to their versatility and proven efficiency, biosurfactants are often presented as valuable versatile tools that can transform and modernize petroleum biotechnology in an attempt to provide a true picture of state of the art and directions or use in the oil industry. We believe that biosurfactants are going to have a significant role in many future applications in the oil industries and in this review therefore, we highlight recent important relevant applications, patents disclosures and potential future applications for biosurfactants in petroleum and related industries.

Biosurfactants: Promising Molecules for Petroleum Biotechnology Advances

Science.gov (United States)

De Almeida, Darne G.; Soares Da Silva, Rita de Cássia F.; Luna, Juliana M.; Rufino, Raquel D.; Santos, Valdemir A.; Banat, Ibrahim M.; Sarubbo, Leonie A.

2016-01-01

The growing global demand for sustainable technologies that improves the efficiency of petrochemical processes in the oil industry has driven advances in petroleum biotechnology in recent years. Petroleum industry uses substantial amounts of petrochemical-based synthetic surfactants in its activities as mobilizing agents to increase the availability or recovery of hydrocarbons as well as many other applications related to extraction, treatment, cleaning, and transportation. However, biosurfactants have several potential applications for use across the oil processing chain and in the formulations of petrochemical products such as emulsifying/demulsifying agents, anticorrosive, biocides for sulfate-reducing bacteria, fuel formulation, extraction of bitumen from tar sands, and many other innovative applications. Due to their versatility and proven efficiency, biosurfactants are often presented as valuable versatile tools that can transform and modernize petroleum biotechnology in an attempt to provide a true picture of state of the art and directions or use in the oil industry. We believe that biosurfactants are going to have a significant role in many future applications in the oil industries and in this review therefore, we highlight recent important relevant applications, patents disclosures and potential future applications for biosurfactants in petroleum and related industries. PMID:27843439

Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for biotechnological production of high-value organic acids and alcohols

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, Chao; Cao, Yujin; Zou, Huibin; Xian, Mo [Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao (China). Key Lab. of Biofuels

2011-02-15

Confronted with the gradual and inescapable exhaustion of the earth's fossil energy resources, the bio-based process to produce platform chemicals from renewable carbohydrates is attracting growing interest. Escherichia coli has been chosen as a workhouse for the production of many valuable chemicals due to its clear genetic background, convenient to be genetically modified and good growth properties with low nutrient requirements. Rational strain development of E. coli achieved by metabolic engineering strategies has provided new processes for efficiently biotechnological production of various high-value chemical building blocks. Compared to previous reviews, this review focuses on recent advances in metabolic engineering of the industrial model bacteria E. coli that lead to efficient recombinant biocatalysts for the production of high-value organic acids like succinic acid, lactic acid, 3-hydroxypropanoic acid and glucaric acid as well as alcohols like 1,3-propanediol, xylitol, mannitol, and glycerol with the discussion of the future research in this area. Besides, this review also discusses several platform chemicals, including fumaric acid, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, sorbitol, itaconic acid, and 2,5-furan dicarboxylic acid, which have not been produced by E. coli until now. (orig.)

Medical Biotechnology Trends and Achievements in Iran

Science.gov (United States)

Mahboudi, Fereidoun; Hamedifar, Haleh; Aghajani, Hamideh

2012-01-01

A healthcare system has been the most important priority for all governments worldwide. Biotechnology products have affected the promotion of health care over the last thirty years. During the last several decades, Iran has achieved significant success in extending healthcare to the rural areas and in reducing the rates of infant mortality and increasing population growth. Biomedical technology as a converging technology is considered a helpful tool to fulfill the Iranian healthcare missions. The number of biotechnology products has reached 148 in 2012. The total sales have increased to 98 billion USD without considering vaccines and plasma derived proteins in 2012. Iran is one of the leading countries in the Middle East and North Africa in the area of Medical biotechnology. The number of biotechnology medicines launched in Iran is 13 products until 2012. More than 15 products are in pipelines now. Manufacturers are expecting to receive the market release for more than 8 products by the end of 2012. Considering this information, Iran will lead the biotechnology products especially in area of biosimilars in Asia after India in next three years. The present review will discuss leading policy, decision makers’ role, human resource developing system and industry development in medical biotechnology. PMID:23407888

Proteomics of industrial fungi: trends and insights for biotechnology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oliveira, J.M.; Graaff, de L.H.

2011-01-01

Filamentous fungi are widely known for their industrial applications, namely, the production of food-processing enzymes and metabolites such as antibiotics and organic acids. In the past decade, the full genome sequencing of filamentous fungi increased the potential to predict encoded proteins

Biosafety Assessment of Microbial Strains Used in Biotechnology According to Their Taxonomy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalia I. Sheina

2017-03-01

Full Text Available A great variety of biotechnological products are now widely used in different ways in agriculture, medicine, food manufacturing and other areas of our life. Industrialized societies now more than ever depend on the use of genetically engineered products, with many of them synthesized using recombinant strains of microorganisms. There is an opinion that microbial strains used in biotechnology are potentially harmful for human health and the environment. Similar to many other countries, we have enacted environmental legislation in an effort to balance the risks and benefits of using biotechnological strains. Although environmental monitoring rules focus mainly on safety assessments of chemicals, the biosafety assessment of microbial strains used in biotechnology is a very important issue as well. This article summarizes 15 years of research on the biotechnological strains of microbes widely used as producers of various biological substances for industrial purposes, and their environmental and biotechnological applications. In our survey, we tried to evaluate possible adverse effects (general toxicity and damage to the immune system, potential sensitizing effects, and damage to normal microbiota caused by these microbes. It was shown that microscopical fungi of genera Aspergillus, Penicillium and Candida, and some gram-negative bacteria can affect the immune system and disrupt the normal balance of microbial flora of the intestinal tract in rats. The actinomycetes are less dangerous in that they cause fewer side effects. The investigation data obtained can be used to develop safety and hygienic standards for industrial microbes that will help decrease or minimize the occupational risk of infection or damage to the immune system when working with biotechnological strains of microbes.

Properties and biotechnological applications of ice-binding proteins in bacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Cid, Fernanda P; Rilling, Joaquín I; Graether, Steffen P; Bravo, Leon A; Mora, María de La Luz; Jorquera, Milko A

2016-06-01

Ice-binding proteins (IBPs), such as antifreeze proteins (AFPs) and ice-nucleating proteins (INPs), have been described in diverse cold-adapted organisms, and their potential applications in biotechnology have been recognized in various fields. Currently, both IBPs are being applied to biotechnological processes, primarily in medicine and the food industry. However, our knowledge regarding the diversity of bacterial IBPs is limited; few studies have purified and characterized AFPs and INPs from bacteria. Phenotypically verified IBPs have been described in members belonging to Gammaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Flavobacteriia classes, whereas putative IBPs have been found in Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and Bacilli classes. Thus, the main goal of this minireview is to summarize the current information on bacterial IBPs and their application in biotechnology, emphasizing the potential application in less explored fields such as agriculture. Investigations have suggested the use of INP-producing bacteria antagonists and AFPs-producing bacteria (or their AFPs) as a very attractive strategy to prevent frost damages in crops. UniProt database analyses of reported IBPs (phenotypically verified) and putative IBPs also show the limited information available on bacterial IBPs and indicate that major studies are required. © FEMS 2016. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Pharma Success in Product Development—Does Biotechnology Change the Paradigm in Product Development and Attrition.

Science.gov (United States)

Evens, Ronald P

2016-01-01

The biotechnology segment of the overall biopharma industry has existed for only about 40–45 years, as a driver of new product development. This driving force was initiated with the FDA approval of recombinant human insulin in 1982, originating from the Genentech company. The pharma industry in the early years of 1970s and 1980s engaged with biotechnology companies only to a small extent with their in-licensing of a few recombinant molecules, led by Roche, Eli Lilly, and Johnson and Johnson. However, subsequently and dramatically over the last 25 years, biotechnology has become a primary driver of product and technology innovation and has become a cornerstone in new product development by all biopharma companies. This review demonstrates these evolutionary changes regarding approved products, product pipelines, novelty of the products, FDA approval rates, product sales, financial R&D investments in biotechnology, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and patent issues. We now have about 300 biotechnology products approved in USA covering 16 medical disciplines and about 250 indications, with the engagement of 25 pharma companies, along with their biotechnology company innovators and partners. The biotechnology pipeline involves over 1000 molecules in clinical trials, including over 300 molecules associated with the top 10 pharma companies. Product approval rates by the FDA for biotechnology products are over double the rate for drugs. Yes, the R&D paradigm has changed with biotechnology now as one of the major focuses for new product development with novel molecules by the whole biopharma industry.

Risk evaluation in biotechnology of environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mazaheri Asadi, M.

2003-01-01

It is the Era of technology and many countries are adjusting their economy with it. The research on biotechnology is done with a logarithmic rate at different technologies such as pharmacy, agriculture, environment, food, oil, and etc. The relevant research would result in the production of new materials which are released into the environment. In many developed countries biotechnology is regarded as a firm base for economic development and without doubt plays a determined role in humane wealth and well-being, but this technology should be sustainable and controllable. The producer and consumer of biotechnology must think deeply about this matter and take into account the health and sustain ability of earth and the environment. Evaluation of ecological impacts of micro- organisms and manipulated genetically organism should be considered in all countries of the world and such an activities should be regulated and controlled as it was don in Canada under the supervision of Dept

Oil and biotechnology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yasui, Yoshiaki

1988-06-01

The secondary oil recovery due to microorganisms and the production of useful substances from oil distillates using microorganisms are described as examples to solidify the relationship between oil and biotechnology. The secondary crude-oil recovery has been carried out due to the microorganism drive process, which includes the on-the-ground and underground processes. Although the microorganism drive process has been investigated for many years, the selection of the microorganisms is not completely established. Many uncertainties still remain regarding the technical and economic aspects. The single cell protein (SCP) is an example of industrial success in the production of useful substances from the oil. Rumania has produced SCP from normal paraffin and the U. K. from the methanol and the products are used as the protein source for animals. Remarkable progress in the functional efficiency of microorganisms is expected due to the biotechnology for both applications. (4 tabs)

Formation of biotechnology firms in the Greater Seattle region: an empirical investigation of entrepreneurial, financial, and educational perspectives

OpenAIRE

P Haug

1995-01-01

The biotechnology sector is a revolutionary industrial sector and promises significant innovations in medicine, veterinary care, plant agriculture, food processing, and environmental industries. Within the United States, biotechnology firms have generally agglomerated in existing regional high-technology complexes. In this paper empirical evidence is presented on the formation, evolution, financial sources, and educational relationships of thirty-three commercial biotechnology firms in the Gr...

Foundations for a Colombian Biotechnology policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Óscar Castellanos

2001-07-01

Full Text Available Globalisation has created challenges for industry related to the constant need for improving national and international productivity and competitivity. Biological knowledge today has growing industrial application as it proposes innovative production methods. This type of biotechnology is becoming more relevant in Colombia's economic and social development all the time. The Colombian Ministry of Development, Colciencias and the National University of Colombia have therefore been jointly developing an integral set of guidelines. These are framed within Colombia's biotechnology policy to create concrete goals, objectives, strategies and direct action from the State, academic institutions and the business world. They encompass six fundamental approaches: markets and management; normativity and legislation; research and development (R&D; economic resources; human resources; and integration training. They al so explicitly raise the question of who shall be responsible for follow-up and the way that the policy's execution and achievements will be evaluated.

Editorial: Biotechnology Journal brings more than biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Jungbauer, Alois; Lee, Sang Yup

2015-09-01

Biotechnology Journal always brings the state-of-the-art biotechnologies to our readers. Different from other topical issues, this issue of Biotechnology Journal is complied with a series of exiting reviews and research articles from spontaneous submissions, again, addressing society's actual problems and needs. The progress is a real testimony how biotechnology contributes to achievements in healthcare, better utilization of resources, and a bio-based economy. Copyright © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Mechatronics design principles for biotechnology product development.

Science.gov (United States)

Mandenius, Carl-Fredrik; Björkman, Mats

2010-05-01

Traditionally, biotechnology design has focused on the manufacture of chemicals and biologics. Still, a majority of biotechnology products that appear on the market today is the result of mechanical-electric (mechatronic) construction. For these, the biological components play decisive roles in the design solution; the biological entities are either integral parts of the design, or are transformed by the mechatronic system. This article explains how the development and production engineering design principles used for typical mechanical products can be adapted to the demands of biotechnology products, and how electronics, mechanics and biology can be integrated more successfully. We discuss three emerging areas of biotechnology in which mechatronic design principles can apply: stem cell manufacture, artificial organs, and bioreactors. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Trends of microalgal biotechnology: a view from bibliometrics].

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xiaoqiu; Wu, Yinsong; Yan, Jinding; Song, Haigang; Fan, Jianhua; Li, Yuanguang

2015-10-01

Microalgae is a single-cell organism with the characteristics of high light energy utilization rate, fast growth rate, high-value bioactive components and high energy material content. Therefore, microalgae has broad application prospects in food, feed, bioenergy, carbon sequestration, wastewater treatment and other fields. In this article, the microalgae biotechnology development in recent years were fully consulted, through analysis from the literature and patent. The progress of microalgal biotechnology at home and abroad is compared and discussed. Furthermore, the project layout, important achievements and development bottlenecks of microalgae biotechnology in our country were also summarized. At last, future development directions of microalgae biotechnology were discussed.

Financial Times Global Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Conference 2009.

Science.gov (United States)

Scattereggia, Jennifer

2010-01-01

The Financial Times Global Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology conference, held in London, included topics covering the current and future challenges confronting the pharma and biotech industry, and presented possible solutions to those challenges. This conference report highlights selected presentations on the industry challenges for big pharma companies, diversification as a solution to industry problems, overcoming challenges with collaborations and M&As, and the role of emerging markets in the pharma industry. Other subjects discussed included the expected impact of personalized medicine on the industry, the entry of big pharma into the generics market and the problems that are confronting the small pharma and biotech industry.

Comparing the Governance of Novel Products and Processes of Biotechnology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Janus

The emergence of novel products and processes of biotechnology in medicine, industry and agriculture has been accompanied by promises of healthier, safer and more productive lives and societies. However, biotechnology has also served as cause and catalyst of social controversy about the physical...... to start to fill this gap and develop a conceptual framework for comparing and analysing new and emerging modes of governance affiliated with biotechnology in the light of more general approaches to governance. We aim for a framework that can facilitate comparative inquiries and learning across different...

Membrane transporter engineering in industrial biotechnology and whole cell biocatalysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kell, Douglas B; Swainston, Neil; Pir, Pınar; Oliver, Stephen G

2015-04-01

Because they mainly do not involve chemical changes, membrane transporters have been a Cinderella subject in the biotechnology of small molecule production, but this is a serious oversight. Influx transporters contribute significantly to the flux towards product, and efflux transporters ensure the accumulation of product in the much greater extracellular space of fermentors. Programmes for improving biotechnological processes might therefore give greater consideration to transporters than may have been commonplace. Strategies for identifying important transporters include expression profiling, genome-wide knockout studies, stress-based selection, and the use of inhibitors. In addition, modern methods of directed evolution and synthetic biology, especially those effecting changes in energy coupling, offer huge opportunities for increasing the flux towards extracellular product formation by transporter engineering. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Final Report: Northern Virginia Community College Training for Biotechnology Workers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weiss, Johanna V

2010-05-31

The intent of this project was to expand Northern Virginia Community College's capability to offer training to support the Biotechnology Industry in the northern Virginia region. The general goal of this project was to create a College Biotechnology Program; specific goals of the project were to a) design curricula/courses to prepare students to become entry-level lab technicians, b) redesign and equip lab space to better suit the needs of the program, c) develop partnerships with the local industry through outreach and the formation on an advisory board, d) recruit students into the program, and e) provide instructional support for local high school teachers. At the end of the grant period, NOVA has successfully created two new curricula in biotechnology: an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) in Biotechnology (initiated in Fall 2008) and a Career Studies Certificate for Biotechnology Lab Technicians (to be initiated in Fall 2010). These curricula were designed with advice from an external advisory committee which is comprised of representatives from industry, transfer institutions and high school administrators. To date, almost all courses have been designed and piloted; the equipment needed for the courses and the initial supplies were paid for by the grant as was the re-modeling of some lab space to be used for the biotech courses. In order to market the program, the NOVA Biotech Program has also established relationships with the local high schools. Presentations were given at several local high schools and on-site workshops were held for high school students and teachers. As a result, close to 1000 students have attended program open houses, presentations within the high schools, or workshops held in the summer. Over 100 teachers have received information and/or training in biotechnology. These outreach efforts as well as high quality curricula have started to attract a number of students to the program – for example, there are currently 70 students

Plant biotechnology for food security and bioeconomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Jihong Liu; Zhang, Peng

2013-09-01

This year is a special year for plant biotechnology. It was 30 years ago, on January 18 1983, one of the most important dates in the history of plant biotechnology, that three independent groups described Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated genetic transformation at the Miami Winter Symposium, leading to the production of normal, fertile transgenic plants (Bevan et al. in Nature 304:184-187, 1983; Fraley et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 80:4803-4807, 1983; Herrera-Estrella et al. in EMBO J 2:987-995, 1983; Vasil in Plant Cell Rep 27:1432-1440, 2008). Since then, plant biotechnology has rapidly advanced into a useful and valuable tool and has made a significant impact on crop production, development of a biotech industry and the bio-based economy worldwide.

Making a Case for Epistemological Access in Biotechnology Education in Southern Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Mollett, Jean; Cameron, Ann

2016-01-01

In southern Africa, biotechnology is increasingly important with regard to food security and the development of the pharmaceutical industry. Universities are tasked with providing the relevant capacity development through tertiary-level courses to meet these development needs. However, the knowledge and practices of biotechnology may be…

Biotechnology essay competition: biotechnology and sustainable food practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Judy; Schoeb, Helena; Lee, Gina

2013-06-01

Biotechnology Journal announces our second biotechnology essay competition with the theme "biotechnology and sustainable food practices", open to all undergraduate students. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Strategies to enable the adoption of animal biotechnology to sustainably improve global food safety and security.

Science.gov (United States)

Tizard, Mark; Hallerman, Eric; Fahrenkrug, Scott; Newell-McGloughlin, Martina; Gibson, John; de Loos, Frans; Wagner, Stefan; Laible, Götz; Han, Jae Yong; D'Occhio, Michael; Kelly, Lisa; Lowenthal, John; Gobius, Kari; Silva, Primal; Cooper, Caitlin; Doran, Tim

2016-10-01

The ability to generate transgenic animals has existed for over 30 years, and from those early days many predicted that the technology would have beneficial applications in agriculture. Numerous transgenic agricultural animals now exist, however to date only one product from a transgenic animal has been approved for the food chain, due in part to cumbersome regulations. Recently, new techniques such as precision breeding have emerged, which enables the introduction of desired traits without the use of transgenes. The rapidly growing human population, environmental degradation, and concerns related to zoonotic and pandemic diseases have increased pressure on the animal agriculture sector to provide a safe, secure and sustainable food supply. There is a clear need to adopt transgenic technologies as well as new methods such as gene editing and precision breeding to meet these challenges and the rising demand for animal products. To achieve this goal, cooperation, education, and communication between multiple stakeholders-including scientists, industry, farmers, governments, trade organizations, NGOs and the public-is necessary. This report is the culmination of concepts first discussed at an OECD sponsored conference and aims to identify the main barriers to the adoption of animal biotechnology, tactics for navigating those barriers, strategies to improve public perception and trust, as well as industry engagement, and actions for governments and trade organizations including the OECD to harmonize regulations and trade agreements. Specifically, the report focuses on animal biotechnologies that are intended to improve breeding and genetics and currently are not routinely used in commercial animal agriculture. We put forward recommendations on how scientists, regulators, and trade organizations can work together to ensure that the potential benefits of animal biotechnology can be realized to meet the future needs of agriculture to feed the world.

Mannan biotechnology: from biofuels to health.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamabhai, Montarop; Sak-Ubol, Suttipong; Srila, Witsanu; Haltrich, Dietmar

2016-01-01

Mannans of different structure and composition are renewable bioresources that can be widely found as components of lignocellulosic biomass in softwood and agricultural wastes, as non-starch reserve polysaccharides in endosperms and vacuoles of a wide variety of plants, as well as a major component of yeast cell walls. Enzymatic hydrolysis of mannans using mannanases is essential in the pre-treatment step during the production of second-generation biofuels and for the production of potentially health-promoting manno-oligosaccharides (MOS). In addition, mannan-degrading enzymes can be employed in various biotechnological applications, such as cleansing and food industries. In this review, fundamental knowledge of mannan structures, sources and functions will be summarized. An update on various aspects of mannan-degrading enzymes as well as the current status of their production, and a critical analysis of the potential application of MOS in food and feed industries will be given. Finally, emerging areas of research on mannan biotechnology will be highlighted.

Bioprospecting and biotechnological applications of fungal laccase.

Science.gov (United States)

Upadhyay, Pooja; Shrivastava, Rahul; Agrawal, Pavan Kumar

2016-06-01

Laccase belongs to a small group of enzymes called the blue multicopper oxidases, having the potential ability of oxidation. It belongs to enzymes, which have innate properties of reactive radical production, but its utilization in many fields has been ignored because of its unavailability in the commercial field. There are diverse sources of laccase producing organisms like bacteria, fungi and plants. In fungi, laccase is present in Ascomycetes, Deuteromycetes, Basidiomycetes and is particularly abundant in many white-rot fungi that degrade lignin. Laccases can degrade both phenolic and non-phenolic compounds. They also have the ability to detoxify a range of environmental pollutants. Due to their property to detoxify a range of pollutants, they have been used for several purposes in many industries including paper, pulp, textile and petrochemical industries. Some other application of laccase includes in food processing industry, medical and health care. Recently, laccase has found applications in other fields such as in the design of biosensors and nanotechnology. The present review provides an overview of biological functions of laccase, its mechanism of action, laccase mediator system, and various biotechnological applications of laccase obtained from endophytic fungi.

Cloning Protocol of Aloe vera as a Study-Case for “Tailor-Made” Biotechnology to Small Farmers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

LH. Campestrini

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Aloe vera has been used worldwide both for pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries due to the plethora of biological activities of some of its metabolites. A study case is reported focusing on the development of a cloning protocol of A. vera to provide propagation material with superior quality to the private sector in southern Brazil, i.e., A. vera juice industry. Such biotechnological approach afforded ca. 4,300 plantlets from 20 explants, over a 6-month period, overcoming the drawback of the lack of propagation material. Typically, the results have led to the increase of the cultured area and juice production of that species coming true the goal of the partnership between the public and private sectors herein involved. The transference of the resulting technology was successfully performed to the company and a patent covering the biotechnological process has been recently requested to official organisms on behalf of the partners.

Application of biotechnology in genetics and breeding of tall fescue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang Xin; Ye Hongxia; Shu Xiaoli; Wu Dianxing

2008-01-01

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schred.) is an important lawn and pasture grass in agriculture, animal husbandy and lawn industry. The historical and present situations of tall fescue breeding were briefly introduced, and advances in the researches of molecular biology and germplasm enhancement by biotechnology in tall fescue were reviewed in the paper, which would provide the references for tall fescue breeding by biotechnology. (authors)

Factors Affecting the Survival of SMEs: A Study of Biotechnology Firms in South Korea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kwangsoo Shin

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Past studies examining survival factors of biotechnology firms have focused on pioneer countries, such as the USA, the UK and Germany. However, as the biotechnology industry in Asia is reaching the take-off stage and showing a high growth rate, the research on survival factors in the context of Asian latecomers is needed. The present research investigates internal and external factors affecting the survival of SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the biotechnology industry in South Korea. The Cox hazard model was employed to perform a robust estimation in survival analysis. The analysis of internal factors showed that the origin of a firm (i.e., having prior experience or spin-offs and the business sub-sector (i.e., platform-based affect the hazard rates of biotechnology firms. In terms of external factors, unlike strategic alliances, government R&D funding lowered hazard rates for the firm’s survival. Additionally, considering that the reasons of firm exit can be divided into bankruptcy and M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions, the different effects of origins from other firms and strategic alliance for firm survival are confirmed. The results suggest that prior experience, platform-based and constant government R&D funding contribute to the sustainable development of SMEs in the biotechnology industry.

Organisation of biotechnological information into knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Boh, B

1996-09-01

The success of biotechnological research, development and marketing depends to a large extent on the international transfer of information and on the ability to organise biotechnology information into knowledge. To increase the efficiency of information-based approaches, an information strategy has been developed and consists of the following stages: definition of the problem, its structure and sub-problems; acquisition of data by targeted processing of computer-supported bibliographic, numeric, textual and graphic databases; analysis of data and building of specialized in-house information systems; information processing for structuring data into systems, recognition of trends and patterns of knowledge, particularly by information synthesis using the concept of information density; design of research hypotheses; testing hypotheses in the laboratory and/or pilot plant; repeated evaluation and optimization of hypotheses by information methods and testing them by further laboratory work. The information approaches are illustrated by examples from the university-industry joint projects in biotechnology, biochemistry and agriculture.

Biotechnology 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-12-01

This book first reveals prospect on biotechnology with low-carbon green growth Next, it consists of four chapters, which deal with vision of biotechnology, trend of biotechnology in main countries like the U.S, Eu, Japan and China, current condition for biotechnology with support and promoting policy such as health and medical treatment and maritime and fisheries, major product on investment, human power, paper and pattern, research development such as genomic, system biology, bio new medicine, agriculture, stock breeding and food, biological resources and legal system related biotechnology.

Cacao biotechnology: current status and future prospects.

Science.gov (United States)

Wickramasuriya, Anushka M; Dunwell, Jim M

2018-01-01

Theobroma cacao-The Food of the Gods, provides the raw material for the multibillion dollar chocolate industry and is also the main source of income for about 6 million smallholders around the world. Additionally, cocoa beans have a number of other nonfood uses in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Specifically, the potential health benefits of cocoa have received increasing attention as it is rich in polyphenols, particularly flavonoids. At present, the demand for cocoa and cocoa-based products in Asia is growing particularly rapidly and chocolate manufacturers are increasing investment in this region. However, in many Asian countries, cocoa production is hampered due to many reasons including technological, political and socio-economic issues. This review provides an overview of the present status of global cocoa production and recent advances in biotechnological applications for cacao improvement, with special emphasis on genetics/genomics, in vitro embryogenesis and genetic transformation. In addition, in order to obtain an insight into the latest innovations in the commercial sector, a survey was conducted on granted patents relating to T. cacao biotechnology. © 2017 The Authors. Plant Biotechnology Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and The Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Concepts in Biotechnology An Affordable Overview of Biotechnology ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 2; Issue 9. Concepts in Biotechnology An Affordable Overview of Biotechnology Through Self Study ... Author Affiliations. Narayan S Punekar1. Molecular Enzymology Group, Biotechnology Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai 400 076, India.

White biotechnology: State of the art strategies for the development of biocatalysts for biorefining.

Science.gov (United States)

Heux, S; Meynial-Salles, I; O'Donohue, M J; Dumon, C

2015-12-01

White biotechnology is a term that is now often used to describe the implementation of biotechnology in the industrial sphere. Biocatalysts (enzymes and microorganisms) are the key tools of white biotechnology, which is considered to be one of the key technological drivers for the growing bioeconomy. Biocatalysts are already present in sectors such as the chemical and agro-food industries, and are used to manufacture products as diverse as antibiotics, paper pulp, bread or advanced polymers. This review proposes an original and global overview of highly complementary fields of biotechnology at both enzyme and microorganism level. A certain number of state of the art approaches that are now being used to improve the industrial fitness of biocatalysts particularly focused on the biorefinery sector are presented. The first part deals with the technologies that underpin the development of industrial biocatalysts, notably the discovery of new enzymes and enzyme improvement using directed evolution techniques. The second part describes the toolbox available by the cell engineer to shape the metabolism of microorganisms. And finally the last part focuses on the 'omic' technologies that are vital for understanding and guide microbial engineering toward more efficient microbial biocatalysts. Altogether, these techniques and strategies will undoubtedly help to achieve the challenging task of developing consolidated bioprocessing (i.e. CBP) readily available for industrial purpose. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Beyond Borders 2014 - Overview of the Biotechnology Landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Zürcher, Jürg

2014-12-01

The global biotechnology industry rebounded strongly in 2013. Public companies achieved double-digit revenue growth and there was a sharp rise in funds. Product successes have boosted revenues, drawn investors and motivated large companies to invest strongly in R&D. However, much of the industry's growth was driven by a relatively small group of commercial stage companies, increasing the urgency for the rest of the industry to achieve greater efficiency in their drug development efforts.

BIOTECHNOLOGY BIOPRODUCTS "HEALING-1"

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. I. Artiukhova

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Summary. The article presents data on the development of technology and qualitative research, bio-products «Healing-1». One of the promising directions in food biotechnology is the development of new integrated starter-based consortia of microorganisms, which have higher activity compared with cultures prepared using pure cultures. So it was interesting studies on the development of new biotechnology and bio-based microbial consortium of lactic acid bacteria. Based on the analysis of biotechnological properties of native cultures created a new consortium of microorganisms containing lactic acid streptococci and bacilli, allowing the maximum extent possible to implement the physiological, biochemical and technological potential of microorganisms. Scientifically substantiated and experimentally developed a new biotechnology production of bioproducts «Healing-1», obtained on the basis of microbial consortium with broad spectrum antimicrobial activity. Experimentally investigated quality parameters of organic food «Healing-1» using a new microbial consortium as freshly prepared and during storage. Found that antagonistic activity of microflora bio «Healing-1» with respect to pathogenic and conditionally pathogenic bacteria, as well as its resistance to substances in the gastrointestinal tract of man is more pronounced compared to bioproducts obtained using a separate starter, members of the microbial consortium. It should be noted a more pronounced synthesis of exopolysaccharides in bioproduct «Healing-1», which leads to increased viscosity of the system and improves the consistency of bio. New bioproducts have good organoleptic characteristics and contain a high number of viable cells of lactic acid bacteria. High stability and survival of lactic acid bacteria during storage. In the study of attacked proteins bioproducts digestive proteinases «in vitro» found that the fermentation of milk microbial consortium increases the digestibility

Biotechnology Education in India: An Overview

Science.gov (United States)

Joshi, Kirti; Mehra, Kavita; Govil, Suman; Singh, Nitu

2013-01-01

Among the developing countries, India is one of those that recognises the importance of biotechnology. The trajectory of different policies being formulated over time is proof that the government is progressing towards achieving self-sufficiency. However, to cater to the ever-growing biotech industry, skilled manpower is required. This article…

Agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries and their possible contribution to food security.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruane, John; Sonnino, Andrea

2011-12-20

Latest FAO figures indicate that an estimated 925 million people are undernourished in 2010, representing almost 16% of the population in developing countries. Looking to the future, there are also major challenges ahead from the rapidly changing socio-economic environment (increasing world population and urbanisation, and dietary changes) and climate change. Promoting agriculture in developing countries is the key to achieving food security, and it is essential to act in four ways: to increase investment in agriculture, broaden access to food, improve governance of global trade, and increase productivity while conserving natural resources. To enable the fourth action, the suite of technological options for farmers should be as broad as possible, including agricultural biotechnologies. Agricultural biotechnologies represent a broad range of technologies used in food and agriculture for the genetic improvement of plant varieties and animal populations, characterisation and conservation of genetic resources, diagnosis of plant or animal diseases and other purposes. Discussions about agricultural biotechnology have been dominated by the continuing controversy surrounding genetic modification and its resulting products, genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The polarised debate has led to non-GMO biotechnologies being overshadowed, often hindering their development and application. Extensive documentation from the FAO international technical conference on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (ABDC-10), that took place in Guadalajara, Mexico, on 1-4 March 2010, gave a very good overview of the many ways that different agricultural biotechnologies are being used to increase productivity and conserve natural resources in the crop, livestock, fishery, forestry and agro-industry sectors in developing countries. The conference brought together about 300 policy-makers, scientists and representatives of intergovernmental and international non

Biotechnological Processes in Microbial Amylase Production.

Science.gov (United States)

Gopinath, Subash C B; Anbu, Periasamy; Arshad, M K Md; Lakshmipriya, Thangavel; Voon, Chun Hong; Hashim, Uda; Chinni, Suresh V

2017-01-01

Amylase is an important and indispensable enzyme that plays a pivotal role in the field of biotechnology. It is produced mainly from microbial sources and is used in many industries. Industrial sectors with top-down and bottom-up approaches are currently focusing on improving microbial amylase production levels by implementing bioengineering technologies. The further support of energy consumption studies, such as those on thermodynamics, pinch technology, and environment-friendly technologies, has hastened the large-scale production of the enzyme. Herein, the importance of microbial (bacteria and fungi) amylase is discussed along with its production methods from the laboratory to industrial scales.

Electron shuttles in biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Watanabe, Kazuya; Manefield, Mike; Lee, Matthew; Kouzuma, Atsushi

2009-12-01

Electron-shuttling compounds (electron shuttles [ESs], or redox mediators) are essential components in intracellular electron transfer, while microbes also utilize self-produced and naturally present ESs for extracellular electron transfer. These compounds assist in microbial energy metabolism by facilitating electron transfer between microbes, from electron-donating substances to microbes, and/or from microbes to electron-accepting substances. Artificially supplemented ESs can create new routes of electron flow in the microbial energy metabolism, thereby opening up new possibilities for the application of microbes to biotechnology processes. Typical examples of such processes include halogenated-organics bioremediation, azo-dye decolorization, and microbial fuel cells. Herein we suggest that ESs can be applied widely to create new microbial biotechnology processes.

Dual market structures and the likelihood of repeated ties - evidence from pharmaceutical biotechnology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roijakkers, A.H.W.M.; Hagedoorn, J.; Kranenburg, van H.

2005-01-01

This paper analyses the role of repeated ties in the high-tech pharmaceutical biotechnology industry, a sector that is characterized by a strong dual market structure. Our most important finding is that previous ties in pairs of large pharmaceutical companies and small biotechnology firms have a

From Structure to Catalysis: Recent Developments in the Biotechnological Applications of Lipases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristiane D. Anobom

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Microbial lipases are highly appreciated as biocatalysts due to their peculiar characteristics such as the ability to utilize a wide range of substrates, high activity and stability in organic solvents, and regio- and/or enantioselectivity. These enzymes are currently being applied in a variety of biotechnological processes, including detergent preparation, cosmetics and paper production, food processing, biodiesel and biopolymer synthesis, and the biocatalytic resolution of pharmaceutical derivatives, esters, and amino acids. However, in certain segments of industry, the use of lipases is still limited by their high cost. Thus, there is a great interest in obtaining low-cost, highly active, and stable lipases that can be applied in several different industrial branches. Currently, the design of specific enzymes for each type of process has been used as an important tool to address the limitations of natural enzymes. Nowadays, it is possible to “order” a “customized” enzyme that has ideal properties for the development of the desired bioprocess. This review aims to compile recent advances in the biotechnological application of lipases focusing on various methods of enzyme improvement, such as protein engineering (directed evolution and rational design, as well as the use of structural data for rational modification of lipases in order to create higher active and selective biocatalysts.

The state of biotechnology research and development in South Africa

African Journals Online (AJOL)

SERVER

2008-02-19

Feb 19, 2008 ... networks, geographical clusters, and industry applications that demonstrate a high ... city of the industry) which is currently high. ... support the establishment of Biotechnology Regional ... date no studies have been conducted that could report on .... many or France (each approximately PPP$1.3 billion).

Turkish university students' knowledge of biotechnology and attitudes toward biotechnological applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Öztürk-Akar, Ebru

2017-03-04

This study questions the presumed relation between formal schooling and scientific literacy about biotechnologies. Comparing science and nonscience majors' knowledge of and attitudes toward biotechnological applications, conclusions are drawn if their formal learnings improve pupils' understandings of and attitudes toward biotechnology applications. Sample of the study consists of 403 undergraduate and graduate students, 198 nonscience, and 205 science majors. The Biotechnology Knowledge Questionnaire and the Biotechnology Attitude Questionnaire were administered. Descriptive statistics (mean and percentages), t test, and correlations were used to examine the participants' knowledge of biotechnology and attitudes toward biotechnological applications and differences as regards their majors. Although the science majors had higher knowledge and attitude scores than the nonscience majors, it is not possible to say that they have sufficient knowledge of biotechnologies. Besides, the participants' attitudes toward biotechnological applications were not considerably related to their knowledge of biotechnology. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(2):115-125, 2017. © 2016 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Opening remarks SIVB congress 2001: opportunities and challenges in plant biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Bond, Christopher

2003-01-01

U.S. Senator Christopher Bond joined Dr. Roger Beachy at the podium during the Society for In Vitro Biology's 2001 Congress Plenary Session on Opportunities and Challenges in Plant Biotechnology to Benefit Health and Sustainability, on June 17, 2001, in St. Louis, Missouri. Senator Bond presented an advocate's view regarding the benefits of plant biotechnology development. The strengths of the biotechnology regulatory system were extolled. The opportunities of this new technology to produce more and nutritionally superior food, additional plant-based medicines and vaccines, plant-based renewable sources of energy, and renewable industrial products were outlined. The benefits to the environment by adopting plant biotechnological innovations were discussed. Developing public policy regarding this new technology should be based on facts, science, and reason.

Membrane engineering in biotechnology: quo vamus?

Science.gov (United States)

Rios, Gilbert M; Belleville, Marie-Pierre; Paolucci-Jeanjean, Delphine

2007-06-01

Membranes are essential to a range of applications, including the production of potable water, energy generation, tissue repair, pharmaceutical production, food packaging, and the separations needed for the manufacture of chemicals, electronics and a range of other products. Therefore, they are considered to be "dominant technologies" by governments and industry in several prominent countries--for example, USA, Japan and China. When combined with catalysts, membranes are at the basis of life, and membrane-based biomimetism is a key tool to obtain better quality products and environmentally friendly developments for our societies. Biology has a main part in this global landscape because it simultaneously provides the "model" (with natural biological membranes) and represents a considerable field of applications for new artificial membranes (biotreatments, bioconversions and artificial organs). In this article, our objective is to open up this enthralling area and to give our views about the future of membranes in biotechnology.

Innovative technology to meet the demands of the white biotechnology revolution of chemical production

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Villadsen, John

2007-01-01

by which a technological revolution termed "white biotechnology" for production of commodity chemicals has proved its credibility. Obviously, the rapid advances in biology has been crucial for the development of industrial biotechnology towards a position where even its cheap products such as bio-fuels can...... of sophisticated models, supported by accurate data obtained in experimental equipment that did not exist a few years ago. The need to update the chemical engineering education to meet the needs of the bio-industry is also evident. Much of the progress of the bio-industry has up to now been based on fundamental...

[The role of biotechnology in pharmaceutical drug design].

Science.gov (United States)

Gaisser, Sibylle; Nusser, Michael

2010-01-01

Biotechnological methods have become an important tool in pharmaceutical drug research and development. Today approximately 15 % of drug revenues are derived from biopharmaceuticals. The most relevant indications are oncology, metabolic disorders and disorders of the musculoskeletal system. For the future it can be expected that the relevance of biopharmaceuticals will further increase. Currently, the share of substances in preclinical testing that rely on biotechnology is more than 25 % of all substances in preclinical testing. Products for the treatment of cancer, metabolic disorders and infectious diseases are most important. New therapeutic approaches such as RNA interference only play a minor role in current commercial drug research and development with 1.5 % of all biological preclinical substances. Investments in sustainable high technology such as biotechnology are of vital importance for a highly developed country like Germany because of its lack of raw materials. Biotechnology helps the pharmaceutical industry to develop new products, new processes, methods and services and to improve existing ones. Thus, international competitiveness can be strengthened, new jobs can be created and existing jobs preserved.

Application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to the analysis of algal biomass for industrial biotechnology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pořízka, P.; Prochazka, D.; Pilát, Z.; Krajcarová, L.; Kaiser, J.; Malina, R.; Novotný, J.; Zemánek, P.; Ježek, J.; Šerý, M.; Bernatová, S.; Krzyžánek, V.; Dobranská, K.; Novotný, K.; Trtílek, M.; Samek, O.

2012-01-01

We report on the application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to the determination of elements distinctive in terms of their biological significance (such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, and sodium) and to the monitoring of accumulation of potentially toxic heavy metal ions in living microorganisms (algae), in order to trace e.g. the influence of environmental exposure and other cultivation and biological factors having an impact on them. Algae cells were suspended in liquid media or presented in a form of adherent cell mass on a surface (biofilm) and, consequently, characterized using their spectra. In our feasibility study we used three different experimental arrangements employing double-pulse LIBS technique in order to improve on analytical selectivity and sensitivity for potential industrial biotechnology applications, e.g. for monitoring of mass production of commercial biofuels, utilization in the food industry and control of the removal of heavy metal ions from industrial waste waters. - Highlights: ► We realized laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis of algal biomass. ► We used water jet setup, bulk liquid arrangement and algal biofilms. ► LIBS analysis of macro- and micro-element concentrations in algae was shown. ► LIBS can be of assistance in research of sustainable biofuel generation. ► LIBS can be used in research of algal food applications and bioremediation.

Application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to the analysis of algal biomass for industrial biotechnology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Porizka, P.; Prochazka, D. [X-ray micro CT and nano CT research group, CEITEC-Central European Institute of Technology, Brno University of Technology, Technicka 3058/10, 616 00 Brno (Czech Republic); Pilat, Z. [Institute of Scientific Instruments of the ASCR v.v.i., Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 147, Brno 61669 (Czech Republic); Krajcarova, L. [Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, Brno 611 37 (Czech Republic); Kaiser, J., E-mail: kaiser@fme.vutbr.cz [X-ray micro CT and nano CT research group, CEITEC-Central European Institute of Technology, Brno University of Technology, Technicka 3058/10, 616 00 Brno (Czech Republic); Malina, R.; Novotny, J. [X-ray micro CT and nano CT research group, CEITEC-Central European Institute of Technology, Brno University of Technology, Technicka 3058/10, 616 00 Brno (Czech Republic); Zemanek, P.; Jezek, J.; Sery, M.; Bernatova, S.; Krzyzanek, V.; Dobranska, K. [Institute of Scientific Instruments of the ASCR v.v.i., Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 147, Brno 61669 (Czech Republic); Novotny, K. [Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, Brno 611 37 (Czech Republic); Trtilek, M. [Photon Systems Instruments, Drasov 470, 664 24 Drasov (Czech Republic); Samek, O. [Institute of Scientific Instruments of the ASCR v.v.i., Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 147, Brno 61669 (Czech Republic)

2012-08-15

We report on the application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to the determination of elements distinctive in terms of their biological significance (such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, and sodium) and to the monitoring of accumulation of potentially toxic heavy metal ions in living microorganisms (algae), in order to trace e.g. the influence of environmental exposure and other cultivation and biological factors having an impact on them. Algae cells were suspended in liquid media or presented in a form of adherent cell mass on a surface (biofilm) and, consequently, characterized using their spectra. In our feasibility study we used three different experimental arrangements employing double-pulse LIBS technique in order to improve on analytical selectivity and sensitivity for potential industrial biotechnology applications, e.g. for monitoring of mass production of commercial biofuels, utilization in the food industry and control of the removal of heavy metal ions from industrial waste waters. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We realized laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis of algal biomass. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We used water jet setup, bulk liquid arrangement and algal biofilms. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer LIBS analysis of macro- and micro-element concentrations in algae was shown. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer LIBS can be of assistance in research of sustainable biofuel generation. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer LIBS can be used in research of algal food applications and bioremediation.

Biotechnological Processes in Microbial Amylase Production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Subash C. B. Gopinath

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Amylase is an important and indispensable enzyme that plays a pivotal role in the field of biotechnology. It is produced mainly from microbial sources and is used in many industries. Industrial sectors with top-down and bottom-up approaches are currently focusing on improving microbial amylase production levels by implementing bioengineering technologies. The further support of energy consumption studies, such as those on thermodynamics, pinch technology, and environment-friendly technologies, has hastened the large-scale production of the enzyme. Herein, the importance of microbial (bacteria and fungi amylase is discussed along with its production methods from the laboratory to industrial scales.

Biotechnological reduction of sulfide in an industrial primary wastewater treatment system: A sustainable and successful case study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rajamani, S. [Central Leather Research Institute, Madras (India)

1996-12-31

The leather industry is an important export-oriented industry in India, with more than 3,000 tanneries located in different clusters. Sodium sulfide, a toxic chemical, is used in large quantities to remove hair and excess flesh from hides and skins. Most of the sodium sulfide used in the process is discharged as waste in the effluent, which causes serious environmental problems. Reduction of sulfide in the effluent is generally achieved by means of chemicals in the pretreatment system, which involves aerobic mixing using large amounts of chemicals and high energy, and generating large volumes of sludge. A simple biotechnological system that uses the residual biosludge from the secondary settling tank was developed, and the commercial-scale application established that more than 90% of the sulfide could be reduced in the primary treatment system. In addition to the reduction of sulfide, foul smells, BOD and COD are reduced to a considerable level. 3 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.

Thirty years of European biotechnology programmes: from biomolecular engineering to the bioeconomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Aguilar, Alfredo; Magnien, Etienne; Thomas, Daniel

2013-06-25

This article traces back thirty years of biotechnology research sponsored by the European Union (EU). It outlines the crucial role played by De Nettancourt, Goffeau and Van Hoeck to promote and prepare the first European programme on biotechnology (1982-1986) run by the European Commission. Following this first biotechnology programme, others followed until the current one, part of the seventh Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (2007-2013) (FP7). Particular attention is given to the statutory role of the European institutions in the design and orientation of the successive biotechnology programmes, compared to the more informal-yet visionary-role of key individuals upstream to any legislative decision. Examples of success stories and of the role of the biotechnology programmes in addressing societal issues and industrial competitiveness are also presented. Finally, an outline of Horizon 2020, the successor of FP7, is described, together with the role of biotechnology in building the bioeconomy. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

African Journal of Biotechnology - Vol 2, No 12 (2003)

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Functional genomics in forage and turf - present status and future prospects · EMAIL FREE ... Biotechnology and industrial ecology: new challenges for a changing global ... Green revolution vaccines, edible vaccines · EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT ...

Symposium on chemistry and biotechnology for national development. Proceedings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garba, A.; Ogunmola, G.B.

1998-01-01

This document is the full proceedings of the symposium on chemistry and biotechnology for national development held at SHESTCO in 1995. It contains the full texts of a forward, opening and special remarks, welcome and keynote addresses and abstracts and texts of 21 technical papers. The subjects covered included information technology,chemistry and biotechnology in agriculture, health care and industrial development. Additionally, the abstracts in respect of 19 other papers are included. We wish to thank the Coordinator of SHESTCO for making available this proceedings

Symposium on chemistry and biotechnology for national development. Proceedings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Garba, A; Ogunmola, G B [eds.

1998-12-01

This document is the full proceedings of the symposium on chemistry and biotechnology for national development held at SHESTCO in 1995. It contains the full texts of a forward, opening and special remarks, welcome and keynote addresses and abstracts and texts of 21 technical papers. The subjects covered included information technology,chemistry and biotechnology in agriculture, health care and industrial development. Additionally, the abstracts in respect of 19 other papers are included. We wish to thank the Coordinator of SHESTCO for making available this proceedings.

Possible application of brewer’s spent grain in biotechnology

OpenAIRE

Pejin Jelena D.; Radosavljević Miloš S.; Grujić Olgica S.; Mojović Ljiljana V.; Kocić-Tanackov Sunčica D.; Nikolić Svetlana B.; Đukić-Vuković Aleksandra J.

2013-01-01

Brewer’s spent grain is the major by-product in beer production. It is produced in large quantities (20 kg per 100 liters of produced beer) throughout the year at a low cost or no cost, and due to its high protein and carbohydrates content it can be used as a raw material in biotechnology. Biotechnological processes based on renewable agro-industrial by-products have ecological (zero CO2 emission, eco-friendly by-products) and economical (cheap raw materials and reduction of storage cos...

Disclosing Biology Teachers' Beliefs about Biotechnology and Biotechnology Education

Science.gov (United States)

Fonseca, Maria Joao; Costa, Patricio; Lencastre, Leonor; Tavares, Fernando

2012-01-01

Teachers have been shown to frequently avoid addressing biotechnology topics. Aiming to understand the extent to which teachers' scarce engagement in biotechnology teaching is influenced by their beliefs and/or by extrinsic constraints, such as practical limitations, this study evaluates biology teachers' beliefs about biotechnology and…

"Othering" agricultural biotechnology: Slovenian media representation of agricultural biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Zajc, Jožica; Erjavec, Karmen

2014-08-01

While studies on media representations of agricultural biotechnology mostly analyse media texts, this work is intended to fill a research gap with an analysis of journalistic interpretations of media representations. The purpose of this project was to determine how news media represent agricultural biotechnology and how journalists interpret their own representations. A content and critical discourse analysis of news texts published in the Slovenian media over two years and in-depth interviews with their authors were conducted. News texts results suggest that most of the news posts were "othering" biotechnology and biotechnologists: biotechnology as a science and individual scientists are represented as "they," who are socially irresponsible, ignorant, arrogant, and "our" enemies who produce unnatural processes and work for biotechnology companies, whose greed is destroying people, animals, and the environment. Most journalists consider these representations to be objective because they have published the biotechnologists' opinions, despite their own negative attitudes towards biotechnology.

Fungal Morphology in Industrial Enzyme Production - Modelling and Monitoring

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Quintanilla, D.; Hagemann, T.; Hansen, K.

2015-01-01

Filamentous fungi are widely used in the biotechnology industry for the production of industrial enzymes. Thus, considerable work has been done with the purpose of characterizing these processes. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to be able to control and predict fermentation performance......, and on the way the data is interpreted-i.e. which models were applied. The main filamentous fungi used in industrial fermentation are introduced, ranging from Trichoderma reesei to Aspergillus species. Due to the fact that secondary metabolites, like antibiotics, are not to be considered bulk products, organisms...

Case studies on the use of biotechnologies and on biosafety provisions in four African countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Robert; Fava, Fabio; Mattei, Niccolo; Robert, Vincent; Seal, Susan; Verdier, Valerie

2011-12-20

This review is based on a study commissioned by the European Commission on the evaluation of scientific, technical and institutional challenges, priorities and bottlenecks for biotechnologies and regional harmonisation of biosafety in Africa. Biotechnology was considered within four domains: agricultural biotechnologies ('Green'), industrial biotechnologies and biotechnologies for environmental remediation ('White'), biotechnologies in aquaculture ('Blue') and biotechnologies for healthcare ('Red'). An important consideration was the decline in partnerships between the EU and developing countries because of the original public antipathy to some green biotechnologies, particularly genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and food from GM crops in Europe. The study focus reported here was West Africa (Ghana, Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso). The overall conclusion was that whereas high-quality research was proceeding in the countries visited, funding is not sustained and there is little evidence of practical application of biotechnology and benefit to farmers and the wider community. Research and development that was being carried out on genetically modified crop varieties was concentrating on improving food security and therefore unlikely to have significant impact on EU markets and consumers. However, there is much non-controversial green biotechnology such as molecular diagnostics for plant and animal disease and marker-assisted selection for breeding that has great potential application. Regarding white biotechnology, it is currently occupying only a very small industrial niche in West Africa, basically in the sole sector of the production of liquid biofuels (i.e., bio-ethanol) from indigenous and locally planted biomass (very often non-food crops). The presence of diffused small-scale fish production is the basis to develop and apply new (Blue) aquaculture technologies and, where the research conditions and the production sector can permit, to increase this type of

Fossil energy biotechnology: A research needs assessment. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1993-11-01

The Office of Program Analysis of the US Department of Energy commissioned this study to evaluate and prioritize research needs in fossil energy biotechnology. The objectives were to identify research initiatives in biotechnology that offer timely and strategic options for the more efficient and effective uses of the Nation`s fossil resource base, particularly the early identification of new and novel applications of biotechnology for the use or conversion of domestic fossil fuels. Fossil energy biotechnology consists of a number of diverse and distinct technologies, all related by the common denominator -- biocatalysis. The expert panel organized 14 technical subjects into three interrelated biotechnology programs: (1) upgrading the fuel value of fossil fuels; (2) bioconversion of fossil feedstocks and refined products to added value chemicals; and, (3) the development of environmental management strategies to minimize and mitigate the release of toxic and hazardous petrochemical wastes.

A Methods-Based Biotechnology Course for Undergraduates

Science.gov (United States)

Chakrabarti, Debopam

2009-01-01

This new course in biotechnology for upper division undergraduates provides a comprehensive overview of the process of drug discovery that is relevant to biopharmaceutical industry. The laboratory exercises train students in both cell-free and cell-based assays. Oral presentations by the students delve into recent progress in drug discovery.…

Incidence of the biotechnology in the academic development of the chemical engineering in Colombia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castellanos, Oscar Fernando; Rueda Maria Angelica; Ramirez, Julio Cesar

1998-01-01

In Colombia, the biotechnology, during the last years, it has been developed in a quick way, particularly in their fundamental and theoretical aspect. In the national market consumption there are products obtained with the help of the advances of the industrial biotechnology, which, for their implementation, it has had to appeal to import technologies and of transfer. This way, among the theoretical investigations in biotechnology and the applicability of their results in production processes in our country a direct relationship has not existed generally. At the moment, the necessities of scientific and technological progress demand the harmonic interaction of the different aspects of the biotechnology. For it, it is indispensable the formation of professionals, able to apply engineering concepts in the processes developed in biotechnical laboratories, like they have already made it other countries, with more scientific and economic advance. In the Colombian universities it is hour of reinforcing the line considerably in biochemical engineering of chemical engineering programs in the different pre and graduate levels; this profundity will allow significantly shortening distances between the different areas of the biotechnology and its industrial application

International biotechnology directory 1986. Products, companies, research and organizations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coombs, J. (comp.)

1986-01-01

This Directory covers biotechnology in Western Europe, North America, Brazil, Australasia and Japan. It provides both an overview of the extent of present interest with a summary of activities in the various geographical areas and a catalogue whereby suppliers of materials and services can be identified.

The Holo-Transcriptome of the Zoantharian Protopalythoa variabilis (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: A Plentiful Source of Enzymes for Potential Application in Green Chemistry, Industrial and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean-Étienne R. L. Morlighem

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Marine invertebrates, such as sponges, tunicates and cnidarians (zoantharians and scleractinian corals, form functional assemblages, known as holobionts, with numerous microbes. This type of species-specific symbiotic association can be a repository of myriad valuable low molecular weight organic compounds, bioactive peptides and enzymes. The zoantharian Protopalythoa variabilis (Cnidaria: Anthozoa is one such example of a marine holobiont that inhabits the coastal reefs of the tropical Atlantic coast and is an interesting source of secondary metabolites and biologically active polypeptides. In the present study, we analyzed the entire holo-transcriptome of P. variabilis, looking for enzyme precursors expressed in the zoantharian-microbiota assemblage that are potentially useful as industrial biocatalysts and biopharmaceuticals. In addition to hundreds of predicted enzymes that fit into the classes of hydrolases, oxidoreductases and transferases that were found, novel enzyme precursors with multiple activities in single structures and enzymes with incomplete Enzyme Commission numbers were revealed. Our results indicated the predictive expression of thirteen multifunctional enzymes and 694 enzyme sequences with partially characterized activities, distributed in 23 sub-subclasses. These predicted enzyme structures and activities can prospectively be harnessed for applications in diverse areas of industrial and pharmaceutical biotechnology.

Beyond and between academia and business: How Austrian biotechnology researchers describe high-tech startup companies as spaces of knowledge production.

Science.gov (United States)

Fochler, Maximilian

2016-04-01

Research and innovation policy has invested considerable effort in creating new institutional spaces at the interface of academia and business. High-tech startups founded by academic entrepreneurs have been central to these policy imaginaries. These companies offer researchers new possibilities beyond and between academia and larger industry. However, the field of science and technology studies has thus far shown only limited interest in understanding these companies as spaces of knowledge production. This article analyses how researchers working in small and medium-sized biotechnology companies in Vienna, Austria, describe the cultural characteristics of knowledge production in this particular institutional space. It traces how they relate these characteristics to other institutional spaces they have experienced in their research biographies, such as in academia or larger corporations. It shows that the reasons why researchers decide to work in biotechnology companies and how they organize their work are deeply influenced by their perception of deficiencies in the conditions for epistemic work in contemporary academia and, to a lesser degree, in industry.

Remediation of contaminated soils by biotechnology with nanomaterials: bio-behavior, applications, and perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Xiaomin; Huang, Danlian; Liu, Yunguo; Peng, Zhiwei; Zeng, Guangming; Xu, Piao; Cheng, Min; Wang, Rongzhong; Wan, Jia

2018-05-01

Soil contamination caused by heavy metals and organic pollutants has drawn world-wide concern. Biotechnology has been applied for many years to the decontamination of soils polluted with organic and inorganic contaminants, and novel nanomaterials (NMs) has attracted much concern due to their high capacity for the removal/stabilization/degradation of pollutants. Recently, developing advanced biotechnology with NMs for the remediation of contaminated soils has become a hot research topic. Some researchers found that bioremediation efficiency of contaminated soils was enhanced by the addition of NMs, while others demonstrated that the toxicity of NMs to the organism negatively influenced the repair capacity of polluted soils. This paper reviews the application of biotechnology and NMs in soil remediation, and further provides a critical view of the effects of NMs on the phytoremediation and micro-remediation of contaminated soils. This review also discusses the future research needs for the combined application of biotechnology and NMs in soil remediation.

Mathematical Modelling of Continuous Biotechnological Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Pencheva, T.; Hristozov, I.; Shannon, A. G.

2003-01-01

Biotechnological processes (BTP) are characterized by a complicated structure of organization and interdependent characteristics. Partial differential equations or systems of partial differential equations are used for their behavioural description as objects with distributed parameters. Modelling of substrate without regard to dispersion…

Biotechnology and hazardous waste treatment; Part 1. The state of the art

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stroo, H F [Remediation Technologies, Inc., Kent, WA (USA)

1990-04-01

There is considerable speculation regarding the use of biotechnology for improving the treatment of hazardous waste. Biotechnology may be able to improve waste treatment capabilities by overcoming the limits of biological treatment (bioremediation). The contaminant is usually one of the sources of food and energy for the organisms thriving in the contaminated environment. The viability of these organisms is controlled by several environmental factors, notably, nutrient, water, oxygen, temperature and pH levels; the presence of toxic organic compounds, metals, or high salt content can inhibit their activities. Carbon:nitrogen:phosphorous ratios must be monitored to assure that only the contaminant is the limiting nutrient. Several innovative bioremediation practices which can be considered biotechnological are being tested: anaerobic dehalogenation of PCBs and DDT; cometabolic degradation; denitrification; and gene amplification.

Sharing Malaysian experience with the development of biotechnology-derived food crops.

Science.gov (United States)

Abu Bakar, Umi K; Pillai, Vilasini; Hashim, Marzukhi; Daud, Hassan Mat

2005-12-01

Biotechnology-derived food crops are currently being developed in Malaysia mainly for disease resistance and improved post harvest quality. The modern biotechnology approach is adopted because of its potential to overcome constraints faced by conventional breeding techniques. Research on the development of biotechnology-derived papaya, pineapple, chili, passion fruit, and citrus is currently under way. Biotechnology-derived papaya developed for resistance to papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) and improved postharvest qualities is at the field evaluation stage. Pineapple developed for resistance to fruit black heart disorder is also being evaluated for proof-of-concept. Other biotechnology-derived food crops are at early stages of gene cloning and transformation. Activities and products involving biotechnology-derived crops will be fully regulated in the near future under the Malaysian Biosafety Law. At present they are governed only by guidelines formulated by the Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (GMAC), Malaysia. Commercialization of biotechnology-derived crops involves steps that require GMAC approval for all field evaluations and food-safety assessments before the products are placed on the market. Public acceptance of the biotechnology product is another important factor for successful commercialization. Understanding of biotechnology is generally low among Malaysians, which may lead to low acceptance of biotechnology-derived products. Initiatives are being taken by local organizations to improve public awareness and acceptance of biotechnology. Future research on plant biotechnology will focus on the development of nutritionally enhanced biotechnology-derived food crops that can provide more benefits to consumers.

Great expectations: The state of biotechnology research and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

As biotechnology industries are knowledge-intensive, Research and Experimental Development (R and D) are key drivers of growth. Governments and businesses have an interest in creating an environment that stimulates R and D and the commercialisation thereof. Discourse relating to the best means to support ...

Evaluation of Brazilian biotechnology patent activity from 1975 to 2010.

Science.gov (United States)

Dias, F; Delfim, F; Drummond, I; Carmo, A O; Barroca, T M; Horta, C C; Kalapothakis, E

2012-08-01

The analysis of patent activity is one methodology used for technological monitoring. In this paper, the activity of biotechnology-related patents in Brazil were analyzed through 30 International Patent Classification (IPC) codes published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We developed a program to analyse the dynamics of the major patent applicants, countries and IPC codes extracted from the Brazilian Patent Office (INPI) database. We also identified Brazilian patent applicants who tried to expand protection abroad via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). We had access to all patents published online at the INPI from 1975 to July 2010, including 9,791 biotechnology patent applications in Brazil, and 163 PCTs published online at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from 1997 to December 2010. To our knowledge, there are no other online reports of biotechnology patents previous to the years analyzed here. Most of the biotechnology patents filed in the INPI (10.9%) concerned measuring or testing processes involving nucleic acids. The second and third places belonged to patents involving agro-technologies (recombinant DNA technology for plant cells and new flowering plants, i.e. angiosperms, or processes for obtaining them, and reproduction of flowering plants by tissue culture techniques). The majority of patents (87.2%) were filed by nonresidents, with USA being responsible for 51.7% of all biotechnology patents deposited in Brazil. Analyzing the resident applicants per region, we found a hub in the southeast region of Brazil. Among the resident applicants for biotechnology patents filed in the INPI, 43.5% were from São Paulo, 18.3% were from Rio de Janeiro, and 9.7% were from Minas Gerais. Pfizer, Novartis, and Sanofi were the largest applicants in Brazil, with 339, 288, and 245 biotechnology patents filed, respectively. For residents, the largest applicant was the governmental institution FIOCRUZ (Oswaldo Cruz

Japanese technology assessment: Computer science, opto- and microelectronics mechatronics, biotechnology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brandin, D.; Wieder, H.; Spicer, W.; Nevins, J.; Oxender, D.

1986-01-01

The series studies Japanese research and development in four high-technology areas - computer science, opto and microelectronics, mechatronics (a term created by the Japanese to describe the union of mechanical and electronic engineering to produce the next generation of machines, robots, and the like), and biotechnology. The evaluations were conducted by panels of U.S. scientists - chosen from academia, government, and industry - actively involved in research in areas of expertise. The studies were prepared for the purpose of aiding the U.S. response to Japan's technological challenge. The main focus of the assessments is on the current status and long-term direction and emphasis of Japanese research and development. Other aspects covered include evolution of the state of the art; identification of Japanese researchers, R and D organizations, and resources; and comparative U.S. efforts. The general time frame of the studies corresponds to future industrial applications and potential commercial impacts spanning approximately the next two decades.

Construction Biotechnology: a new area of biotechnological research and applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Stabnikov, Viktor; Ivanov, Volodymyr; Chu, Jian

2015-09-01

A new scientific and engineering discipline, Construction Biotechnology, is developing exponentially during the last decade. The major directions of this discipline are selection of microorganisms and development of the microbially-mediated construction processes and biotechnologies for the production of construction biomaterials. The products of construction biotechnologies are low cost, sustainable, and environmentally friendly microbial biocements and biogrouts for the construction ground improvement. The microbial polysaccharides are used as admixtures for cement. Microbially produced biodegradable bioplastics can be used for the temporarily constructions. The bioagents that are used in construction biotechnologies are either pure or enrichment cultures of microorganisms or activated indigenous microorganisms of soil. The applications of microorganisms in the construction processes are bioaggregation, biocementation, bioclogging, and biodesaturation of soil. The biotechnologically produced construction materials and the microbially-mediated construction technologies have a lot of advantages in comparison with the conventional construction materials and processes. Proper practical implementations of construction biotechnologies could give significant economic and environmental benefits.

Fiscal 1998 'Plant Biotechnology in the 21st Century' workshop report; '21 seiki no shokubutsu biotechnology' workshop 1998 nendo seika hokokusho

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-03-01

The workshop was opened with the opening remarks by Yamada (President of Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NIST)), the overview of plant biotechnology in the 21st century from academia by Shinmyo (Professor of NIST), and the overview of such technology from Ministry of International Trade and Industry by Katao (Chief of Chemical Industry Division). Lectures and discussions of various topics were conducted for 2 days as follows. The effectiveness of a genomic DNA array method for obtaining the genes for switching genes according to daytime, nighttime, drying, salt, high temperature and low temperature for every plant. Current transfer technology of large DNA fragments into plant cell nuclei and chloroplast. Biological evaluation of the physiological functions and complex stress tolerance capacity transformed by transferring complex stress tolerance genes and useful genes for productivity improvement and value addition. Discussion was also held on the importance of a basic research for biotechnology in the 21st century. (NEDO)

Biotechnologies and biomimetics for civil engineering

CERN Document Server

Labrincha, J; Diamanti, M; Yu, C-P; Lee, H

2015-01-01

Putting forward an innovative approach to solving current technological problems faced by human society, this book encompasses a holistic way of perceiving the potential of natural systems. Nature has developed several materials and processes which both maintain an optimal performance and are also totally biodegradable, properties which can be used in civil engineering. Delivering the latest research findings to building industry professionals and other practitioners, as well as containing information useful to the public, ‘Biotechnologies and Biomimetics for Civil Engineering’ serves as an important tool to tackle the challenges of a more sustainable construction industry and the future of buildings.

1994 - 1995 annual report of the NRC Biotechnology Research Institute

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-12-31

One of the roles of the Biotechnology Research Institute is to promote leading edge research and development in biotechnology and molecular biology as they relate to industries in the natural resource sectors. To this end, researchers work with industry to develop less polluting, more efficient and economic processes and to solve environmental problems. Scientific studies undertaken in 1994 and 1995 included new analytical techniques and biosensors, bioprocesses for waste and ground water treatment, biopesticides, biodegradation of toxic compounds, biodesulfurization of bitumen, solvent- less sample preparation techniques to analyze environmental pollutants in soils and waste water, protocol for the analysis of petroleum hydrocarbons, gene probes and their applications, biodegradation of energetic compounds, and biofiltration of air emissions. These, and other noteworthy projects undertaken by the Institute, were reviewed and presented ,combined with institutional data. 2 tabs.

Lipid and fatty acid metabolism in Ralstonia eutropha: relevance for the biotechnological production of value-added products.

Science.gov (United States)

Riedel, Sebastian L; Lu, Jingnan; Stahl, Ulf; Brigham, Christopher J

2014-02-01

Lipid and fatty acid metabolism has been well studied in model microbial organisms like Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. The major precursor of fatty acid biosynthesis is also the major product of fatty acid degradation (β-oxidation), acetyl-CoA, which is a key metabolite for all organisms. Controlling carbon flux to fatty acid biosynthesis and from β-oxidation allows for the biosynthesis of natural products of biotechnological importance. Ralstonia eutropha can utilize acetyl-CoA from fatty acid metabolism to produce intracellular polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). R. eutropha can also be engineered to utilize fatty acid metabolism intermediates to produce different PHA precursors. Metabolism of lipids and fatty acids can be rerouted to convert carbon into other value-added compounds like biofuels. This review discusses the lipid and fatty acid metabolic pathways in R. eutropha and how they can be used to construct reagents for the biosynthesis of products of industrial importance. Specifically, how the use of lipids or fatty acids as the sole carbon source in R. eutropha cultures adds value to these biotechnological products will be discussed here.

Students' knowledge of, and attitudes towards biotechnology revisited, 1995-2014: Changes in agriculture biotechnology but not in medical biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Shao-Yen; Chu, Yih-Ru; Lin, Chen-Yung; Chiang, Tzen-Yuh

2016-09-10

Modern biotechnology is one of the most important scientific and technological revolutions in the 21st century, with an increasing and measurable impact on society. Development of biotechnology curriculum has become important to high school bioscience classrooms. This study has monitored high school students in Taiwan on their knowledge of and attitudes towards biotechnology for nearly two decades. Not surprisingly, knowledge of biotechnology of current students has increased significantly (p students have learned some definitions and examples of biotechnology. There was a positive correlation between biotechnology knowledge and attitudes toward biotechnology for current students who study Advanced Biology (AB). However, for current students who did not study AB, there was a negative correlation.The attitude results showed that students today expressed less favorable opinions toward agricultural biotechnology (p students today and 18 years ago in opinions towards medical biotechnology. In addition, current students showed a greater concern involving environmental risks than former students. Interestingly, the high school curriculum did affect students' attitudes toward genetically engineered (GE) plants but not GE animals. Our current study also found that the students' attitude towards GE animals was influenced more by their limited knowledge than by their moral belief. On the basis of findings from this study, we suggest that more materials of emerging animal biotechnology should be included in high school curriculum and recommend that high school teachers and university faculty establish a collaborative framework in the near future. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 44(5):475-491, 2016. © 2016 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Networks for learning and knowledge creation in biotechnology

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Oliver, Amalya Lumerman

2009-01-01

... structure of the industry parallels one of its most important innovations - recombinant DNA (rDNA). She shows how the concept of recombination may be used to explain a number of organizational features, including new biotechnology firms, the formation of universitybased spin-offs, scientific entrepreneurship, and trust and cont...

Enrichment and Strengthening of Indian Biotechnology Industry along with Academic Interface

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Shalini

2014-01-01

For many years, humankind has been incorporating biosciences in different places--from agriculture to food and medicine. Today, the nomenclature of biology has been recoined as Biotechnology, a technological science with a perfect blend of sophisticated techniques, manuals and application of fast delivery equipment and vehicles. It encompasses…

Advancing biotechnology with CRISPR/Cas9: recent applications and patent landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferreira, Raphael; David, Florian; Nielsen, Jens

2018-01-24

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) is poised to become one of the key scientific discoveries of the twenty-first century. Originating from prokaryotic and archaeal immune systems to counter phage invasions, CRISPR-based applications have been tailored for manipulating a broad range of living organisms. From the different elucidated types of CRISPR mechanisms, the type II system adapted from Streptococcus pyogenes has been the most exploited as a tool for genome engineering and gene regulation. In this review, we describe the different applications of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in the industrial biotechnology field. Next, we detail the current status of the patent landscape, highlighting its exploitation through different companies, and conclude with future perspectives of this technology.

Best practices for veterinary toxicologic clinical pathology, with emphasis on the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Science.gov (United States)

Tomlinson, Lindsay; Boone, Laura I; Ramaiah, Lila; Penraat, Kelley A; von Beust, Barbara R; Ameri, Mehrdad; Poitout-Belissent, Florence M; Weingand, Kurt; Workman, Heather C; Aulbach, Adam D; Meyer, Dennis J; Brown, Diane E; MacNeill, Amy L; Bolliger, Anne Provencher; Bounous, Denise I

2013-09-01

The purpose of this paper by the Regulatory Affairs Committee (RAC) of the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology (ASVCP) is to review the current regulatory guidances (eg, guidelines) and published recommendations for best practices in veterinary toxicologic clinical pathology, particularly in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and to utilize the combined experience of ASVCP RAC to provide updated recommendations. Discussion points include (1) instrumentation, validation, and sample collection, (2) routine laboratory variables, (3) cytologic laboratory variables, (4) data interpretation and reporting (including peer review, reference intervals and statistics), and (5) roles and responsibilities of clinical pathologists and laboratory personnel. Revision and improvement of current practices should be in alignment with evolving regulatory guidance documents, new technology, and expanding understanding and utility of clinical pathology. These recommendations provide a contemporary guide for the refinement of veterinary toxicologic clinical pathology best practices. © 2013 American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology.

Systematic and biotechnological aspects of halophilic and halotolerant actinomycetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamedi, Javad; Mohammadipanah, Fatemeh; Ventosa, Antonio

2013-01-01

More than 70 species of halotolerant and halophilic actinomycetes belonging to at least 24 genera have been validly described. Halophilic actinomycetes are a less explored source of actinomycetes for discovery of novel bioactive secondary metabolites. Degradation of aliphatic and aromatic organic compounds, detoxification of pollutants, production of new enzymes and other metabolites such as antibiotics, compatible solutes and polymers are other potential industrial applications of halophilic and halotolerant actinomycetes. Especially new bioactive secondary metabolites that are derived from only a small fraction of the investigated halophilic actinomycetes, mainly from marine habitats, have revealed the huge capacity of this physiological group in production of new bioactive chemical entities. Combined high metabolic capacities of actinomycetes and unique features related to extremophilic nature of the halophilic actinomycetes have conferred on them an influential role for future biotechnological applications.

Biotechnological and in situ food production of polyols by lactic acid bacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz, Maria Eugenia; Bleckwedel, Juliana; Raya, Raúl R; Mozzi, Fernanda

2013-06-01

Polyols such as mannitol, erythritol, sorbitol, and xylitol are naturally found in fruits and vegetables and are produced by certain bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and algae. These sugar alcohols are widely used in food and pharmaceutical industries and in medicine because of their interesting physicochemical properties. In the food industry, polyols are employed as natural sweeteners applicable in light and diabetic food products. In the last decade, biotechnological production of polyols by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) has been investigated as an alternative to their current industrial production. While heterofermentative LAB may naturally produce mannitol and erythritol under certain culture conditions, sorbitol and xylitol have been only synthesized through metabolic engineering processes. This review deals with the spontaneous formation of mannitol and erythritol in fermented foods and their biotechnological production by heterofermentative LAB and briefly presented the metabolic engineering processes applied for polyol formation.

Identification of External Critical Success Factors in Microbial Biotechnology Firms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alireza AZIMI

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Microbial biotechnology is expected to change production methods, the products themselves and the structure of the industries in the new economies. Hopefully, countries in the Middle-East, Latin America, Asia and Africa have already recognized the importance of microbial biotechnology's promise. In this sense, the importance of externalities which might affect the success or failure of these companies becomes an issue of paramount importance. In the present study, we will try to identify the main external factors which could lead in the success of microbial biotechnology firms in Iran. To do so, the research follows a qualitative research design to answer this main question. Based on our findings, critical success factors are categorized in the following categories: General Environment (GE, Political Position (PP, Economic Position (EP, and Market Position (MP.

Impact of the national biotechnology strategy on the South African biopharma industry

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Msomi, N

2008-11-17

Full Text Available The national biotechnology strategy was published in 2001. The process followed for drafting the strategy is as follows: involvement of experts; wider consultation with stakeholders and adoption and publication. The mandate for the BRICs...

Industrial Biotechnology: Discovery to Delivery

Science.gov (United States)

Chotani, Gopal K.; Dodge, Timothy C.; Gaertner, Alfred L.; Arbige, Michael V.

Fermentation products have penetrated almost every sector of our daily lives. They are used in ethical and generic drugs, clinical and home diagnostics, defense products, nutritional supplements, personal care products, food and animal feed ingredients, cleaning and textile processing, and in industrial applications such as fuel ethanol production. Even before knowing about the existence of microorganisms, for thousands of years ancient people routinely used them for making cheese, soy sauces, yogurt, and bread. Although humans have used fermentation as the method of choice for manufacturing for a long time, it is only now being recognized for its potential towards sustainable industrial development.

Biotechnological production of limonene in microorganisms

OpenAIRE

Jongedijk, Esmer; Cankar, Katarina; Buchhaupt, Markus; Schrader, Jens; Bouwmeester, Harro; Beekwilder, Jules

2016-01-01

This mini review describes novel, biotechnology-based, ways of producing the monoterpene limonene. Limonene is applied in relatively highly priced products, such as fragrances, and also has applications with lower value but large production volume, such as biomaterials. Limonene is currently produced as a side product from the citrus juice industry, but the availability and quality are fluctuating and may be insufficient for novel bulk applications. Therefore, complementary microbial producti...

Forest and fibre genomics: biotechnology tools for applied tree ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A milestone for eucalypt research, the project will facilitate the development of new biotechnology tools that will accelerate the domestication, improvement and ... The application of DNA fingerprinting in eucalypt breeding programmes represented an early technology delivery to industry with practical, short-term benefi ts, ...

A rare sugar xylitol. Part II: biotechnological production and future applications of xylitol.

Science.gov (United States)

Granström, Tom Birger; Izumori, Ken; Leisola, Matti

2007-02-01

Xylitol is the first rare sugar that has global markets. It has beneficial health properties and represents an alternative to current conventional sweeteners. Industrially, xylitol is produced by chemical hydrogenation of D-xylose into xylitol. The biotechnological method of producing xylitol by metabolically engineered yeasts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Candida, has been studied as an alternative to the chemical method. Due to the industrial scale of production, xylitol serves as an inexpensive starting material for the production of other rare sugars. The second part of this mini-review on xylitol will look more closely at the biotechnological production and future applications of the rare sugar, xylitol.

Biotechnology software in the digital age: are you winning?

Science.gov (United States)

Scheitz, Cornelia Johanna Franziska; Peck, Lawrence J; Groban, Eli S

2018-01-16

There is a digital revolution taking place and biotechnology companies are slow to adapt. Many pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and industrial bio-production companies believe that software must be developed and maintained in-house and that data are more secure on internal servers than on the cloud. In fact, most companies in this space continue to employ large IT and software teams and acquire computational infrastructure in the form of in-house servers. This is due to a fear of the cloud not sufficiently protecting in-house resources and the belief that their software is valuable IP. Over the next decade, the ability to quickly adapt to changing market conditions, with agile software teams, will quickly become a compelling competitive advantage. Biotechnology companies that do not adopt the new regime may lose on key business metrics such as return on invested capital, revenue, profitability, and eventually market share.

Biotechnological potentials of Seidlitzia rosmarinus: A mini review

African Journals Online (AJOL)

STORAGESEVER

2009-06-03

Jun 3, 2009 ... It has also many industrial applications such as dyeing, making soaps, pottery and ceramics among others. Besides being used as fodder in dry and desert regions, its "Ghalyab" can be used in biotechnological studies. Cultivation of S. rosmarinus plants in salt affected and dry farm lands for "Ghalyab" ...

Emerging Agricultural Biotechnologies for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Jennifer A; Gipmans, Martijn; Hurst, Susan; Layton, Raymond; Nehra, Narender; Pickett, John; Shah, Dilip M; Souza, Thiago Lívio P O; Tripathi, Leena

2016-01-20

As global populations continue to increase, agricultural productivity will be challenged to keep pace without overtaxing important environmental resources. A dynamic and integrated approach will be required to solve global food insecurity and position agriculture on a trajectory toward sustainability. Genetically modified (GM) crops enhanced through modern biotechnology represent an important set of tools that can promote sustainable agriculture and improve food security. Several emerging biotechnology approaches were discussed in a recent symposium organized at the 13th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA. This paper summarizes the innovative research and several of the new and emerging technologies within the field of agricultural biotechnology that were presented during the symposium. This discussion highlights how agricultural biotechnology fits within the context of sustainable agriculture and improved food security and can be used in support of further development and adoption of beneficial GM crops.

Biotechnology in maize breeding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mladenović-Drinić Snežana

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Maize is one of the most important economic crops and the best studied and most tractable genetic system among monocots. The development of biotechnology has led to a great increase in our knowledge of maize genetics and understanding of the structure and behaviour of maize genomes. Conventional breeding practices can now be complemented by a number of new and powerful techniques. Some of these often referred to as molecular methods, enable scientists to see the layout of the entire genome of any organism and to select plants with preferred characteristics by "reading" at the molecular level, saving precious time and resources. DNA markers have provided valuable tools in various analyses ranging from phylogenetic analysis to the positional cloning of genes. Application of molecular markers for genetic studies of maize include: assessment of genetic variability and characterization of germ plasm, identification and fingerprinting of genotypes, estimation of genetic distance, detection of monogamic and quantitative trait loci, marker assisted selection, identification of sequence of useful candidate genes, etc. The development of high-density molecular maps which has been facilitated by PCR-based markers, have made the mapping and tagging of almost any trait possible and serve as bases for marker assisted selection. Sequencing of maize genomes would help to elucidate gene function, gene regulation and their expression. Modern biotechnology also includes an array of tools for introducing or deieting a particular gene or genes to produce plants with novel traits. Development of informatics and biotechnology are resulted in bioinformatic as well as in expansion of microarrey technique. Modern biotechnologies could complement and improve the efficiency of traditional selection and breeding techniques to enhance agricultural productivity.

Biotechnology and Nuclear Agricultural Research Institute (BNARI) - Annual Report January-December 2015

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-01-01

The Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute (BNARI) of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) exists carry out research and development activities on safe applications of biotechnology and nuclear science and transfer these technologies to end-users for increased agricultural production, health, industrial and economic development for poverty alleviation in Ghana. The 2015 Annual Report covers the organisational structure; various research activities and abstracts of publications. Also listed are training courses and seminars organised during the reporting year.

MAJOR ADVANCES IN BIOTECHNOLOGY USED ON ARTIFIAL INSEMINATION OF HORSES: A REVIEW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. P. T. Carvalho

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The equine industry is increasingly gaining prominence in sports and in generating income. The growing interest in horses resulted in the emergence of biotechnologies that provide the solution for most reproductive problems. Several biotechnology have been used in AI, including the sperm sexing by flow cytometry, embryo transfer (ET associated with sexed semen and the use of fluorescent probes for observation of plasma membrane integrity, acrosome and sperm mitochondria. The purpose of the review was to address some impact of biotechnologies used in equine reproduction. These technologies have contributed in increasing the genetic potential of animals of zootechnical interest, the preservation of genetic material and as well as overcome fertility problems

Quality Control of Biotechnological Inputs DetectingMycoplasma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristiane Netto

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this work was to study the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR as a tool of quality control of bovine sera and cellular cultures used in the biotechnological industry. A total of 46 samples of bovine sera derived from two slaughterhouses and 33 samples of BHK21 cells derived from two biotechnological industries were evaluated using the primers GPO-3 (sense and MGSO (antisense. The PCR technique sensibility analysis showed that 280 bp were amplified for the quantities of 50 ng to 0.006 ng of Micoplasma DNA. The primers specificity was confirmed in the test using Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilisand Candida albicans; except by the positive control, none of the samples showed amplification. The presence of Mycoplasma in bovine sera and in the cultures of BHK21 cells showed that 56.5 and 15.2%, respectively, were contaminated. Thus, it was possible to conclude that PCR was a fast and confident technique to detect mycoplasma and that it could be used to control the quality of immunobiological products and inputs, such as sera and cultures of BHK21 cells.

The Nature and Design of Post-Industrial Organizations

OpenAIRE

George P. Huber

1984-01-01

This paper describes the nature and design of post-industrial organizations. It begins with an assessment of the popular literature on post-industrial society, and finds that this literature is an inappropriate basis for inferring the nature of post-industrial organizations. Partly as a consequence of this finding, the paper turns to systems theory as a basis for determining both the nature of post-industrial society and the nature of the increased demands that this environment would impose o...

Chemical sensors and gas sensors for process control in biotechnology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williams, D.E.

1988-04-01

This paper is concerned with the possibilities for chemical measurement of the progress of biotechnological processes which are offered by devices already developed for other demanding applications. It considers the potential use of ultrasonic instrumentation originally developed for the nuclear industry, gas measurement methods from the fields of environmental monitoring and combustion control, nuclear instruments developed for the oil, mining and chemical industries, robotic systems and advanced control techniques. (author)

Overview on the biotechnological production of L-DOPA.

Science.gov (United States)

Min, Kyoungseon; Park, Kyungmoon; Park, Don-Hee; Yoo, Young Je

2015-01-01

L-DOPA (3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine) has been widely used as a drug for Parkinson's disease caused by deficiency of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Since Monsanto developed the commercial process for L-DOPA synthesis for the first time, most of currently supplied L-DOPA has been produced by the asymmetric method, especially asymmetric hydrogenation. However, the asymmetric synthesis shows critical limitations such as a poor conversion rate and a low enantioselectivity. Accordingly, alternative biotechnological approaches have been researched for overcoming the shortcomings: microbial fermentation using microorganisms with tyrosinase, tyrosine phenol-lyase, or p-hydroxyphenylacetate 3-hydroxylase activity and enzymatic conversion by immobilized tyrosinase. Actually, Ajinomoto Co. Ltd commercialized Erwinia herbicola fermentation to produce L-DOPA from catechol. In addition, the electroenzymatic conversion system was recently introduced as a newly emerging scheme. In this review, we aim to not only overview the biotechnological L-DOPA production methods, but also to briefly compare and analyze their advantages and drawbacks. Furthermore, we suggest the future potential of biotechnological L-DOPA production as an industrial process.

Waste valorization by biotechnological conversion into added value products.

Science.gov (United States)

Liguori, Rossana; Amore, Antonella; Faraco, Vincenza

2013-07-01

Fossil fuel reserves depletion, global warming, unrelenting population growth, and costly and problematic waste recycling call for renewable resources of energy and consumer products. As an alternative to the 100 % oil economy, production processes based on biomass can be developed. Huge amounts of lignocellulosic wastes are yearly produced all around the world. They include agricultural residues, food farming wastes, "green-grocer's wastes," tree pruning residues, and organic and paper fraction of urban solid wastes. The common ways currently adopted for disposal of these wastes present environmental and economic disadvantages. As an alternative, processes for adding value to wastes producing high added products should be developed, that is the upgrading concept: adding value to wastes by production of a product with desired reproducible properties, having economic and ecological advantages. A wide range of high added value products, such as enzymes, biofuels, organic acids, biopolymers, bioelectricity, and molecules for food and pharmaceutical industries, can be obtained by upgrading solid wastes. The most recent advancements of their production by biotechnological processes are overviewed in this manuscript.

Electromagnetic Biostimulation of Living Cultures for Biotechnology, Biofuel and Bioenergy Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keshav C. Das

2009-10-01

Full Text Available The surge of interest in bioenergy has been marked with increasing efforts in research and development to identify new sources of biomass and to incorporate cutting-edge biotechnology to improve efficiency and increase yields. It is evident that various microorganisms will play an integral role in the development of this newly emerging industry, such as yeast for ethanol and Escherichia coli for fine chemical fermentation. However, it appears that microalgae have become the most promising prospect for biomass production due to their ability to grow fast, produce large quantities of lipids, carbohydrates and proteins, thrive in poor quality waters, sequester and recycle carbon dioxide from industrial flue gases and remove pollutants from industrial, agricultural and municipal wastewaters. In an attempt to better understand and manipulate microorganisms for optimum production capacity, many researchers have investigated alternative methods for stimulating their growth and metabolic behavior. One such novel approach is the use of electromagnetic fields for the stimulation of growth and metabolic cascades and controlling biochemical pathways. An effort has been made in this review to consolidate the information on the current status of biostimulation research to enhance microbial growth and metabolism using electromagnetic fields. It summarizes information on the biostimulatory effects on growth and other biological processes to obtain insight regarding factors and dosages that lead to the stimulation and also what kind of processes have been reportedly affected. Diverse mechanistic theories and explanations for biological effects of electromagnetic fields on intra and extracellular environment have been discussed. The foundations of biophysical interactions such as bioelectromagnetic and biophotonic communication and organization within living systems are expounded with special consideration for spatiotemporal aspects of electromagnetic topology

Software for rapid prototyping in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Science.gov (United States)

Kappler, Michael A

2008-05-01

The automation of drug discovery methods continues to develop, especially techniques that process information, represent workflow and facilitate decision-making. The magnitude of data and the plethora of questions in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research give rise to the need for rapid prototyping software. This review describes the advantages and disadvantages of three solutions: Competitive Workflow, Taverna and Pipeline Pilot. Each of these systems processes large amounts of data, integrates diverse systems and assists novice programmers and human experts in critical decision-making steps.

Biotechnological production of ethanol from renewable resources by Neurospora crassa: an alternative to conventional yeast fermentations?

Science.gov (United States)

Dogaris, Ioannis; Mamma, Diomi; Kekos, Dimitris

2013-02-01

Microbial production of ethanol might be a potential route to replace oil and chemical feedstocks. Bioethanol is by far the most common biofuel in use worldwide. Lignocellulosic biomass is the most promising renewable resource for fuel bioethanol production. Bioconversion of lignocellulosics to ethanol consists of four major unit operations: pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, and product separation/distillation. Conventional bioethanol processes for lignocellulosics apply commercial fungal cellulase enzymes for biomass hydrolysis, followed by yeast fermentation of resulting glucose to ethanol. The fungus Neurospora crassa has been used extensively for genetic, biochemical, and molecular studies as a model organism. However, the strain's potential in biotechnological applications has not been widely investigated and discussed. The fungus N. crassa has the ability to synthesize and secrete all three enzyme types involved in cellulose hydrolysis as well as various enzymes for hemicellulose degradation. In addition, N. crassa has been reported to convert to ethanol hexose and pentose sugars, cellulose polymers, and agro-industrial residues. The combination of these characteristics makes N. crassa a promising alternative candidate for biotechnological production of ethanol from renewable resources. This review consists of an overview of the ethanol process from lignocellulosic biomass, followed by cellulases and hemicellulases production, ethanol fermentations of sugars and lignocellulosics, and industrial application potential of N. crassa.

How to turn industrial biotechnology into reality.

Science.gov (United States)

Kircher, Manfred

2012-01-15

The emerging bioeconomy is pulled by consumers asking for sustainable products and processes, governments enforcing climate protection and industries demanding feedstock flexibility and last but not least it is pushed by progress in basic and applied science. It will use renewable carbon sources not only from agri- and silviculture, but potentially also from industrial flue gases - for example, from power generation and steel production. Connecting such industries with the future bio-chemical industry results in a challenging new value chain which connects thus far separated industries. Realising this value chain needs disruptive technologies in providing sustainable carbon sources and transforming them into precursors for biochemical production up to consumer products. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Archaeal Enzymes and Applications in Industrial Biocatalysts.

Science.gov (United States)

Littlechild, Jennifer A

2015-01-01

Archaeal enzymes are playing an important role in industrial biotechnology. Many representatives of organisms living in "extreme" conditions, the so-called Extremophiles, belong to the archaeal kingdom of life. This paper will review studies carried by the Exeter group and others regarding archaeal enzymes that have important applications in commercial biocatalysis. Some of these biocatalysts are already being used in large scale industrial processes for the production of optically pure drug intermediates and amino acids and their analogues. Other enzymes have been characterised at laboratory scale regarding their substrate specificity and properties for potential industrial application. The increasing availability of DNA sequences from new archaeal species and metagenomes will provide a continuing resource to identify new enzymes of commercial interest using both bioinformatics and screening approaches.

Current issues in plant disease control: Biotechnology and plant ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Biotechnology is the genetic manipulation and multiplication of any living organism through novel techniques and technologies such as tissue culture and genetic engineering in order to produce new organisms and or products that can be used in variety of ways. It is theoretically possible to express virtually any genetic trait ...

Training scientists as future industry leaders: teaching translational science from an industry executive's perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Gloria; Kranzler, Jay D; Ramasamy, Ravichandran; Gold-von Simson, Gabrielle

2018-01-01

PhDs and post-doctoral biomedical graduates, in greater numbers, are choosing industry based careers. However, most scientists do not have formal training in business strategies and venture creation and may find senior management positions untenable. To fill this training gap, "Biotechnology Industry: Structure and Strategy" was offered at New York University School of Medicine (NYUSOM). The course focuses on the business aspects of translational medicine and research translation and incorporates the practice of business case discussions, mock negotiation, and direct interactions into the didactic. The goal is to teach scientists at an early career stage how to create solutions, whether at the molecular level or via the creation of devices or software, to benefit those with disease. In doing so, young, talented scientists can develop a congruent mindset with biotechnology/industry executives. Our data demonstrates that the course enhances students' knowledge of the biotechnology industry. In turn, these learned skills may further encourage scientists to seek leadership positions in the field. Implementation of similar courses and educational programs will enhance scientists' training and inspire them to become innovative leaders in the discovery and development of therapeutics.

Journal of Tropical Microbiology and Biotechnology: Editorial Policies

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... Microbial Physiology, Biochemistry of micro-organisms, Microbial Genetics, Molecular Biology, Bacteriology, Virology, Mycology, and Microbial Systematics. Both full length and short papers reporting original research making a significant contribution to microbiology and Biotechnology will be considered for publication.

The evolution of biotechnology and its impact on health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Evens, Ronald; Kaitin, Kenneth

2015-02-01

For more than three decades the field of biotechnology has had an extraordinary impact on science, health care, law, the regulatory environment, and business. During this time more than 260 novel biotechnology products were approved for over 230 indications. Global sales of these products exceeded $175 billion in 2013 and have helped sustain a vibrant life sciences sector that includes more than 4,600 biotech companies worldwide. In this article we examine the evolution of biotechnology during the past three decades and the profound impact that it has had on health care through four interrelated and interdependent tracks: innovations in science, government activity, business development, and patient care. The future impact of biotechnology is promising, as long as the public and private sectors continue to foster policies and provide funds that lead to scientific breakthroughs; governments continue to offer incentives for private-sector biotech innovation; industry develops business models for cost-effective research and development; and all stakeholders establish policies to ensure that the therapeutic advances that mitigate or cure medical conditions that currently have inadequate or no available therapies are accessible to the public at a reasonable cost. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Biotechnology of oil palm: strategies towards manipulation of lipid content and composition.

Science.gov (United States)

Parveez, Ghulam Kadir Ahmad; Rasid, Omar Abdul; Masani, Mat Yunus Abdul; Sambanthamurthi, Ravigadevi

2015-04-01

Oil palm is a major economic crop for Malaysia. The major challenges faced by the industry are labor shortage, availability of arable land and unstable commodity price. This has caused the industry to diversify its applications into higher value products besides increasing its yield. While conventional breeding has its limitations, biotechnology was identified as one of the tools for overcoming the above challenges. Research on biotechnology of oil palm began more than two decades ago leveraging a multidisciplinary approach involving biochemical studies, gene and promoter isolation, transformation vector construction and finally genetic transformation to produce the targeted products. The main target of oil palm biotechnology research is to increase oleic acid in the mesocarp. Other targets are stearic acid, palmitoleic acid, ricinoleic acid, lycopene (carotenoid) and biodegradable plastics. Significant achievements were reported for the biochemical studies, isolation of useful oil palm genes and characterization of important promoters. A large number of transformation constructs for various targeted products were successfully produced using the isolated oil palm genes and promoters. Finally transformation of these constructs into oil palm embryogenic calli was carried out while the regeneration of transgenic oil palm harboring the useful genes is in progress.

Biotechnological and molecular approaches for vanillin production: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaur, Baljinder; Chakraborty, Debkumar

2013-02-01

Vanillin is one of the most widely used flavoring agents in the world. As the annual world market demand of vanillin could not be met by natural extraction, chemical synthesis, or tissue culture technology, thus biotechnological approaches may be replacement routes to make production of bio-vanillin economically viable. This review's main focus is to highlight significant aspects of biotechnology with emphasis on the production of vanillin from eugenol, isoeugenol, lignin, ferulic acid, sugars, phenolic stilbenes, vanillic acid, aromatic amino acids, and waste residues by applying fungi, bacteria, and plant cells. Production of biovanillin using GRAS lactic acid bacteria and metabolically engineered microorganisms, genetic organization of vanillin biosynthesis operons/gene cassettes and finally the stability of biovanillin generated through various biotechnological procedures are also critically reviewed in the later sections of the review.

UK biotechnology companies lead the way for Europe

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1984-05-01

A number of new well-structured biotechnology companies have been launched in Britain over the last few years, e.g. Imperial Biotechnology, IQ(Bio) and Celltech, while Wellcome and Searle (U.K.) are established firms, keeping up with the new technology. Imperial Biotechnology, with its accent on development rather than research and making products not in anyone else's catalogue, has produced a whole range of enzymes, biopolymers, antibiotics, and human proteins under contract. Its long term objective is to develop its own bioproducts. IQ(Bio) is poised to enter the diagnostic big league with its enzyme-linked immunoassay (Aelia) technology and intends to pursue opportunities where there is a strict regulatory climate prohibiting the growth of radioimmunoassays, e.g. France and Japan. It plans to produce kits that a doctor can use simply and give results in less than 30 minutes. Celltech has a culture products division which supplies large quantities of monoclonal antibodies, it has a diagnostics and health care research section, a speciality chemicals area and an industrial microbiology sector. Wellcome Biotechnology has an interferon programme which includes a broad range of chemical trials in the anticancer and antiviral areas. The company could supply the entire world market for interferon using cell culture and produces a very large range of conventional vaccines. Searle uses biotechnology as just another means of producing new drugs as they have a large drug development machine in place. A considerable amount of process development work has focused on Searle's artificial sweetener, aspartame, and they are looking at all the technical approaches to aspartame production.

Fiscal 1998 'Plant Biotechnology in the 21st Century' workshop report; '21 seiki no shokubutsu biotechnology' workshop 1998 nendo seika hokokusho

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-03-01

The workshop was opened with the opening remarks by Yamada (President of Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NIST)), the overview of plant biotechnology in the 21st century from academia by Shinmyo (Professor of NIST), and the overview of such technology from Ministry of International Trade and Industry by Katao (Chief of Chemical Industry Division). Lectures and discussions of various topics were conducted for 2 days as follows. The effectiveness of a genomic DNA array method for obtaining the genes for switching genes according to daytime, nighttime, drying, salt, high temperature and low temperature for every plant. Current transfer technology of large DNA fragments into plant cell nuclei and chloroplast. Biological evaluation of the physiological functions and complex stress tolerance capacity transformed by transferring complex stress tolerance genes and useful genes for productivity improvement and value addition. Discussion was also held on the importance of a basic research for biotechnology in the 21st century. (NEDO)

Biosurfactant gene clusters in eukaryotes: regulation and biotechnological potential.

Science.gov (United States)

Roelants, Sophie L K W; De Maeseneire, Sofie L; Ciesielska, Katarzyna; Van Bogaert, Inge N A; Soetaert, Wim

2014-04-01

Biosurfactants (BSs) are a class of secondary metabolites representing a wide variety of structures that can be produced from renewable feedstock by a wide variety of micro-organisms. They have (potential) applications in the medical world, personal care sector, mining processes, food industry, cosmetics, crop protection, pharmaceuticals, bio-remediation, household detergents, paper and pulp industry, textiles, paint industries, etc. Especially glycolipid BSs like sophorolipids (SLs), rhamnolipids (RLs), mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs) and cellobioselipids (CBLs) have been described to provide significant opportunities to (partially) replace chemical surfactants. The major two factors currently limiting the penetration of BSs into the market are firstly the limited structural variety and secondly the rather high production price linked with the productivity. One of the keys to resolve the above mentioned bottlenecks can be found in the genetic engineering of natural producers. This could not only result in more efficient (economical) recombinant producers, but also in a diversification of the spectrum of available BSs as such resolving both limiting factors at once. Unraveling the genetics behind the biosynthesis of these interesting biological compounds is indispensable for the tinkering, fine tuning and rearrangement of these biological pathways with the aim of obtaining higher yields and a more extensive structural variety. Therefore, this review focuses on recent developments in the investigation of the biosynthesis, genetics and regulation of some important members of the family of the eukaryotic glycolipid BSs (MELs, CBLs and SLs). Moreover, recent biotechnological achievements and the industrial potential of engineered strains are discussed.

Developing legal regulatory frameworks for modern biotechnology ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper looks at attempts that have been made to develop legal regulatory frameworks for modern biotechnology. The discussion is limited to the regulation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) technology by the two leading producers and exporters of GMOs in Africa: South Africa and Kenya. The international and ...

Going Green and Cold: Biosurfactants from Low-Temperature Environments to Biotechnology Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Perfumo, Amedea; Banat, Ibrahim M; Marchant, Roger

2018-03-01

Approximately 80% of the Earth's biosphere is cold, at an average temperature of 5°C, and is populated by a diversity of microorganisms that are a precious source of molecules with high biotechnological potential. Biosurfactants from cold-adapted organisms can interact with multiple physical phases - water, ice, hydrophobic compounds, and gases - at low and freezing temperatures and be used in sustainable (green) and low-energy-impact (cold) products and processes. We review the biodiversity of microbial biosurfactants produced in cold habitats and provide a perspective on the most promising future applications in environmental and industrial technologies. Finally, we encourage exploring the cryosphere for novel types of biosurfactants via both culture screening and functional metagenomics. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ethical limitations in patenting biotechnological inventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Lugagnani, V

1999-01-01

In order to connect ethical considerations with practical limits to patentability, the moral judgement should possibly move from the exploitation of the invention to the nature and/or objectives of Research and Development (R&D) projects which have produced it: in other words, it appears quite reasonable and logical that Society is not rewarding unethical R&D activities by granting intellectual property rights. As far as biotechnology R&D is concerned, ethical guidance can be derived from the 1996 Council of EuropeOs OConvention for the protection of human rights and dignity of the human being with regard to the application of biology and medicineO, whose Chapter V - Scientific research - provides guidelines on: i. protection of persons undergoing research (e.g. informed consent); ii. protection of persons not able to consent to research; iii. research on embryos in vitro. As far as the specific point of patenting biotechnology inventions is concerned, the four exclusions prescribed by Directive 98/44/EC (i.e. human cloning, human germ-line gene therapy, use of human embryos for commercial purposes, unjustified animal suffering for medical purposes) are all we have in Europe in terms of ethical guidance to patentability. In Italy, in particular, we certainly need far more comprehensive legislation, expressing SocietyOs demand to provide ethical control of modern biotechnology. However it is quite difficult to claim that ethical concerns are being raised by currently awarded biotechnology patents related to living organisms and material thereof; they largely deal with the results of genomic R&D, purposely and usefully oriented toward improving health-care and agri-food processes, products and services. ONo patents on lifeOO can be an appealing slogan of militants against modern biotechnology, but it is far too much of an over-simplified abstraction to become the Eleventh Commandment our Society.

Concept for Recycling Waste Biomass from the Sugar Industry for Chemical and Biotechnological Purposes.

Science.gov (United States)

Modelska, Magdalena; Berlowska, Joanna; Kregiel, Dorota; Cieciura, Weronika; Antolak, Hubert; Tomaszewska, Jolanta; Binczarski, Michał; Szubiakiewicz, Elzbieta; Witonska, Izabela A

2017-09-13

The objective of this study was to develop a method for the thermally-assisted acidic hydrolysis of waste biomass from the sugar industry (sugar beet pulp and leaves) for chemical and biotechnological purposes. The distillates, containing furfural, can be catalytically reduced directly into furfurayl alcohol or tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol. The sugars present in the hydrolysates can be converted by lactic bacteria into lactic acid, which, by catalytic reduction, leads to propylene glycol. The sugars may also be utilized by microorganisms in the process of cell proliferation, and the biomass obtained used as a protein supplement in animal feed. Our study also considered the effects of the mode and length of preservation (fresh, ensilage, and drying) on the yields of furfural and monosaccharides. The yield of furfural in the distillates was measured using gas chromatography with flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The content of monosaccharides in the hydrolysates was measured spectrophotometrically using enzymatic kits. Biomass preserved under all tested conditions produced high yields of furfural, comparable to those for fresh material. Long-term storage of ensiled waste biomass did not result in loss of furfural productivity. However, there were significant reductions in the amounts of monosaccharides in the hydrolysates.

[Education on biosafety and bioethics: necessary articulation in biotechnology].

Science.gov (United States)

Bonis, Marcos De; Costa, Marco Antonio Ferreira da

2009-01-01

Science education has been discussed in some segments of the society and, international organizations have encouraged nations to invest in this strategic area. In this context, education in bioethics and biosafety explores a rich content on prevention, standards and ethical principles which serve to guide the paths track by biotechnology. The recovery of bioethics and biosafety, as part of an educational policy scientific, effective and consistent, can stimulate the formation of individuals with a scientific and citizen awareness, in a position to participate on ethical and technological issues produced by biotechnology.

Microbial Biotechnology 2020; microbiology of fossil fuel resources.

Science.gov (United States)

Head, Ian M; Gray, Neil D

2016-09-01

This roadmap examines the future of microbiology research and technology in fossil fuel energy recovery. Globally, the human population will be reliant on fossil fuels for energy and chemical feedstocks for at least the medium term. Microbiology is already important in many areas relevant to both upstream and downstream activities in the oil industry. However, the discipline has struggled for recognition in a world dominated by geophysicists and engineers despite widely known but still poorly understood microbially mediated processes e.g. reservoir biodegradation, reservoir souring and control, microbial enhanced oil recovery. The role of microbiology is even less understood in developing industries such as shale gas recovery by fracking or carbon capture by geological storage. In the future, innovative biotechnologies may offer new routes to reduced emissions pathways especially when applied to the vast unconventional heavy oil resources formed, paradoxically, from microbial activities in the geological past. However, despite this potential, recent low oil prices may make industry funding hard to come by and recruitment of microbiologists by the oil and gas industry may not be a high priority. With regards to public funded research and the imperative for cheap secure energy for economic growth in a growing world population, there are signs of inherent conflicts between policies aimed at a low carbon future using renewable technologies and policies which encourage technologies which maximize recovery from our conventional and unconventional fossil fuel assets. © 2016 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology.

Biotechnology for bulk production of organic chemicals. Use of biomass as an option for the future?; Biotechnologie voor bulkproductie van organische chemicalien. Inzet biomassa optie voor de toekomst?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Patel, M.K.; Crank, M.; Dornburg, V.; Hermann, B.G. [Sectie Natuurwetenschap en Samenleving, Copernicus Instituut, Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht (Netherlands); Van Overbeek, L. [Plant Research International, Wageningen (Netherlands)

2007-07-01

This article summarizes the BREW study (Biotechnological production of bulk chemicals from RenEWable resources), which was carried out for the European Commission by a consortium, coordinated by the Copernicus Institute of the Utrecht University in the Netherlands. The study investigates the medium and long-term opportunities and risks of the biotechnological production of organic chemicals. The objective is to gain better understanding of the techno-economic and the societal viability of White Biotechnology in the coming decades. The key research questions are which products could be made with White Biotechnology, whether these products can contribute to savings of energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, under which conditions the products become economically viable, which risks may originate from the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in fermentation and what the public perception is. [Dutch] Tegenwoordig worden bijna alle organische chemische stoffen en plastics geproduceerd uit ruwe olie en aardgas. Moet dit zo blijven of zijn er andere, meer duurzame manieren om chemische stoffen te produceren? Het gebruik van biomassa als grondstof en het inzetten van biotechnologie zijn twee mogelijkheden. Maar wanneer we deze methoden gebruiken, Iopen we dan tegen nieuwe, onvoorziene risico's aan? Dit artikel geeft een samenvatting van de uitkomst van een gedetailleerde studie, gefinancierd door de Europese Unie, over deze en andere belangrijke vragen.

Biotechnology and the Third World: Panacea or Recipe for Social Disaster? Academy for Educational Development 25th Anniversary Series.

Science.gov (United States)

Morehouse, Ward

Asserting that developmental growth is easier to attain in developing countries than social change, this paper assesses the prospective impact of biotechnology on the developing nations. Biotechnology is defined as the integrated use of biochemistry, microbiology, and chemical engineering to achieve the industrial processes of fermentation, enzyme…

Biotechnology for energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malik, K.A.; Naqvi, S.H.M.

1991-01-01

The present volume comprises paper presented and discussed in the symposium. The main purpose of this symposium was to collect researchers in the area of bioconversion of biomass into biofuels, petroleum biotechnology and biohydrometallurgy. This book has been divided into four main sections which includes molecular biology of biomass conversion, microbial conversion of biomass, petroleum biotechnology and biohydrometallurgy. It is becoming clear that biotechnology play a role in production and conservation of energy and can contribute to the overall energy situation. (A.B.)

Integrated approaches for assessment of cellular performance in industrially relevant filamantous fungi

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Workman, Mhairi; Andersen, Mikael Rørdam; Thykær, Jette

2013-01-01

The performance of filamentous fungi in submerged cultivation determines their suitability for large-scale industrial biotechnology processes and is the result of complex interplay between the physical and chemical parameters of the process and the cellular biology of the fungi. Filamentous fungi...... of these organisms. Increased future focus on multicellular physiology and relevant assays will lead to fungal cells and processes that are customizable to a greater degree, finally allowing the full potential of these complex organisms and their product diversity to unfold....

Educational Awareness of Biotechnology Issues among Undergraduate Students at the United Arab Emirates University

Science.gov (United States)

AbuQamar, Synan; Alshannag, Qasim; Sartawi, Abdelaziz; Iratni, Rabah

2015-01-01

Due to its valuable benefits and potential risks, there is a progressing debate among opponents and proponents of biotechnology in recent decades. Previous studies have shown that lack of knowledge about biotechnology remains the concern about genetically modified organisms/food (GMO/GMF). This study assessed levels of educational awareness…

Epigenetics as an emerging tool for improvement of fungal strains used in biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Aghcheh, Razieh Karimi; Kubicek, Christian P

2015-08-01

Filamentous fungi are today a major source of industrial biotechnology for the production of primary and secondary metabolites, as well as enzymes and recombinant proteins. All of them have undergone extensive improvement strain programs, initially by classical mutagenesis and later on by genetic manipulation. Thereby, strategies to overcome rate-limiting or yield-reducing reactions included manipulating the expression of individual genes, their regulatory genes, and also their function. Yet, research of the last decade clearly showed that cells can also undergo heritable changes in gene expression that do not involve changes in the underlying DNA sequences (=epigenetics). This involves three levels of regulation: (i) DNA methylation, (ii) chromatin remodeling by histone modification, and (iii) RNA interference. The demonstration of the occurrence of these processes in fungal model organisms such as Aspergillus nidulans and Neurospora crassa has stimulated its recent investigation as a tool for strain improvement in industrially used fungi. This review describes the progress that has thereby been obtained.

Acidic organic compounds in beverage, food, and feed production.

Science.gov (United States)

Quitmann, Hendrich; Fan, Rong; Czermak, Peter

2014-01-01

Organic acids and their derivatives are frequently used in beverage, food, and feed production. Acidic additives may act as buffers to regulate acidity, antioxidants, preservatives, flavor enhancers, and sequestrants. Beneficial effects on animal health and growth performance have been observed when using acidic substances as feed additives. Organic acids could be classified in groups according to their chemical structure. Each group of organic acids has its own specific properties and is used for different applications. Organic acids with low molecular weight (e.g. acetic acid, lactic acid, and citric acid), which are part of the primary metabolism, are often produced by fermentation. Others are produced more economically by chemical synthesis based on petrochemical raw materials on an industrial scale (e.g. formic acid, propionic and benzoic acid). Biotechnology-based production is of interest due to legislation, consumer demand for natural ingredients, and increasing environmental awareness. In the United States, for example, biocatalytically produced esters for food applications can be labeled as "natural," whereas identical conventional acid catalyst-based molecules cannot. Natural esters command a price several times that of non-natural esters. Biotechnological routes need to be optimized regarding raw materials and yield, microorganisms, and recovery methods. New bioprocesses are being developed for organic acids, which are at this time commercially produced by chemical synthesis. Moreover, new organic acids that could be produced with biotechnological methods are under investigation for food applications.

Biotechnological innovation impacts, social and ethical aspects and public acceptability; Sicurezza, implicazioni etico-sociali e percezione pubblica delle biotecnologie

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Capuano, V [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Casaccia, Rome (Italy). Dipt. Innovazione

1997-11-01

Biotechnology is a highly distinctive area of scientific activity and its applications can strongly influence human life. Biotechnological innovations impact on sanitary, environmental, social, ethical and economic aspects and it is particularly important a greater public understanding of biotechnology issues in the view of increasing its acceptability. Knowledge and acceptance do not go always in the same direction, as the last is influenced by various complex factors, but without a knowledgeable public there can be no effective democratic agreement. So it appears important that scientific community and industry can promote and diffuse more knowledge among citizens and consumers, taking into account also of social and ethical issues raised by public and public interest groups. In this report bio safety of biotechnology applications and social and ethical issues are analyzed. They receive much attention in the discussion in the biotechnology arena (scientists, industry, institutions and the public). In particular health and environmental risks, gene therapy, transgenic animals, patent issues and genetic resources access, consumers rights are considered. Since the media are central to the dissemination of information and views about science, is has been evidenced their role, in addition to a short analysis of public perception and communication strategies.

Production of vanillin: a biotechnological opportunity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daugsch, Andreas; Pastores, Glaucia . E-daugsch@fea.unicamp.br

2005-01-01

Natural aroma compounds are of major interest to the food and fragrance industry. Vanillin (3-methoxy-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde) was isolated from the vanilla beans in 1816 and its world consumption has reached today about 12000 tons per year. But only approximately 50 tons per year are extracted from vanilla pods (Vanilla planifolia). The remainder is provided by synthetic vanillin. This review is about alternative processes to produce natural vanillin de novo or by biotransformation using biotechnological methods involving enzymes, microorganisms and plant cells. (author)

BIOTECHNOLOGY : AN OVERVIEW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John I. Bruce

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Biotechnology as a science includes various aspects of the management and manipulation of biological systems. Recent advances in immunology, molecular biology, cell culture and other associated areas provide an opportunity for scientists to move biology out of the laboratory and into the realms of society. This has many implications which mankind on a whole may not be prepared to cope with at this time. This new capability has been referred to as "Biotechnology". Biotechnology has also been defined as "the integrated use of biochemistry, microbiology, and chemical engineering in order to achieve the capacities of microbes and culture cells". Genetic engineering which includes gene splicing and recombinant DNA-cloning is an example of a recent offshoot of biotechnology. Because of the advent of biotechnology, one can now think of the prospect of engineering tomorrows vaccines. In the past, vaccine development has been laborious and in many instances an unrewarding task. After years of effort only a handful of safe, effective vaccines have emerged. In the biotechnology arena, new methodologies and strategies for immunizing humans and domestic animals against infectious diseases are providing new hope for discovering successful vaccines. While most of the effort in the past has focused on viral vaccine development, attention is now being directed towards vaccines for protection against parasitic diseases. Currently, considerable effort is being made to develop vaccines for malaria, coccidiosis (in fowl, cholera, malaria, schistosomiasis and trypanosomiasis among others.

The Battle for Patent Rights in Plant Biotechnology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schneider, Cédric

2011-01-01

This paper describes and analyzes the occurrence and extent of oppositions initiated against plant biotechnology patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO). The opposition mechanism is a legal procedure that allows any third party to challenge the validity of patents awarded by the EPO....... Results indicate that the opposition rate is far greater in plant biotechnology than in other emerging industries. Consistent with theoretical predictions, the empirical findings suggest that opposed patents are disproportionately those that score high on features that proxy for their “value” or “quality......”. In contrast to previous findings, however, the results show that large-volume applicants are more likely to be opposed. Because the boundaries of plant biotech patents are ill-defined, large patent portfolios do not promote cooperative behavior such as licensing or settlements. The analysis rejects...

Possible Applications of Photoautotrophic Biotechnologies at Lunar Settlements

Science.gov (United States)

McKay, David S.; Allen, Carl; Jones, J. A.; Bayless, D.; Brown, I.; Sarkisova, S.; Garrison, D.

2007-01-01

The most ambitious goal of the Vision of Space Exploration is to extend human presence across the solar system. Today, however, missions would have to bring all of the propellant, air, food, water, habitable volumes and shielding needed to sustain settlers beyond Earth. That is why resources for propellants, life support and construction of support systems and habitats must be found in space and utilized if humans hope to ever explore and colonize the solar system. The life support, fuel production and material processing systems currently proposed for spaceflight are essentially disconnected. Only traditional crop production has been proposed as a segment for bioregenerative life support systems, although the efficiency of higher plants for air regeneration is generally low. Thus, the investigation of air bioregeneration techniques based on the activity of photosynthetic organisms with higher rates of CO2 scrubbing and O2 release is very timely and important. Future systems for organic waste utilization in space may also benefit from the use of specific microorganisms. This janitorial job is efficiently carried out by microbes on Earth, which drive and connect different elemental cycles. It is likely that environmental control and life support systems based on bioregeneration will be capable of converting both organic and inorganic components of the waste at lunar settlements into edible biomass. The most challenging technologies for future lunar settlements are the extraction of elements (e.g. Fe, O, Si, etc) from local rocks for industrial feedstocks and the production of propellants. While such extraction can be accomplished by purely inorganic processes, the high energy requirements of such processes motivates the search for alternative technologies with lower energy requirements and appropriate efficiency. Well-developed terrestrial industrial biotechnologies for metals extraction and conversion could therefore be the prototypes for extraterrestrial

Ethical principles for the use of human cellular biotechnologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wolpe, Paul Root; Rommelfanger, Karen S.; Borenstein, Jason

2017-01-01

Recent developments in bioengineering promise the possibility of new diagnostic and treatment strategies, novel industrial processes, and innovative approaches to thorny problems in fields such as nutrition, agriculture, and biomanufacturing. As modern genetics has matured and developed technolog......-producing countries of the world, offers a set of ethical principles to contribute to the ethical conversation about human cellular biotechnological research moving forward....

Workshop on biotechnology in forest science. University of British Columbia, February 20-22, 1985

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Place, I.C.M. (ed.)

1985-01-01

After an opening address, there are 9 papers presented in 4 sections: Section I: biotechnology research at the molecular level; three papers covering advances in gene cloning, gene expression in higher organisms and Ti-plasmids as possible cloning vectors; Section II: tissue culture and micropropagation; three papers and a discussion section; Section III: biotechnology at the tree level; three papers covering recent advances, genetic transformations and microbial delignification of lignocellulosic materials. Section IV: panel discussion in perspectives in biotechnology research in relation to forest trees.

Potential applications of insect symbionts in biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Berasategui, Aileen; Shukla, Shantanu; Salem, Hassan; Kaltenpoth, Martin

2016-02-01

Symbiotic interactions between insects and microorganisms are widespread in nature and are often the source of ecological innovations. In addition to supplementing their host with essential nutrients, microbial symbionts can produce enzymes that help degrade their food source as well as small molecules that defend against pathogens, parasites, and predators. As such, the study of insect ecology and symbiosis represents an important source of chemical compounds and enzymes with potential biotechnological value. In addition, the knowledge on insect symbiosis can provide novel avenues for the control of agricultural pest insects and vectors of human diseases, through targeted manipulation of the symbionts or the host-symbiont associations. Here, we discuss different insect-microbe interactions that can be exploited for insect pest and human disease control, as well as in human medicine and industrial processes. Our aim is to raise awareness that insect symbionts can be interesting sources of biotechnological applications and that knowledge on insect ecology can guide targeted efforts to discover microorganisms of applied value.

Bioanalysis-related highlights from the 2011 AAPS National Biotechnology Conference.

Science.gov (United States)

Crisino, Rebecca M; Dulanto, Beatriz

2011-08-01

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists is a dynamic international forum for the exchange of knowledge among scientists to enhance their contributions to drug development. The annual National Biotechnology Conference, conducted and organized by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, is a forum dedicated to advancements in science and technology related to discovery, development and manufacture of medical biotechnology products. The 2011 National Biotechnology Conference meeting convened in San Francisco, CA, USA on 16-18 May. Over 300 abstracts were submitted and approximately 50 sessions examined topics pertaining to advances in drug development, emerging analytical technologies, bioanalysis-related issues, biosimilar therapies, updates on global regulatory documents and expectations, and other topics. The focus of this article is to highlight key developments relevant to immunogenicity and pharmacokinetic drug concentration bioanalysis.

Between science and industry-applied yeast research.

Science.gov (United States)

Korhola, Matti

2018-03-01

I was fortunate to enter yeast research at the Alko Research Laboratories with a strong tradition in yeast biochemistry and physiology studies. At the same time in the 1980s there was a fundamental or paradigm change in molecular biology research with discoveries in DNA sequencing and other analytical and physical techniques for studying macromolecules and cells. Since that time biotechnological research has expanded the traditional fermentation industries to efficient production of industrial and other enzymes and specialty chemicals. Our efforts were directed towards improving the industrial production organisms: minerals enriched yeasts (Se, Cr, Zn) and high glutathione content yeast, baker´s, distiller´s, sour dough and wine yeasts, and the fungal Trichoderma reesei platform for enzyme production. I am grateful for the trust of my colleagues in several leadership positions at the Alko Research Laboratories, Yeast Industry Platform and at the international yeast community.

Medium and long-term opportunities and risk of the biotechnological production of bulk chemicals from renewable resources - The potential of white biotechnology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Patel, M.; Crank, M.; Dornberg, V.; Hermann, B.; Roes, L.; Hüsing, B.; Overbeek, van L.S.; Terragni, F.; Recchia, E.

2006-01-01

This report studies processes which convert biomass-derived feedstocks (e.g. fermentable sugar) into organic bulk chemicals (e.g. lactic acid, acetic acid, butanol and ethanol) by means of white biotechnology (e.g. fermentation or enzymatic conversion), either with or without genetically modified

Bio-based C-3 Platform Chemical: Biotechnological Production and -Conversion of 3-Hydroxypropionaldehyde

OpenAIRE

Rezaei, Roya

2013-01-01

Demands for efficient, greener, economical and sustainable production of chemicals, materials and energy have led to development of industrial biotechnology as a key technology area to provide such products from bio-based raw materials from agricultural-, forestry- and related industrial residues and by-products. For the bio-based industry, it is essential to develop a number of building blocks or platform chemicals for C2-C6 chemicals and even aromatic chemicals. 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde (3H...

Knowledge-Based Control Systems via Internet Part I. Applications in Biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Georgi Georgiev

2005-04-01

Full Text Available An extensive approach towards the dissemination of expert knowledge and coordination efforts to distributed points and seamless integration of control strategies applied to distributed yet identical systems is crucial to enhance overall efficiency and operational costs. Application of Knowledge-Based Control System via Internet will be very efficient especially in biotechnology, because many industrial bioprocesses, based on the same technological principles, are distributed in the whole world. Brewing industry oriented practical solutions illustrate this approach.

Institutionalization of Organized Industrial Estates in Turkey, Problems Encountered and Proposed Solutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasan DAĞLAR

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In the aim of the study is to determine the institutionalization degree of organized industrial estates and to identify the faced problems and to develop solutions for these problems. By using survey method, information about problems and institutionalization status of organized industrial estates were obtained from managers of the active organized industrial estates. The problems of organized industrial estates are related to the management structure, qualified staff, energy, transportation, regulation and public improvements. Formalization, professionalism, accountability, transparency and social responsibility have been identified as the factors about the institutionalization of organized industrial estates in Turkey according to factor analysis. It could be argued that organized industrial estates in Turkey have an institutional structure and they have institutionalized. However, it could be said that organized industrial estates which operate in 80 cities of Turkey and more than one are in some cities are not at the same level of institutionalization.

Challenges of climate change: omics-based biology of saffron plants and organic agricultural biotechnology for sustainable saffron production.

Science.gov (United States)

Husaini, Amjad M

2014-01-01

Kashmir Valley is a major saffron (Crocus sativus Kashmirianus) growing area of the world, second only to Iran in terms of production. In Kashmir, saffron is grown on uplands (termed in the local language as "Karewas"), which are lacustrine deposits located at an altitude of 1585 to 1677 m above mean sea level (amsl), under temperate climatic conditions. Kashmir, despite being one of the oldest historical saffron-producing areas, faces a rapid decline of saffron industry. Among many other factors responsible for decline of saffron industry the preponderance of erratic rainfalls and drought-like situation have become major challenges imposed by climate change. Saffron has a limited coverage area as it is grown as a 'niche crop' and is a recognized "geographical indication," growing under a narrow microclimatic condition. As such it has become a victim of climate change effects, which has the potential of jeopardizing the livelihood of thousands of farmers and traders associated with it. The paper discusses the potential and actual impact of climate change process on saffron cultivation in Kashmir; and the biotechnological measures to address these issues.

Industrial organization and behaviour

OpenAIRE

GNUTZMANN, Hinnerk

2013-01-01

Examining Board: Professor Thomas Gehrig, University of Vienna Professor Piero Gottardi, Supervisor, European University Institute Professor Andrea Mattozzi, European University Institute Professor Domenico Menicucci, University of Florence. Defence date: 10 September 2013 First made available online on 3 February 2014. This thesis collects three papers in industrial organization and behaviour, unified in their focus on the digital economy. The first two papers study markets for s...

Biotechnology in China

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Hamer, Dean H; Kung, Shain-dow

1989-01-01

... and Shain-dow Kung Center for Agricultural Biotechnology Maryland Biotechnology Institute Department of Botany University of Maryland College Park, Maryland Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China National Academy of Sciences National Academy Press Washington, DC 1989 i Copyrightthe cannot be not from bo...

Biological Risks and Laboratory-Acquired Infections: A Reality That Cannot be Ignored in Health Biotechnology

Science.gov (United States)

Coelho, Ana Cláudia; García Díez, Juan

2015-01-01

Advances and research in biotechnology have applications over a wide range of areas, such as microbiology, medicine, the food industry, agriculture, genetically modified organisms, and nanotechnology, among others. However, research with pathogenic agents, such as virus, parasites, fungi, rickettsia, bacterial microorganisms, or genetic modified organisms, has generated concern because of their potential biological risk – not only for people, but also for the environment due to their unpredictable behavior. In addition, concern for biosafety is associated with the emergence of new diseases or re-emergence of diseases that were already under control. Biotechnology laboratories require biosafety measures designed to protect their staff, the population, and the environment, which may be exposed to hazardous organisms and materials. Laboratory staff training and education is essential, not only to acquire a good understanding about the direct handling of hazardous biological agents but also knowledge of the epidemiology, pathogenicity, and human susceptibility to the biological materials used in research. Biological risk can be reduced and controlled by the correct application of internationally recognized procedures such as proper microbiological techniques, proper containment apparatus, adequate facilities, protective barriers, and special training and education of laboratory workers. To avoid occupational infections, knowledge about standardized microbiological procedures and techniques and the use of containment devices, facilities, and protective barriers is necessary. Training and education about the epidemiology, pathogenicity, and biohazards of the microorganisms involved may prevent or decrease the risk. In this way, the scientific community may benefit from the lessons learned in the past to anticipate future problems. PMID:25973418

Biological risks and laboratory-acquired infections. A reality that cannot be ignored in health biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Cláudia Coelho

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Advances and research in biotechnology have applications over a wide range of areas such as microbiology, medicine, the food industry, agriculture, genetically modified organisms and nanotechnology, among others. However, research with pathogenic agents such as virus, parasites, fungi, rickettsia, bacterial microorganisms or genetic modified organisms has generated concern because of their potential biological risk - not only for people, but also for the environment due to their unpredictable behavior. In addition, concern for biosafety is associated with the emergence of new diseases or re-emergence of diseases that were already under control. Biotechnology laboratories require biosafety measures designed to protect their staff, the population and the environment, which may be exposed to hazardous organisms and materials. Laboratory staff training and education is essential, not only to acquire a good understanding about the direct handling of hazardous biological agents but also knowledge of the epidemiology, pathogenicity and human susceptibility to the biological materials used in research. Biological risk can be reduced and controlled by the correct application of internationally recognized procedures such as proper microbiological techniques, proper containment apparatus, adequate facilities, protective barriers and special training and education of laboratory workers. To avoid occupational infections, knowledge about standardized microbiological procedures and techniques and the use of containment devices, facilities and protective barriers is necessary. Training and education about the epidemiology, pathogenicity and biohazards of the microorganisms involved may prevent or decrease the risk. In this way, the scientific community may benefit from the lessons learned in the past to anticipate future problems.

SOME TRENDS IN MATHEMATICAL MODELING FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. M. Klyuchko

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The purpose of present research is to demonstrate some trends of development of modeling methods for biotechnology according to contemporary achievements in science and technique. At the beginning the general approaches are outlined, some types of classifications of modeling methods are observed. The role of mathematic methods modeling for biotechnology in present époque of information computer technologies intensive development is studied and appropriate scheme of interrelation of all these spheres is proposed. Further case studies are suggested: some mathematic models in three different spaces (1D, 2D, 3D models are described for processes in living objects of different levels of hierarchic organization. In course of this the main attention was paid to some processes modeling in neurons as well as in their aggregates of different forms, including glioma cell masses (1D, 2D, 3D brain processes models. Starting from the models that have only theoretical importance for today, we describe at the end a model which application may be important for the practice. The work was done after the analysis of approximately 250 current publications in fields of biotechnology, including the authors’ original works.

Fungal chitinases: diversity, mechanistic properties and biotechnological potential.

Science.gov (United States)

Hartl, Lukas; Zach, Simone; Seidl-Seiboth, Verena

2012-01-01

Chitin derivatives, chitosan and substituted chito-oligosaccharides have a wide spectrum of applications ranging from medicine to cosmetics and dietary supplements. With advancing knowledge about the substrate-binding properties of chitinases, enzyme-based production of these biotechnologically relevant sugars from biological resources is becoming increasingly interesting. Fungi have high numbers of glycoside hydrolase family 18 chitinases with different substrate-binding site architectures. As presented in this review, the large diversity of fungal chitinases is an interesting starting point for protein engineering. In this review, recent data about the architecture of the substrate-binding clefts of fungal chitinases, in connection with their hydrolytic and transglycolytic abilities, and the development of chitinase inhibitors are summarized. Furthermore, the biological functions of chitinases, chitin and chitosan utilization by fungi, and the effects of these aspects on biotechnological applications, including protein overexpression and autolysis during industrial processes, are discussed in this review.

Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Biotechnology of Elementary Education Preservice Teachers: The first Spanish experience

Science.gov (United States)

Casanoves, Marina; González, Ángel; Salvadó, Zoel; Haro, Juan; Novo, Maite

2015-11-01

Due to the important impact that biotechnology has on current Western societies, well-informed critical citizens are needed. People prepared to make conscious decisions about aspects of biotechnology that relate to their own lives. Teachers play a central role in all education systems. Thus, the biotechnological literacy of preservice teachers is an important consideration as they will become an influential collective as future teachers of the next generation of children. The attitudes toward science (and biotechnology) that teachers have affect their behavior and influence the way they implement their daily practice of science teaching in school. This study analyzes the attitudes and knowledge of Spanish preservice teachers toward biotechnology. We designed a new survey instrument that was completed by 407 university students who were taking official degree programs in preschool and primary education. Our results point out that although they are aware of biotechnology applications, topics concerning the structure of DNA, management of genetic information inside the cell, genetically modified organism technology and the use of microorganisms as biotechnological tools were not correctly answered. According to our attitude analysis, Spanish preservice teachers could be defined as opponents of genetically modified product acquisition, supporters of biotechnology for medical purposes and highly interested in increasing their knowledge about biotechnology and other scientific advances. Our results show a positive correlation between better knowledge and more positive attitudes toward biotechnology. A Spanish preservice teacher with positive attitudes toward biotechnology tends to be a student with a strong biology background who scored good marks in our knowledge test.

Efficiency measures for industrial organization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

ten Raa, Thijs; Ray, Subhash C.; Kumbhakar, Subal C.; Dua, Pami

2015-01-01

The aim of the paper is to measure the efficiency of an industry, and to decompose it in firm efficiencies—which indicate how close firms approximate best practices—and an organization efficiency—which indicates the degree of optimality of the number of firms and their distribution. The latter

Metabolomics for functional genomics, systems biology, and biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, Kazuki; Matsuda, Fumio

2010-01-01

Metabolomics now plays a significant role in fundamental plant biology and applied biotechnology. Plants collectively produce a huge array of chemicals, far more than are produced by most other organisms; hence, metabolomics is of great importance in plant biology. Although substantial improvements have been made in the field of metabolomics, the uniform annotation of metabolite signals in databases and informatics through international standardization efforts remains a challenge, as does the development of new fields such as fluxome analysis and single cell analysis. The principle of transcript and metabolite cooccurrence, particularly transcriptome coexpression network analysis, is a powerful tool for decoding the function of genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. This strategy can now be used for the identification of genes involved in specific pathways in crops and medicinal plants. Metabolomics has gained importance in biotechnology applications, as exemplified by quantitative loci analysis, prediction of food quality, and evaluation of genetically modified crops. Systems biology driven by metabolome data will aid in deciphering the secrets of plant cell systems and their application to biotechnology.

[Biotechnology's macroeconomic impact].

Science.gov (United States)

Dones Tacero, Milagros; Pérez García, Julián; San Román, Antonio Pulido

2008-12-01

This paper tries to yield an economic valuation of biotechnological activities in terms of aggregated production and employment. This valuation goes beyond direct estimation and includes the indirect effects derived from sectorial linkages between biotechnological activities and the rest of economic system. To deal with the proposed target several sources of data have been used, including official data from National Statistical Office (INE) such us national accounts, input-output tables, and innovation surveys, as well as, firms' level balance sheets and income statements and also specific information about research projects compiled by Genoma Spain Foundation. Methodological approach is based on the estimation of a new input-output table which includes the biotechnological activities as a specific branch. This table offers both the direct impact of these activities and the main parameters to obtain the induced effects over the rest of the economic system. According to the most updated available figures, biotechnological activities would have directly generated almost 1,600 millions of euros in 2005, and they would be employed more than 9,000 workers. But if we take into account the full linkages with the rest of the system, the macroeconomic impact of Biotechnological activities would reach around 5,000 millions euros in production terms (0.6% of total GDP) and would be responsible, directly or indirectly, of more than 44,000 employments.

Bio-technology drawing attention for solution of environmental problems. Kankyo mondai kaiketsu demo chumokusareru bio technology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shimazaki, A [Bank of Tokyo, Tokyo (Japan)

1991-06-01

Explanations are given on the recent movements in the bio-technology applications. In the United States, gene therapy has been applied to patients having damaged immune system, while in Japan the first outdoor experiment is about to begin this year on gene recombined tomatoes. In the area of the marine bio-technology, researches carried out by the industrial, governmental, and academic sectors combined, led by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry have begun, which include such an attractive subject as finding out new kinds of algae living on carbon dioxide as their special favorite diet to use them to prevent the earth warming-up. On the other hand, the difficulty of bio-business is represented by the fact that venture business groups are absorbed into larger chemical companies. In Japan, the bio-business established in individual regions related to soy bean paste and Shoyu sauce industry is a distinct feature. Deregulations and review on the patent system are in progress in the United States and Germany aiming at strengthening the business competitiveness. Expectation is placed on the bio-technology that it will contribute largely in the future to solving such a critical environmental problem as experienced in the Persian Gulf war. 1 tab.

Complexity Analysis of Industrial Organizations Based on a Perspective of Systems Engineering Analysts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. H. Garbie

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Complexity in industrial organizations became more difficult and complex to be solved and it needs more attention from academicians and technicians. For these reasons, complexity in industrial organizations represents a new challenge in the next decades. Until now, analysis of industrial organizations complexity is still remaining a research topic of immense international interest and they require reduction in their complexity. In this paper, analysis of complexity in industrial organizations is shown based on the perspective of systems engineering analyst. In this perspective, analysis of complexity was divided into different levels and these levels were defined as complexity levels. A framework of analyzing these levels was proposed and suggested based on the complexity in industrial organizations. This analysis was divided into four main issues: industrial system vision, industrial system structure, industrial system operating, and industrial system evaluating. This analysis shows that the complexity of industrial organizations is still an ill-structured and a multi-dimensional problem.

Outlook: directed development: catalysing a global biotech industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Anthony; Perkins, Tom

2005-09-01

Governments are increasingly relying on directed development tools or proactive public-policy approaches to stimulate scientific and economic development for their biotechnology industries. This article will discuss the four main tools of directed development in biotechnology and the lessons learned from current global efforts utilizing these tools.

Students' Knowledge of, and Attitudes towards Biotechnology Revisited, 1995-2014: Changes in Agriculture Biotechnology but Not in Medical Biotechnology

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Shao-Yen; Chu, Yih-Ru; Lin, Chen-Yung; Chiang, Tzen-Yuh

2016-01-01

Modern biotechnology is one of the most important scientific and technological revolutions in the 21st century, with an increasing and measurable impact on society. Development of biotechnology curriculum has become important to high school bioscience classrooms. This study has monitored high school students in Taiwan on their knowledge of and…

Incentives for development and application of environmentally friendly biotechnological products and processes; Anreize fuer die Entwicklung und Anwendung umweltfreundlicher biotechnischer Produkte und Verfahren

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rhein, Hans-Bernhard; Endler, Katharina [Umweltkanzlei Dr. Rhein, Sarstedt (Germany); Ulber, Roland; Muffler, Kai; Mueller, Felix [Technische Univ. Kaiserslautern (Germany)

2011-01-15

Studies assign a tremendous growth potential related to biotechnology. However, the predicted proportion of biotechnological manufactured products in the chemical industry for the year 2010 by 20 % will more likely remain by today's 5 %. The study deals with the question why biotechnological products are currently established at the market in the obvious slow way. Therefore, the current constraints and existing respectively new incentive instruments referring to the white (industrial) biotechnology are analyzed to focus on the promotion of the development and application of environmentally friendly biotechnology products and methods. In addition to a search concerning environmental relevance and further development of white biotechnology, the postulated constraints and incentives as well as new promotions are discussed with the help of expert interviews. On the basis of a preliminary study - after further discussion with experts - concrete proposals on improvements related to an ongoing establishment of biotechnology will be derived. Based on case studies (2nd generation biofuels, polyhydroxybutyrate as biopolymer and phytase as an animal feed additive), the practical effects and specific conditions to incentives, from the perspective of biotechnological processes and environmentally friendly products are investigated. Overall, about 40 activities were recommended, which could be assigned to areas of direct government incentives (tax policy/subsidies, subsidies, education and research policy, basic political conditions, government demand and information policy/consumer intelligence) as well as non-governmental incentives (knowledge transfer and cooperation, organisation-related policy, capital market financing). (orig.)

Incentives for development and application of environmentally friendly biotechnological products and processes; Anreize fuer die Entwicklung und Anwendung umweltfreundlicher biotechnischer Produkte und Verfahren

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rhein, Hans-Bernhard; Endler, Katharina [Umweltkanzlei Dr. Rhein, Sarstedt (Germany); Ulber, Roland; Muffler, Kai; Mueller, Felix [Technische Univ. Kaiserslautern (Germany)

2011-01-15

Studies assign a tremendous growth potential related to biotechnology. However, the predicted proportion of biotechnological manufactured products in the chemical industry for the year 2010 by 20 % will more likely remain by today's 5 %. The study deals with the question why biotechnological products are currently established at the market in the obvious slow way. Therefore, the current constraints and existing respectively new incentive instruments referring to the white (industrial) biotechnology are analyzed to focus on the promotion of the development and application of environmentally friendly biotechnology products and methods. In addition to a search concerning environmental relevance and further development of white biotechnology, the postulated constraints and incentives as well as new promotions are discussed with the help of expert interviews. On the basis of a preliminary study - after further discussion with experts - concrete proposals on improvements related to an ongoing establishment of biotechnology will be derived. Based on case studies (2nd generation biofuels, polyhydroxybutyrate as biopolymer and phytase as an animal feed additive), the practical effects and specific conditions to incentives, from the perspective of biotechnological processes and environmentally friendly products are investigated. Overall, about 40 activities were recommended, which could be assigned to areas of direct government incentives (tax policy/subsidies, subsidies, education and research policy, basic political conditions, government demand and information policy/consumer intelligence) as well as non-governmental incentives (knowledge transfer and cooperation, organisation-related policy, capital market financing). (orig.)

Uses of biotechnology in waste treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holmes, R.G.G.; Benson, J.

1996-01-01

BNFL have invested in a Biotechnology programme to address waste treatment problems. The use of biotechnology to destroy organic pollutants is well known and has been successfully employed both in-situ and ex-situ. The BNFL approach has been to concentrate on the interaction of microbial systems with inorganic materials. This study has resulted in two major programmes of work that show every indication of being suitable for large scale application. The first programme of work investigated using, to decontaminate concrete surfaces, the phenomena of concrete degradation by sulphur oxidizing bacteria. Laboratory tests proved encouraging and have resulted in a Co-operative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), between BNFL and Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Company for the INEL site. The CRADA will lead to a demonstration of the technology. The second major area of investigation is the development of an integrated bioremediation process for the removal and recovery of toxic heavy metals from contaminated land. The two stage process, which can be employed in an in-situ or ex-situ mode, involves the use of indigenous micro-organisms to generate sulphuric acid and environmental consortia to generate hydrogen sulphide. This project has reached the point of field trials. Results from both programmes will be presented and their applications at nuclear sites detailed

Current state of biotechnology in Turkey.

Science.gov (United States)

Dundar, Munis; Akbarova, Yagut

2011-09-01

Biotechnology is an interdisciplinary branch of science that encompasses a wide range of subjects like genetics, virology, microbiology, immunology, engineering to develop vaccines, and so on and plays a vital role in health systems, crop and seed management, yield improvement, agriculture, soil management, ecology, animal farming, cellular process, bio statistics, and so on. This article is about activities in medical and pharmaceutical biotechnology, environmental biotechnology, agricultural biotechnology and nanobiotechnology carried out in Turkey. Turkey has made some progress in biotechnology projects for research and development. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Medium and Long-term Opportunities and Risks of the Biotechnological Production of Bulk Chemicals from Renewable Resources. The Potential of White Biotechnology. The BREW Project. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Patel, M.; Crank, M.; Dornburg, V.; Hermann, B.; Roes, L. [Department of Science, Technology and Society NWS, Utrecht University, Utrecht (Netherlands); Huesing, B. [Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research FhG-ISl, Karlsruhe (Germany); Overbeek, L. [Plant Research International PRI, Wageningen (Netherlands); Terragni, F.; Recchia, E. [CERISS, Centro per I' Educazione, la Ricerca, I' lnformazione su Scienza e Society, Milan (Italy)

2006-09-15

This study investigates the medium and long-term opportunities and risks of the biotechnological production of organic chemicals. The objective is to gain better understanding of the techno-economic and the societal viability of White Biotechnology in the coming decades. The key research questions are which products could be made with White Biotechnology, whether these products can contribute to savings of energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, under which conditions the products become economically viable, which risks may originate from the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in fermentation and what the public perception is. The main purpose of Chapter 2 is to provide an overview of emerging key White Biotechnology products and to explain which chemicals could be produced on their basis. For a selection of these products, detailed environmental and economic assessments are conducted in Chapter 3 (in specific terms, i.e. per tonne of product). Chapter 3 discusses also the so-called Generic Approach which is the methodology we developed and applied to assess future processes and processes, for which very little information is available. In Chapter 4, three scenario projections are developed for Europe (EU-25), thereby assuming benign, moderate and disadvantageous conditions for bio-based chemicals. The purpose of this chapter is hence to understand to which extent restructuring of the chemical sector might occur under which conditions. In Chapter 5, the risks related to the use of White Biotechnology are addressed. The main purpose of this chapter is to give insight into the main risk components influencing the overall risk and of the knowledge gaps. Both conventional risks (e.g., human toxicity and accidents) and risks related to generic modification (e.g., horizontal gene transfer) are analyzed. Since the public perception may play an important role for the implementation of White Biotechnology on a large scale, these issues are discussed in

Research status and prospects of the radiation food science and biotechnology in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Ju Woon; Kim, Jae Hun; Choi, Jong Il; Song, Byum Suk; Byun, Myung Woo

2008-01-01

Irradiation Food has been approved in 52 countries worldwide. In Korea, 26 food items have been approved since 1987. Recently, the irradiation technology with high dose was applied for the development of Korean space foods. Besides the sanitary purpose, the irradiation technology was used for elimination of undesired products such as food allergens, nitrite, biogenic amines, and so on. In this paper, the status of irradiation in the field of food and other biotechnology in Korea will be presented. Food irradiation is known to be the best method for controlling pathogenic microorganisms and one of the best alternatives to the chemical fumigants or preservatives usually used for a sanitation treatment for international trade. Also, there are larger industrial groups dedicated to radiation processing other than food irradiation industry. In this paper, the status of irradiation food science and biotechnology in Korea will be presented

Plant biotechnology patents: applications in agriculture and medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Hefferon, Kathleen

2010-06-01

Recent advances in agricultural biotechnology have enabled the field of plant biology to move forward in great leaps and bounds. In particular, recent breakthroughs in molecular biology, plant genomics and crop science have brought about a paradigm shift of thought regarding the manner by which plants can be utilized both in agriculture and in medicine. Besides the more well known improvements in agronomic traits of crops such as disease resistance and drought tolerance, plants can now be associated with topics as diverse as biofuel production, phytoremediation, the improvement of nutritional qualities in edible plants, the identification of compounds for medicinal purposes in plants and the use of plants as therapeutic protein production platforms. This diversification of plant science has been accompanied by the great abundance of new patents issued in these fields and, as many of these inventions approach commercial realization, the subsequent increase in agriculturally-based industries. While this review chapter is written primarily for plant scientists who have great interest in the new directions being taken with respect to applications in agricultural biotechnology, those in other disciplines, such as medical researchers, environmental scientists and engineers, may find significant value in reading this article as well. The review attempts to provide an overview of the most recent patents issued for plant biotechnology with respect to both agriculture and medicine. The chapter concludes with the proposal that the combined driving forces of climate change, as well as the ever increasing needs for clean energy and food security will play a pivotal role in leading the direction for applied plant biotechnology research in the future.

Novel applications for glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins in pharmaceutical and industrial biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, Günter

2011-04-01

Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins have been regarded as typical cell surface proteins found in most eukaryotic cells from yeast to man. They are embedded in the outer plasma membrane leaflet via a carboxy-terminally linked complex glycolipid GPI structure. The amphiphilic nature of the GPI anchor, its compatibility with the function of the attached protein moiety and the capability of GPI-anchored proteins for spontaneous insertion into and transfer between artificial and cellular membranes initially suggested their potential for biotechnological applications. However, these expectations have been hardly fulfilled so far. Recent developments fuel novel hopes with regard to: (i) Automated online expression, extraction and purification of therapeutic proteins as GPI-anchored proteins based on their preferred accumulation in plasma membrane lipid rafts, (ii) multiplex custom-made protein chips based on GPI-anchored cell wall proteins in yeast, (iii) biomaterials and biosensors with films consisting of sets of distinct GPI-anchored binding-proteins or enzymes for sequential or combinatorial catalysis, and (iv) transport of therapeutic proteins across or into relevant tissue cells, e.g., enterocytes or adipocytes. Latter expectations are based on the demonstrated translocation of GPI-anchored proteins from plasma membrane lipid rafts to cytoplasmic lipid droplets and eventually further into microvesicles which upon release from donor cells transfer their GPI-anchored proteins to acceptor cells. The value of these technologies, which are all based on the interaction of GPI-anchored proteins with membranes and surfaces, for the engineering, production and targeted delivery of biomolecules for a huge variety of therapeutic and biotechnological purposes should become apparent in the near future.

ISS Biotechnology Facility - Overview of Analytical Tools for Cellular Biotechnology Investigations

Science.gov (United States)

Jeevarajan, A. S.; Towe, B. C.; Anderson, M. M.; Gonda, S. R.; Pellis, N. R.

2001-01-01

The ISS Biotechnology Facility (BTF) platform provides scientists with a unique opportunity to carry out diverse experiments in a microgravity environment for an extended period of time. Although considerable progress has been made in preserving cells on the ISS for long periods of time for later return to Earth, future biotechnology experiments would desirably monitor, process, and analyze cells in a timely way on-orbit. One aspect of our work has been directed towards developing biochemical sensors for pH, glucose, oxygen, and carbon dioxide for perfused bioreactor system developed at Johnson Space Center. Another aspect is the examination and identification of new and advanced commercial biotechnologies that may have applications to on-orbit experiments.

PDA survey of quality risk management practices in the pharmaceutical, devices, & biotechnology industries.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Ruhi; Baseman, Harold; Ferreira, Jorge; Genova, Thomas; Harclerode, William; Hartman, Jeffery; Kim, Samuel; Londeree, Nanette; Long, Michael; Miele, William; Ramjit, Timothy; Raschiatore, Marlene; Tomonto, Charles

2008-01-01

In July 2006 the Parenteral Drug Association's Risk Management Task Force for Aseptic Processes, conducted an electronic survey of PDA members to determine current industry practices regarding implementation of Quality Risk Management in their organizations. This electronic survey was open and publicly available via the PDA website and targeted professionals in our industry who are involved in initiating, implementing, or reviewing risk management programs or decisions in their organizations. One hundred twenty-nine members participated and their demographics are presented in the sidebar "Correspondents Profile". Among the major findings are: *The "Aseptic Processing/Filling" operation is the functional area identified as having the greatest need for risk assessment and quality risk management. *The most widely used methodology in industry to identify risk is Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). This tool was most widely applied in assessing change control and for adverse event, complaint, or failure investigations. *Despite the fact that personnel training was identified as the strategy most used for controlling/minimizing risk, the largest contributors to sterility failure in operations are still "Personnel". *Most companies still rely on "Manufacturing Controls" to mitigate risk and deemed the utilization of Process Analytical Technology (PAT) least important in this aspect. *A majority of correspondents verified that they did not periodically assess their risk management programs. *A majority of the correspondents desired to see case studies or examples of risk analysis implementation (as applicable to aseptic processing) in future PDA technical reports on risk management.

FY 1997 report on the research study on the effect of the active use of bio-technology on energy and social systems; 1997 nendo chosa hokokusho (bio-technology no katsuyo ni yoru energy shakai system ni oyobosu koka no chosa kenkyu)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-03-01

For construction of a sustainable society by active use of bio-technology, a research study was made on the current state of active use of bio-technology for every industrial or social field, and the basic recognition and orientation for practice and diffusion of bio-technology. The previous typical examples of the effect of bio-technology on energy and social systems were evaluated from not only an affirmative viewpoint but also a compensatory viewpoint. Based on these examples, promising features of bio-technology and measures for active use of such features were showed for the future energy and social systems from a technological viewpoint. As a scenario for sustainable development of a society, some approaches and values about collection of rare resources, agriculture based on mass circulation, and recurrence to high-protein traditional foods such as fermented food were showed for balanced development of environment, population, and resources including energy and food. 8 refs., 14 figs., 8 tabs.

The role of biotechnology in the socio-economic advancement and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

2006-12-04

Dec 4, 2006 ... genetic basis of all living organisms, the scientific understanding of biological ... and microbial agents to create heretofore unattainable products and services. ... Key words: Biotechnology, fermentation, food, gene technology, manipulation, microbes. ..... applications such as bakery and cheese making to.

Magnetic separations: From steel plants to biotechnology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cafer T. Yavuz; Arjun Prakash; J.T. Mayo; Vicki L. Colvin [Rice University, Houston, TX (United States). Department of Chemistry

2009-05-15

Magnetic separations have for decades been essential processes in diverse industries ranging from steel production to coal desulfurization. In such settings magnetic fields are used in continuous flow processes as filters to remove magnetic impurities. High gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) has found even broader use in wastewater treatment and food processing. Batch scale magnetic separations are also relevant in industry, particularly biotechnology where fixed magnetic separators are used to purify complex mixtures for protein isolation, cell separation, drug delivery, and biocatalysis. In this review, we introduce the basic concepts behind magnetic separations and summarize a few examples of its large scale application. HGMS systems and batch systems for magnetic separations have been developed largely in parallel by different communities. However, in this work we compare and contrast each approach so that investigators can approach both key areas. Finally, we discuss how new advances in magnetic materials, particularly on the nanoscale, as well as magnetic filter design offer new opportunities for industries that have challenging separation problems.

Design and Implementation of an Interdepartmental Biotechnology Program across Engineering Technology Curricula

Science.gov (United States)

Clase, Kari

2008-01-01

The health industry is an important and growing economic engine. Advances are being made in pharmaceutical and biotechnology discoveries and their applications (including manufacturing), as well as in health care services. As a result, there is an increasing sophistication of the products and services available and being developed, with an…

Organic marketing initiatives and rural development - lessons learned for the organic industry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristensen, Niels Heine; Kujala, Jouni

2005-01-01

Kujala J, Kristensen NH, (2005): Organic marketing initiatives and rural development - lessons learned for the organic industry. Article in "Organic farming for a new millennium - status and future challenges". Published by Nordic Association of Agricultural Scientists (NJF). Swedish University...... of Agricultural Sciences Alnarp, Sweden. NJF-Seminar 369, June 15-17, 2005. Electronic version available at www.njf.nu. ISSN 1653-2015...

INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS IN BIOTECHNOLOGIES OF COMBINED YOGURT DRINKS WITH BALANCED CHEMICAL CONTENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. A. Tkachenko

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Expediency of development of recipes and innovative biotechnologies for combined milk-vegetational products with balanced chemical composition, strengthened probiotic properties and extended shelf life was proven in field of establishing proper diet for adult healthy people, both in everyday consumption and during treatment of illnesses and rehabilitation after it. Principles of scientific approach to creation of biotechnologies for fermented combined products with balance of basic food nutrients are described here, as well as innovative biotechnological approaches, which provide the possibility of getting desired products (yoghurt drinks with high probiotic properties and long shelf life. Main stages of development are described for recipes and biotechnologies of bifido-enabled combined yoghurt drinks with balanced chemical composition, rich on lively bifido- and Lactobacterium cells and long shelf life. A scheme for production of desired products with explanation of technological process parameters is provided, it was tested in industrial conditions at “Gormolzavod №1” Ltd. in Odesa, Ukraine. In samples of milk-rice and milk-spelt yoghurt drinks, which were produced in industrial conditions, we determined chemical composition and primary quality objectives. Desired products have balanced ratio of proteins : fats : carbohydrates (1 : 1 : 4, high sensory qualities, standard quality values during long shelf life (20 days in sealed tare, contain a high concentration of viable cells of probiotic cultures – such as B. animalis Bb-12 (not less than 3.6∙108 CFU / cm3 and mixed cultures of L. bulgaricus + S. thermophilus (not less than 4.0∙108 CFU/cm3, as well as physiologically significant number of prebiotics – lactulose and fiber (30 and 10%, according to the daily consumption norm when consuming 500 cm3 of product.

Outcomes of a statewide anti-tobacco industry youth organizing movement.

Science.gov (United States)

Dunn, Caroline L; Pirie, Phyllis L; Oakes, J Michael

2004-01-01

To outline the design and present select findings from an evaluation of a statewide anti-tobacco industry youth organizing movement. A telephone survey was administered to teenagers to assess associations between exposure to anti-industry youth organizing activities and tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. A group-level comparison between areas high and low in youth organizing activities was planned. Methodological obstacles necessitated a subject-level analytic approach, with comparisons being made between youth at higher and lower levels of exposure. Six rural areas (comprising 13 counties) and two urban regions of Minnesota were selected for survey. The study comprised 852 youth, aged 15 to 17 years old, randomly selected from county-specific sampling frames constructed from a marketing research database. Exposure index scores were developed for two types of activities designed to involve youth in the anti-industry program: branding (creating awareness of the movement in general) and messaging (informing about the movement's main messages). Attitudinal outcomes measured attitudes about the tobacco industry and the effectiveness of youth action. Behavioral outcomes included taking action to get involved in the organization, spreading an anti-industry message, and smoking susceptibility. Branding index scores were significantly correlated with taking action to get involved (p strategy for involving youth in tobacco prevention and generating negative attitudes about the industry.

The effect of biotechnology education on Australian high school students' understandings and attitudes about biotechnology processes

Science.gov (United States)

Dawson, Vaille; Soames, Christina

2006-11-01

Our education system aims to equip young people with the knowledge, problem-solving skills and values to cope with an increasingly technological society. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of biotechnology education on adolescents’ understanding and attitudes about processes associated with biotechnology. Data were drawn from teacher and student interviews and surveys in the context of innovative Year 10 biotechnology courses conducted in three Western Australian high schools. The results indicate that after completing a biotechnology course students’ understanding increased but their attitudes remained constant with the exception of their views about human uses of gene technology. The findings of this study have ramifications for the design and implementation of biotechnology education courses in high schools.

Biotechnological applications of transglutaminases.

Science.gov (United States)

Rachel, Natalie M; Pelletier, Joelle N

2013-10-22

In nature, transglutaminases catalyze the formation of amide bonds between proteins to form insoluble protein aggregates. This specific function has long been exploited in the food and textile industries as a protein cross-linking agent to alter the texture of meat, wool, and leather. In recent years, biotechnological applications of transglutaminases have come to light in areas ranging from material sciences to medicine. There has also been a substantial effort to further investigate the fundamentals of transglutaminases, as many of their characteristics that remain poorly understood. Those studies also work towards the goal of developing transglutaminases as more efficient catalysts. Progress in this area includes structural information and novel chemical and biological assays. Here, we review recent achievements in this area in order to illustrate the versatility of transglutaminases.

Determining organic pollutants in automotive industry sludge.

Science.gov (United States)

Munaretto, Juliana S; Wonghon, Audrey L; von Mühlen, Carin

2012-12-01

In Brazil, the policy for disposing industrial sludge is changing from an emphasis on using controlled landfills to other treatment or co-processing methods; however, the monitoring of organic pollutants is not mandatory. The present study evaluated two general screening methods for organic pollutants in sludge generated in an automotive industrial complex in southern Brazil. The screening was performed using Soxhlet and sonication extractions and Gas Chromatograph coupled with Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (GC/qMS). It was concluded that both techniques were effective and that most of the compounds identified were alkanes, phenols and esters. Important pollutants were detected in the sludge, which confirms the necessity of monitoring this type of residue.

Using the written description requirement to limit broad patent scope, allow competition, and encourage innovation in biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Mull, William C

2004-01-01

The biotechnology research and development process is extremely expensive and companies must attract investors to this high-risk industry to pay for these costs. Biotechnology companies rely on their ability to exclude others from exploiting the benefits of their research through patent protection to attract these investors. Consequently, they seek strong patent protection for their inventions by claiming a broad scope of patent protection for their inventions. Biotechnology is an industry where the scope of protection should be limited. Science-based technologies exploit the perceived technological opportunities from recent scientific developments, concentrating the attention of many inventors on the same areas. This poses several unique problems. First, only the first of several inventors will receive a patent to the invention. Second, due to publicly available, basic techniques, the actual contribution made by the inventor may be relatively small. Finally, there is a significant risk that permitting an overbroad patent scope may permit original patentees to control a variety of improvements and a number of applications. Additionally, a broad scope of protection for an invention tends to cause underutilization of many potential inventions or improvements. By limiting the scope of protection, one allows competitors to utilize these potential inventions or improvements and encourages the advancement of the technology. Traditionally, courts have used the scope of the disclosure to limit a patent with an overly broad scope of protection. The Federal Circuit is correctly applying the written description requirement as part of the disclosure to limit broad claim scope in biotechnology patents. The written description requirement is separate from the enablement requirement and applies to all claims. By requiring a written description to allow a PHOSITA to determine the structural characteristics of the claimed invention, the Federal Circuit is able limit biotechnology

Knowledge Management and Analysis of Scientific Biotechnology Trends in Venezuela

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Fatima Ebole Santana

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a study on knowledge management and analysis of scientific Biotechnology trends in Venezuela, providing an overview of the science profile as well as regional development and its relation to issues of topics covered by Biotechnology based on the analysis of scientific publications for the period of 1995 to 2010. The survey was accomplished in database ISI/Web of Science using 60 terms selected by experts in Biotechnology and 803 register has been organized. Scientific indicators were produced using data/ text mining tools. It was possible to find a greater number of scientific publications in areas such as Ecology and Health, showing a greater frequency in these terms: DNA, PCR and Biodiversity. Results pointed out The United States of America as the main foreign partner-country of scientific publications followed by Spain and France. It was possible to verify cooperation network with others Latin American countries: Brazil, Colombia and Chile.

World Biotechnology Leaders to Gather for Conference

Science.gov (United States)

Biotechnology Leaders to Gather for Conference For more information contact: e:mail: Public Affairs biotechnology leaders gather in Fort Collins, CO May 2-6 for the 21st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and special session on funding opportunities for U.S. biotechnology projects. More than 175 presentations are

[Biotechnological potential of methylotrophic bacteria: a review of current status and future prospects].

Science.gov (United States)

Trotsenko, Iu A; Doronina, N V; Khmelenina, V N

2005-01-01

Major results of the authors' findings on the implementation of biotechnological potential of aerobic methylobacteria and methanotrophs for obtaining forage proteins, biopolymers (polybutyrate and polysaccharides), enzymes (oxidoreductases), and bioprotectors (ectoin), as well as for degrading toxic C1 and Cn compounds have been reviewed. Unique features of the structural and functional organization of the metabolism of extremophilic (tolerant) methylotrophs are discussed, with a view for their prospective use in various fields of modern biotechnology, including biocatalysis and nanotechnology.

Inter-firm R&D partnering in pharmaceutical biotechnology since 1975 : trends, patterns, and networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roijakkers, A.H.W.M.; Hagedoorn, J.

2006-01-01

This paper analyses a large, longitudinal database on inter-firm R&D partnerships formed in the high-tech pharmaceutical biotechnology industry since 1975. Our research indicates an overall growth in the number of annually, newly established R&D partnerships where research partners consistently

Biotechnology : A Dutch perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Apeldoorn, J.H.F.

1981-01-01

Biotechnology: a Dutch Perspective assesses the future potential of biotechnology in the Netherlands. It has been published in English because it is felt that the Dutch case could be of relevance to other industrialised nations. Although the report is aimed primarily at policy planners and decision

Workshop Summary for Maintaining Innovation and Security in Biotechnology: Lessons Learned from Nuclear, Chemical, and Informational Technologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Althouse, Paris [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2017-10-11

In the fast-paced field of biotechnology where innovation has such far-reaching impacts on human health and the environment, dealing with the implications of possible illicit activities, accidents or unintended research consequences with potential detrimental societal impacts tends to remain in the background. While controls may be inevitable for the biotech industry, workshop attendees agreed that the way in which controls are implemented will play a major role in the agility and innovation of the biotechnology industry. There is little desire to slow down the pace of the gains while dealing with the security issues that arise. As was seen from the brief examinations of the Nuclear, Chemical, and Information Technology sectors explored in this workshop, establishing a regulatory regime needs to be a partnership between the public, corporate interests, scientists, and the government. Regulation is often written to combat perceived risk rather than actual risk—the public’s perceptions (occasionally even fictional portrayals) can spur regulatory efforts. This leads to the need for a thorough and continuing assessment of the risks posed by modern biotechnology. Inadequate or minimal risk assessment might expedite development in the short term but has potential negative long-term security and economic consequences. Industry and the technical community also often have a large role in setting regulatory policy, especially when well-crafted incentives are incorporated into the regulations. Such incentives might actually lead to enhanced innovation while poorly designed incentives can actually reduce safety and security. Any regulations should be as agile and flexible as the technology they regulate and when applied to biotechnologies they will need a new framework for thinking and implementing. The new framework should consider biotechnology as a technology and not simply a science since it is an extremely complex and adaptive system. This suggests the need to invest

Proceedings of the International Symposium on Biotechnology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

This is a book of abstracts of oral communications and posters that were presented during the International Symposium on Biotechnology that was held in Sfax, Tunisia from May 4th to 8th, 2008. The following themes were covered : - Biotechnology for animal and human health and biopharmaceuticals; - Microbial and environmental biotechnology; - Agricultural, Food and marine biotechnology

Biotechnology and genetic engineering in the new drug development. Part I. DNA technology and recombinant proteins.

Science.gov (United States)

Stryjewska, Agnieszka; Kiepura, Katarzyna; Librowski, Tadeusz; Lochyński, Stanisław

2013-01-01

Pharmaceutical biotechnology has a long tradition and is rooted in the last century, first exemplified by penicillin and streptomycin as low molecular weight biosynthetic compounds. Today, pharmaceutical biotechnology still has its fundamentals in fermentation and bioprocessing, but the paradigmatic change affected by biotechnology and pharmaceutical sciences has led to an updated definition. The biotechnology revolution redrew the research, development, production and even marketing processes of drugs. Powerful new instruments and biotechnology related scientific disciplines (genomics, proteomics) make it possible to examine and exploit the behavior of proteins and molecules. Recombinant DNA (rDNA) technologies (genetic, protein, and metabolic engineering) allow the production of a wide range of peptides, proteins, and biochemicals from naturally nonproducing cells. This technology, now approximately 25 years old, is becoming one of the most important technologies developed in the 20(th) century. Pharmaceutical products and industrial enzymes were the first biotech products on the world market made by means of rDNA. Despite important advances regarding rDNA applications in mammalian cells, yeasts still represent attractive hosts for the production of heterologous proteins. In this review we describe these processes.

BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS AND POTENTIAL USES OF THE MUSHROOM TRAMESTES VERSICOLOR

OpenAIRE

CÓRDOBA M., Ketty A.; RÍOS H., Alicia

2012-01-01

The use of products obtained from fungi (particularly mushrooms) has increased lately due to their broad applicability in different scientific and industrial fields. The genus Trametes comprises a group of white rot producing ligninolytic fungi, with medicinal properties, biotechnological importance and environmental applications. One of the most potentially useful species is T. versicolor, formerly known as Coriolus versicolor or Polyporus versicolor. Also known as Yun Zhi in China, is a fun...

Environmental biotechnology: Reducing risks from environmental chemicals through biotechnology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Omenn, G.S.

1988-01-01

This book contains 34 papers on various aspects of hazardous waste management through biotechnology. The articles stress the three basic strategies of waste management; minimize the amount of waste generated; reduce the toxicity of the wastes; and find more satisfactory ways of disposing of wastes. Part I of this collection describes the use of microbial ecology, molecular biology, and other scientific disciplines to combat these problems. Part II describes the application of present technology to current problems. Part III describes the effect of policy and regulations on biotechnology. Individual papers are processed separately for the data base

"Recombinant Protein of the Day": Using Daily Student Presentations to Add Real-World Aspects to a Biotechnology Course

Science.gov (United States)

Shaffer, Justin F.

2013-01-01

To provide a realistic view of the biotechnology industry for students, a novel course focusing on recombinant proteins and their importance in medicine, pharmaceuticals, industry, scientific research, and agriculture was developed. ''Designer Proteins and Society,'' an upper-division elective, was taught in the Fall 2012 semester to 16 junior,…

Biotechnologies for the management of genetic resources for food and agriculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Lidder, Preetmoninder; Sonnino, Andrea

2012-01-01

facilitate the development and appropriate use of biotechnologies in developing countries; and that FAO and other relevant international organizations and donors should significantly increase their efforts to support the strengthening of national capacities in the development and appropriate use of pro-poor agricultural biotechnologies. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The rise of health biotechnology research in Latin America: A scientometric analysis of health biotechnology production and impact in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

This paper analyzes the patterns of health biotechnology publications in six Latin American countries from 2001 to 2015. The countries studied were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico. Before our study, there were no data available on HBT development in half of the Latin-American countries we studied, i.e., Argentina, Colombia and Chile. To include these countries in a scientometric analysis of HBT provides fuller coverage of HBT development in Latin America. The scientometric study used the Web of Science database to identify health biotechnology publications. The total amount of health biotechnology production in the world during the period studied was about 400,000 papers. A total of 1.2% of these papers, were authored by the six Latin American countries in this study. The results show a significant growth in health biotechnology publications in Latin America despite some of the countries having social and political instability, fluctuations in their gross domestic expenditure in research and development or a trade embargo that limits opportunities for scientific development. The growth in the field of some of the Latin American countries studied was larger than the growth of most industrialized nations. Still, the visibility of the Latin American research (measured in the number of citations) did not reach the world average, with the exception of Colombia. The main producers of health biotechnology papers in Latin America were universities, except in Cuba were governmental institutions were the most frequent producers. The countries studied were active in international research collaboration with Colombia being the most active (64% of papers co-authored internationally), whereas Brazil was the least active (35% of papers). Still, the domestic collaboration was even more prevalent, with Chile being the most active in such collaboration (85% of papers co-authored domestically) and Argentina the least active (49% of papers). We conclude that the

The rise of health biotechnology research in Latin America: A scientometric analysis of health biotechnology production and impact in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

León-de la O, Dante Israel; Thorsteinsdóttir, Halla; Calderón-Salinas, José Víctor

2018-01-01

This paper analyzes the patterns of health biotechnology publications in six Latin American countries from 2001 to 2015. The countries studied were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico. Before our study, there were no data available on HBT development in half of the Latin-American countries we studied, i.e., Argentina, Colombia and Chile. To include these countries in a scientometric analysis of HBT provides fuller coverage of HBT development in Latin America. The scientometric study used the Web of Science database to identify health biotechnology publications. The total amount of health biotechnology production in the world during the period studied was about 400,000 papers. A total of 1.2% of these papers, were authored by the six Latin American countries in this study. The results show a significant growth in health biotechnology publications in Latin America despite some of the countries having social and political instability, fluctuations in their gross domestic expenditure in research and development or a trade embargo that limits opportunities for scientific development. The growth in the field of some of the Latin American countries studied was larger than the growth of most industrialized nations. Still, the visibility of the Latin American research (measured in the number of citations) did not reach the world average, with the exception of Colombia. The main producers of health biotechnology papers in Latin America were universities, except in Cuba were governmental institutions were the most frequent producers. The countries studied were active in international research collaboration with Colombia being the most active (64% of papers co-authored internationally), whereas Brazil was the least active (35% of papers). Still, the domestic collaboration was even more prevalent, with Chile being the most active in such collaboration (85% of papers co-authored domestically) and Argentina the least active (49% of papers). We conclude that the

Improved molecular tools for sugar cane biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinkema, Mark; Geijskes, Jason; Delucca, Paulo; Palupe, Anthony; Shand, Kylie; Coleman, Heather D; Brinin, Anthony; Williams, Brett; Sainz, Manuel; Dale, James L

2014-03-01

Sugar cane is a major source of food and fuel worldwide. Biotechnology has the potential to improve economically-important traits in sugar cane as well as diversify sugar cane beyond traditional applications such as sucrose production. High levels of transgene expression are key to the success of improving crops through biotechnology. Here we describe new molecular tools that both expand and improve gene expression capabilities in sugar cane. We have identified promoters that can be used to drive high levels of gene expression in the leaf and stem of transgenic sugar cane. One of these promoters, derived from the Cestrum yellow leaf curling virus, drives levels of constitutive transgene expression that are significantly higher than those achieved by the historical benchmark maize polyubiquitin-1 (Zm-Ubi1) promoter. A second promoter, the maize phosphonenolpyruvate carboxylate promoter, was found to be a strong, leaf-preferred promoter that enables levels of expression comparable to Zm-Ubi1 in this organ. Transgene expression was increased approximately 50-fold by gene modification, which included optimising the codon usage of the coding sequence to better suit sugar cane. We also describe a novel dual transcriptional enhancer that increased gene expression from different promoters, boosting expression from Zm-Ubi1 over eightfold. These molecular tools will be extremely valuable for the improvement of sugar cane through biotechnology.

Ecology and biotechnological potential of the thermophilic fermentative Coprothermobacter spp.

Science.gov (United States)

Gagliano, M C; Braguglia, C M; Petruccioli, M; Rossetti, S

2015-05-01

Thermophilic bacteria have been isolated from several terrestrial, marine and industrial environments. Anaerobic digesters treating organic wastes are often an important source of these microorganisms, which catalyze a wide array of metabolic processes. Moreover, organic wastes are primarily composed of proteins, whose degradation is often incomplete. Coprothermobacter spp. are proteolytic anaerobic thermophilic microbes identified in several studies focused on the analysis of the microbial community structure in anaerobic thermophilic reactors. They are currently classified in the phylum Firmicutes; nevertheless, several authors showed that the Coprothermobacter group is most closely related to the phyla Dictyoglomi and Thermotoga. Since only a few proteolytic anaerobic thermophiles have been characterized so far, this microorganism has attracted the attention of researchers for its potential applications with high-temperature environments. In addition to proteolysis, Coprothermobacter spp. showed several metabolic abilities and may have a biotechnological application either as source of thermostable enzymes or as inoculum in anaerobic processes. Moreover, they can improve protein degradation by establishing a syntrophy with hydrogenotrophic archaea. To gain a better understanding of the phylogenesis, metabolic capabilities and adaptations of these microorganisms, it is of importance to better define the role in thermophilic environments and to disclose properties not yet investigated. © FEMS 2015. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The biotechnology of ethanol. Classical and future applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roehr, M. [ed.] [Technische Univ., Vienna (Austria). Inst. fuer Biochemische Technologie und Mikrobiologie; Kosaric, N. [Western Ontario Univ., London, ON (Canada). Dept. of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering; Vardar-Sukan, F [Ege Univ., Izmir (Turkey). Dept. of Chemical Engineering; Pieper, H.J.; Senn, T. [Hohenheim Univ., Stuttgart (Germany). Inst. fuer Lebensmitteltechnologie

2001-07-01

Focusing on the biotechnology of ethanol, this book highlights its industrial relevance as one of the most important products of primary metabolism. The text covers the most advanced developments among classical methods as well as more unconventional techniques, before going on to outline various aspects of new applications and the increasing importance of ethanol as a renewable resource. Topics covered in this unique volume include alternative raw materials, such as municipal waste and waste paper or particular crops, innovative methods of production using genetically engineered microorganisms, and the role of ethanol as both a source of energy and a valuable commodity. The book is an indispensable reference in that it combines biotechnological and economic aspects, while also providing an overview of the state of the art in the production and use of ethanol. Throughout, special emphasis has been placed on a balanced presentation between developments in Europe as well as in North and South America. With contributions of T. Senn and H.J. Pieper and of N. Kosaric and F. Vardar-Sukan. (orig.)

Awakening the Biodiversity Potential Trough ST&I Investments in the Sector of Amazonian Biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabiana dos Santos e Souza Frickmann

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The biotechnological development conciliated to Amazonian biodiversity represents a big potential for richness to Brazil. This study analyses the Brazilian investments in ST&I Amazonia’s, utilizing as indicator for that, the resources applied in R&D and the patent appli;cations coming from Amazon, which were filed with the National Institute of Industrial Property during the period from 2003 to 2008. The objective is to analyze how where such investments applied by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI, and which was their impact over the biotechnological inventions of Amazonian origin. In the results, we observed that R$ 1,308.09 million was invested in ST&I in Amazonia. The Amazonian state that attracted the larger part of such resources was Amazonas and 153 patent applications were identified coming from the state of Amazonas; out of which, 56% derived from companies of the Manaus Industrial Pole, and 9% originated from biomedical and alimentary sectors.

MODERN BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO LIFESPAN EXTENSION OF ANIMALS AND HUMANS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. L. Levitsky

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the research was to analyze current data concerning the problem of extending the life of multicellular animals and humans. The modern views about the processes of aging and prolongation of life are presented. The analysis focused on the genetic mechanisms of aging and mainly biotechnological approaches (genetic engineering, gene therapy, the use of stem cells, and the reprogramming of the genome to prolong the life of multicellular organisms. For comparison, some traditional methods of prolonging life are described (drug therapy, exercise training, calorically restricted nutrition. This analysis allows to postulate the perspectives and advantages of using biotechnological methods for prolonging life in comparison with traditional ones.

Translational science by public biotechnology companies in the IPO "class of 2000": the impact of technological maturity.

Science.gov (United States)

McNamee, Laura; Ledley, Fred

2013-01-01

The biotechnology industry plays a central role in the translation of nascent biomedical science into both products that offer material health benefits and creating capital growth. This study examines the relationship between the maturity of technologies in a characteristic life cycle and value creation by biotechnology companies. We examined the core technology, product development pipelines, and capitalization for a cohort of biotechnology companies that completed an IPO in 2000. Each of these companies was well financed and had core technologies on the leading edge of biological science. We found that companies with the least mature technologies had significantly higher valuations at IPO, but failed to develop products based on these technologies over the ensuing decade, and created less capital growth than companies with more mature technologies at IPO. The observation that this cohort of recently public biotechnology companies was not effective in creating value from nascent science suggests the need for new, evidence-based business strategies for translational science.

National Center for Biotechnology Information

Science.gov (United States)

... to NCBI Sign Out NCBI National Center for Biotechnology Information Search database All Databases Assembly Biocollections BioProject ... Search Welcome to NCBI The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access ...

Biotechnology and human rights.

Science.gov (United States)

Feuillet-Le Mintier, B

2001-12-01

Biotechnology permits our world to progress. It's a tool to better apprehend the human being, but as well to let him go ahead. Applied to the living, biotechnologies present the same finality. But since their matter concerns effectively the living, they are the sources of specific dangers and particularly of that one to use the improvements obtained on the human to modify the human species. The right of the persons has to find its place to avoid that the fundamental rights of the human personality shall undergo harm. This mission assigned to the right of the persons is as so much invaluable that the economical stakes are particularly important in the domain of the biotechnologies.

Biotechnology regulation: limiting or contributing to biotech development?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anne Grethe

2001-01-01

to the European arena, their role and extension are still an issue. In this paper, the often anticipated innovation-inhibiting effects of regulation are questioned by giving an account of regulations and debates in Denmark. An account which includes the shifting positions of industry, the research community......Modern biotechnology has been characterized by being surrounded by scientific and public debate and by interest conflicts. An early Danish debate and regulation has been criticized for inhibiting or retarding development and thus growth. Though much regulation and debate have been transferred...

Databases on biotechnology and biosafety of GMOs.

Science.gov (United States)

Degrassi, Giuliano; Alexandrova, Nevena; Ripandelli, Decio

2003-01-01

Due to the involvement of scientific, industrial, commercial and public sectors of society, the complexity of the issues concerning the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for the environment, agriculture, and human and animal health calls for a wide coverage of information. Accordingly, development of the field of biotechnology, along with concerns related to the fate of released GMOs, has led to a rapid development of tools for disseminating such information. As a result, there is a growing number of databases aimed at collecting and storing information related to GMOs. Most of the sites deal with information on environmental releases, field trials, transgenes and related sequences, regulations and legislation, risk assessment documents, and literature. Databases are mainly established and managed by scientific, national or international authorities, and are addressed towards scientists, government officials, policy makers, consumers, farmers, environmental groups and civil society representatives. This complexity can lead to an overlapping of information. The purpose of the present review is to analyse the relevant databases currently available on the web, providing comments on their vastly different information and on the structure of the sites pertaining to different users. A preliminary overview on the development of these sites during the last decade, at both the national and international level, is also provided.

Brief Note on the Development of Biotechnology

OpenAIRE

Karl Bayer

2014-01-01

Biotechnology, with the main applications in food and nutrition, dates back to the early times of mankind. In the recent decades the progress in natural sciences, mathematics and computer science has led to a new branch termed molecular biotechnology, which finally developed as an autonomous scientific discipline. The field of biotechnology, in the past generally empirically driven, now largely benefits from molecular biotechnology by improved systems, knowledge and understanding. Thereby, co...

The Role of Biotechnology in Sustainable Agriculture: Views and Perceptions among Key Actors in the Swedish Food Supply Chain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karin Edvardsson Björnberg

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Researchers have put forward agricultural biotechnology as one possible tool for increasing food production and making agriculture more sustainable. In this paper, it is investigated how key actors in the Swedish food supply chain perceive the concept of agricultural sustainability and the role of biotechnology in creating more sustainable agricultural production systems. Based on policy documents and semi-structured interviews with representatives of five organizations active in producing, processing and retailing food in Sweden, an attempt is made to answer the following three questions: How do key actors in the Swedish food supply chain define and operationalize the concept of agricultural sustainability? Who/what influences these organizations’ sustainability policies and their respective positions on agricultural biotechnology? What are the organizations’ views and perceptions of biotechnology and its possible role in creating agricultural sustainability? Based on collected data, it is concluded that, although there is a shared view of the core constituents of agricultural sustainability among the organizations, there is less explicit consensus on how the concept should be put into practice or what role biotechnology can play in furthering agricultural sustainability.

Analyzing organic tea certification and traceability system within the Taiwanese tea industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Mao-Chang; Yang, Chin-Ying

2015-04-01

We applied game theory to the organic tea certification process and traceability system used by the Taiwanese tea industry to elucidate the strategic choices made by tea farmers and organic tea certification agencies. Thus, this paper clarifies how relevant variables affect the organic certification process and traceability system used within the tea industry. The findings indicate that farmers who generate high revenues experience failures regarding tea deliveries, cash outflow, damage compensation, and quasi-rent. An additional problem included the high costs yielded when tea farmers colluded with or switched organic tea certification agencies. Furthermore, there could be decreasing levels of personal interest in planting non-organic tea and lowering the costs of planting organic tea and the managerial accounting costs of building comprehensive traceability systems; thus, the analysis yielded strong results and a superior equilibrium. This research is unprecedented, using an innovative model and providing a novel analysis structure for use in the tea industry. These results contribute to the field of literature and should serve as a valuable reference for members of the tea industry, government, and academia. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.

The costly benefits of opposing agricultural biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Apel, Andrew

2010-11-30

Rigorous application of a simple definition of what constitutes opposition to agricultural biotechnology readily encompasses a wide array of key players in national and international systems of food production, distribution and governance. Even though the sum of political and financial benefits of opposing agricultural biotechnology appears vastly to outweigh the benefits which accrue to providers of agricultural biotechnology, technology providers actually benefit from this opposition. If these barriers to biotechnology were removed, subsistence farmers still would not represent a lucrative market for improved seed. The sum of all interests involved ensures that subsistence farmers are systematically denied access to agricultural biotechnology. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

ENVIRONMENTAL RISK MANAGEMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

Science.gov (United States)

The last two decades have shown remarkable advances in the field of biotechnology. We have processes using biotechnology to produce materials from commodity chemicals to pharmaceuticals. The application to agriculture has shown the introduction of transgenic crops with pesticidal...

Essays in empirical industrial organization

OpenAIRE

Aguiar de Luque, Luis

2013-01-01

My PhD thesis consists of three chapters in Empirical Industrial Organization. The first two chapters focus on the relationship between firrm performance and specific public policies. In particular, we analyze the cases of cooperative research and development (R&D) in the European Union and the regulation of public transports in France. The third chapter focuses on copyright protection in the digital era and analyzes the relationship between legal and illegal consumption of di...

La structure sociale de l’industrie des Biotechnologies en France: une étude des relations inter-organisationnelles au niveau inter-individuel.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Piña-Stranger, Alvaro

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Various authors have shown the importance of collaborative relationships for inter-organizational performance, the mode of governance or the trajectory of biotechnology companies. Most of these works analyze the exclusive contractual agreements between companies and their main relationships among individuals. We show that this purely economic approach presents a major limitation: the nature of contractual relationships does not explore in detail how players cooperate. We propose to extend the study of these inter-organizational social relations, seen through the resource exchange in inter-individual. An empirical study on the leaders of the biotechnology industry in the area of human health in France has allowed us to map their relationships and resources they exchange them. Our results confirm the existence of a system of exchange dense and multiple. It presents a hierarchical distribution of various types of resources, where the centre is different from the periphery relations denser, more numerous and more reciprocal. However, comparative analysis of different networks reveals that the relationships of the board are highly centralized, while those of friendship following a more even distribution. We suggest that this phenomenon is part of a compensation mechanism to less central actors to maintain inter-organizational relationships. Finally, two standards of the cooperation process, revealed by the relational behaviour of actors, have been discovered. We suggest that they reflect in part the difficult process of adjustment that must cross a science project out of the realm of academic research and develop in a private structure: the biotech company.

Biotechnology in breeding of industrial oil crops - the present status and future prospects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Friedt, W.

1988-02-01

With increasing 'overproduction' of food supplies it is frequently emphasized now that agricultural production of industrial 'non-food' raw materials should be intensified. Many adapted crop plants are already available for producing various kinds of natural materials. Particularly the large group of oil-crops could be used even more widely for providing vegetable oils. The example of rape-seed (Brassica Napus) clearly demonstrates that the composition of vegetable oil can be completely reconstructed according to the wishes of manufacturers or consumers, even by conventional breeding methods. Rapid and efficient breeding is expected by application of modern 'biotechnology'. Where variation for a character like oil-quality is limited within a crop plnt, a wide range of alien wild species is available for broadening genetic variation of plants like rapeseed, sunflower (Helianthus annuus) or linseed (flax, Linum usitatissimum). Exploration of such 'new' genetic variation is nowadays facilitated by in vitro embryo culture or cell (protoplast)-fusion techniques. Such biotechniques can help to overcome crossing barriers between species (genus Brassica). In other important oilcrops like linseed or sunflower, biotechniques can now be applied profitably. Protoplasts can be regenerated in Linum, so that asexual interspecific hybrids can principally be produced in that way. Alien species of sunflower and lineseed show a wide range of variation regarding agronomically important characters, particularly of oil composition and disease resistance. This alien genetic variation can be used for breeding new disease resistant oil-crop cultivars. Other techniques, like the 'haploidy-method' can help to accelerate a breeding programme, ultimately leading to a homozygous line or cultivar.

Healthcare biotechnology in India

OpenAIRE

Srivastava, L. M.

2005-01-01

Biotechnology in India has made great progress in the development of infrastructure, manpower, research and development and manufacturing of biological reagents, biodiagnostics, biotherapeutics, therapeutic and, prophylactic vaccines and biodevices. Many of these indigenous biological reagents, biodiagnostics, therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines and biodevices have been commercialized. Commercially when biotechnology revenue has reached $25 billions in the U.S. alone in 2000 excluding the r...

Biotechnology in diagnostics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koprowski, H.; Ferrone, S.; Albertini, A.

1985-01-01

In recent years much progress has been made in the area of biotechnology. The cellular and molecular cloning methodology to develop monoclonal antibodies and DNA probes have been extensively utilized in basic and clinical research. These investigations have provided the necessary information to apply these reagents to diagnostic problems. The RIA 85 meeting focused on the application of monoclonal antibodies and DNA probes in laboratory medicine. The papers presented at this meeting clearly indicate that biotechnology has already had a significant impact on clinical medicine. (Auth.)

Colloids in Biotechnology

CERN Document Server

Fanun, Monzer

2010-01-01

Colloids have come a long way from when Thomas Graham coined the term colloid to describe 'pseudo solutions'. This book enables scientists to close the gap between extensive research and translation into commercial options in biomedicine and biotechnology. It covers biosurfactants and surface properties, phase behavior, and orientational change of surfactant mixtures with peptides at the interface. It also covers adsorption of polymers and biopolymers on the surface and interface, discusses colloidal nanoparticles and their use in biotechnology, and delves into bioadhesion and microencapsulati

The organization of the energy industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pearson, L.F.

1981-01-01

The subject is covered in chapters, entitled: introduction; machinery of government; the Department of Energy (history, Ministers and structure, including relevant references to the atomic energy programme); the tools of public expenditure control; unofficial government; the energy industry (covering the work of the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the nuclear industry, the national organizations for coal, gas, oil and electricity, research bodies, interest and cause groups, Europe, political groups, mutual relationships); major policy issues (generally as set out in Green Papers, White Papers, consultative documents and reports of ad hoc committees); policy definition and development; the origins of policy; the future of energy policy. (U.K.)

Forest biotechnology in Canada: Analysis of intellectual property rights and protection of higher lifeforms. Working paper No. WP-OI-95.05

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Globerman, S.

1995-12-01

This study is part of a series assessing the impacts of patenting plants and animals, and focuses on the potential impact and desirability of patenting multicellular organisms for application in forestry. The two major areas where biotechnology involving the creation of new multicellular organisms may have a significant impact on the forest products sector are the production of seeds and the employment of biopesticides. The specific objectives of the study include an evaluation of the economic effects of alternative intellectual property policy regimes on participants in the domestic forestry sector; an assessment of Canada`s strategic interests in the forestry sector in the context of international competition; and an evaluation of the likely rate and direction of technological change and economic growth in the forestry sector. Statistics on the international forest industry conclude the document.

New Teaching Strategies to Improve Student Performance in Fundamentals of Biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alicia G. Cid

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Fundamentals in Biotechnology is part of the Chemical Engineering curriculum at the National University at Salta, in northwest Argentina. This course, given for four months in the fourth year of a five-year program of study, includes concepts of general microbiology, biochemistry, and industrial microbiology and is the first contact by the students with biological issues. Probably due to the long content of the course and to the lack of previous knowledge of biological and microbiological concepts, students have a lot of difficulty passing this course. In order to reach a better understanding of the concepts, to encourage students to learn biotechnology, and to develop critical thinking skills with the ultimate aim of improving performance, two new strategies were adopted, which consisted of including “Complementary Activities” and an “Integration Seminar.”

Possible application of brewer’s spent grain in biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pejin Jelena D.

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Brewer’s spent grain is the major by-product in beer production. It is produced in large quantities (20 kg per 100 liters of produced beer throughout the year at a low cost or no cost, and due to its high protein and carbohydrates content it can be used as a raw material in biotechnology. Biotechnological processes based on renewable agro-industrial by-products have ecological (zero CO2 emission, eco-friendly by-products and economical (cheap raw materials and reduction of storage costs advantages. The use of brewer’s spent grain is still limited, being basically used as animal feed. Researchers are trying to improve the application of brewer’s spent grain by finding alternative uses apart from the current general use as an animal feed. Its possible applications are in human nutrition, as a raw material in biotechnology, energy production, charcoal production, paper manufacture, as a brick component, and adsorbent. In biotechnology brewer’s spent grain could be used as a substrate for cultivation of microorganisms and enzyme production, additive of yeast carrier in beer fermentation, raw material in production of lactic acid, bioethanol, biogas, phenolic acids, xylitol, and pullulan. Some possible applications for brewer’s spent grain are described in this article including pre-treatment conditions (different procedures for polysaccharides, hemicelluloses, and cellulose hydrolysis, working microorganisms, fermentation parameters and obtained yields. The chemical composition of brewer’s spent grain varies according to barley variety, harvesting time, malting and mashing conditions, and a quality and type of unmalted raw material used in beer production. Brewer’s spent grain is lignocellulosic material rich in protein and fibre, which account for approximately 20 and 70% of its composition, respectively.

Application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to the analysis of algal biomass for industrial biotechnology

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Pořízka, P.; Procházka, D.; Pilát, Zdeněk; Krajčarová, L.; Kaiser, J.; Malina, R.; Novotný, J.; Zemánek, Pavel; Ježek, Jan; Šerý, Mojmír; Bernatová, Silvie; Krzyžánek, Vladislav; Hrubanová, Kamila; Novotný, K.; Trtílek, M.; Samek, Ota

74-75, AUG-SEP (2012), s. 169-176 ISSN 0584-8547 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP205/11/1687; GA MŠk ED0017/01/01 Institutional support: RVO:68081731 Keywords : LIBS * double-pulse * water-jet * algal biomass * biotechnology Subject RIV: BH - Optics, Masers, Lasers Impact factor: 3.141, year: 2012

Re-Framing Biotechnology Regulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Peck, Alison

Biotechnology is about to spill the banks of federal regulation. New genetic engineering techniques like CRISPR-Cas9 promise revolutionary breakthroughs in medicine, agriculture, and public health—but those techniques would not be regulated under the terms of the Coordinated Framework for Regulation of Biotechnology. This revolutionary moment in biotechnology offers an opportunity to correct the flaws in the framework, which was hastily patched together at the advent of the technology. The framework has never captured all relevant technologies, has never satisfied the public that risk is being effectively managed, and has never been accessible to small companies and publicly-funded labs that increasingly are positioned to make radical, life-saving innovations. This Article offers a proposal for new legislation that would reshape biotechnology regulation to better meet these goals. Key reforms include tying regulation to risk rather than technology category; consolidating agency review; capturing distinct regulatory expertise through inter-agency consultations; creating a clearinghouse to help guide applicants and disseminate information; setting up more comprehensive monitoring of environmental effects; and providing federal leadership to fill key data gaps and address socio-economic impacts.

State responses to biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Rebecca C

2015-01-01

This article reviews biotechnology legislation in the 50 states for 11 policy areas spanning 1990-2010, an era of immense growth in biotechnology, genetic knowledge, and significant policy development. Policies regarding health insurance, life insurance, long-term care insurance, DNA data bank collection, biotech research protection, biotech promotion and support, employment discrimination, genetic counselor licensing, human cloning, and genetic privacy each represent major policy responses arising from biotechnology and coinciding with key areas of state regulation (insurance, criminal justice, economic development, labor law, health and safety, privacy, and property rights). This analysis seeks to answer three questions regarding biotechnology legislation at the state level: who is acting (policy adoption), when is policy adopted (policy timing), and what is policy doing (policy content). Theoretical concerns examine state ideology (conservative or liberal), policy type (economic or moral), and the role of external events (federal law, news events, etc.) on state policy adoption. Findings suggest ideological patterns in adoption, timing, and content of biotech policy. Findings also suggest economic policies tend to be more uniform in content than moral policies, and findings also document a clear link between federal policy development, external events, and state policy response.

Alternatives to Organic Solvents in Industrial Cleaning Processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Thomas

1998-01-01

To control chemical hazards in work places, substitution of harmful substances with less harmful or non-toxic products is now a method used in many countries and in many companies. It has previously been demonstrated that it is desirable and possible to use non-volatile, low-toxic vegetable...... cleaning agents in offset printing companies instead of volatile, toxic organic solvents. The present study is based on a project with the aim of defining other industrial processes, where organic solvents used for cleaning or degreasing can be replaced by non-volatile, low-toxic products, which are based...... on esters from fatty acids of vegetable origin (vegetable esters - VE).The study indicates that industrial cleaning/degreasing with organic solvents may be substituted with VEs on metal surfaces and on some coated surfaces, in manufacture of paints and inks, use of paints, use of inks (printing), metal...

Essays in industrial organization and management strategy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Bijl, P.W.J.

1996-01-01

This thesis contains five essays in the theory of industrial organization and management strategy. An introduction makes the main ideas accessible to non-specialists by presenting the essays as fictitious cases. The first essay investigates strategic disclosure of verifiable information. The

Biotechnology: An Era of Hopes and Fears

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

Strategic Studies Quarterly ♦ Fall 2016 23 Biotechnology An Era of Hopes and Fears LTC Douglas R. Lewis, PhD, US Army Abstract Biotechnology ......ignored. The idea of advances in biotechnology increasing the biological weapons threat is not new. In 2003 an analysis of gene sequencing and

Bioceres: AG Biotechnology from Argentina

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberto Feeney

2016-04-01

Full Text Available In this case we present a business decision-making situation in which the CEO of an Argentine Ag Biotech company, Bioceres, has to decide the best way to commercialize a new drought-tolerant transgenic technology. The company was founded by twenty three farmers, who shared a common dream that Argentina could become a benchmark in the development of Ag biotechnology. The case has strategic and financial implications, as well as decision-making situation involving a joint venture with an American biotechnology company. It also introduces to discussion the business models of Ag biotechnology companies in developing countries.

Human performance improvement in organizations: Potential application for the nuclear industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-11-01

This publication is primarily intended for managers and specialists in nuclear facility operating organizations working in the area of human performance improvement. It is intended to provide them with practical information they can use to improve human performance in their organizations. While some of the information provided in this publication is based upon the experience of nuclear facility operating organizations, most of it comes from human performance improvement initiatives in non-nuclear organizations and industries. The nuclear industry has a long tradition of sharing good management practices in order to foster continuous improvement. However, it is not always realized that many of the practices that are now well established initially came from non-nuclear industries and were subsequently adapted for application to nuclear power plant operating organizations. There is, therefore, good reason to periodically review non-nuclear industry practices for ideas that might have direct or indirect application to the nuclear industry in order to potentially gain benefits such as the following: new approaches to certain problem areas, insights into new or impending challenges, improvements in existing practices, benchmarking of opportunities, development of learning organizations and avoidance of collective blind spots. The preparation of this report was an activity of the project on Effective Training to Achieve Excellence in the Performance of NPP Personnel. The objective of this project is to enhance the capability of Member States to utilize proven practices developed and transferred by the IAEA for improving personnel performance. The expected outcome from this project is the increased use by organizations in Members States of proven engineering and management practices and methodologies developed and transferred by the IAEA to improve personnel performance

Government intervention in green industries: lessons from the wind turbine and the organic food industries in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Daugbjerg, Carsten; Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard

2011-01-01

. While the electricity market share of wind energy reached 20% in 2007, organic food consumption lags behind with a food market share of approximately 8.5% in 2007. This paper compares the packages of policy instruments applied in the two industrial sectors and assesses whether differences in instrument...... choice may explain the significant differences in market shares. It is demonstrated that government intervention in the wind turbine industry has emphasised the use of policy instruments designed to increase demand for wind energy, whereas organic farming policy has put more emphasis on instruments...... motivating farmers to increase supply. This may be an important factor explaining variance in growth. Finally, the paper analyses whether the lessons from government policy aimed at promoting the wind turbine industry can be transferred to organic farming policy....

Biotechnology Process Engineering Center at MIT Home

Science.gov (United States)

has provided a focal point for biotechnology research and education at MIT. Prominent examples include the NIH Training Program in Biotechnology and the NIH Training Program in Genomics; both of these are -genomic biology. Another example is the new DuPont-MIT Alliance (DMA), focused on materials biotechnology

Valorisation of CO2-rich off-gases to biopolymers through biotechnological process.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia-Gonzalez, Linsey; De Wever, Heleen

2017-11-01

As one of the key enabling technologies, industrial biotechnology has a high potential to tackle harmful CO2 emissions and to turn CO2 into a valuable commodity. So far, experimental work mainly focused on the bioconversion of pure CO2 to chemicals and plastics and little is known about the tolerance of the bioprocesses to the presence of impurities. This work is the first to investigate the impact of real CO2-rich off-gases on autotrophic production of polyhydroxybutyrate. To this end, two-phase heterotrophic-autotrophic fermentation experiments were set up, consisting of heterothrophic cell mass growth using glucose as substrate followed by autotrophic biopolymer production using either pure synthetic CO2 or industrial off-gases sampled at two point sources. The use of real off-gases did not affect the bacterial performance. High biopolymer content (up to 73%) and productivities (up to 0.227 g/lh) were obtained. Characterisation of the polymers showed that all biopolymers had similar properties, independent of the CO2 source. Moreover, the CO2-derived biopolymers' properties were comparable to commercial ones and biopolymers reported in literature, which are all produced from organic carbon sources. © FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Editorial: from plant biotechnology to bio-based products.

Science.gov (United States)

Stöger, Eva

2013-10-01

From plant biotechnology to bio-based products - this Special Issue of Biotechnology Journal is dedicated to plant biotechnology and is edited by Prof. Eva Stöger (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria). The Special Issue covers a wide range of topics in plant biotechnology, including metabolic engineering of biosynthesis pathways in plants; taking advantage of the scalability of the plant system for the production of innovative materials; as well as the regulatory challenges and society acceptance of plant biotechnology. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Report on fundamental investigation in fiscal 2000 of intellectual property right management criteria at General Research Institute of Industrial Technologies; 2000 nendo sangyo gijutsu sogo kenkyusho chiteki zaisanken kanri kiso chosa hokokusho

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2001-03-01

Fundamental items of knowledge were collected on matters to form the base of management and utilization of intellectual property rights as the basic data for cooperation among industry, academia, and government. Activities were put into order on the following nine fields: 1) handling of tangible research property rights at universities, 2) the way the organization should be to support the cooperation between industry and academia - a mechanism at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 3) licensing and technology transfer in India, 4) intellectual property trends for the 21st century, 5) management of intellectual property assets - in relation with the new current in the U.S. Patent Act, 6) comparative study of examination guidelines for computer-related inventions between the United States and Japan, 7) management of intellectual properties and business law aspects in the technology innovation times - examples in Seattle where IT and bio-technologies are originated from, 8) patents and bio-technical inventions, and 9) new movements in bio-technology patents. In Item 2), examples at MIT were studied on the way the organization should be to support the cooperation between industry and academia. The industry-academia cooperation is in action at various levels, not only in licensing, but also in the industrial liaison program, and consortiums. (NEDO)

Substitution of Organic Solvents in Selected Industrial Cleaning Processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Thomas; Rasmussen, Pia Brunn

1997-01-01

Volatile organic solvents (VOC)are becoming increasingly unwanted in industrial processes. Substitution of VOC with non-volatile, low-toxic compounds is a possibility to reduce VOC-use. It has been successfully demonstrated, that organic solvents used in cleaning processes in sheet offset printing...

Biotechnological research in Europe

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rehm, H J

1982-01-01

The current research possibilities in the expanding field of biotechnology in Europe are very briefly described. Remarks on research and development are limited to six topics: fermented food products; biomass production; product formation; bioreactors; waste-water treatment, environmental processes and methane formation; central research institutions. It is summarised that increased efforts at co-operation on all levels are vital for an improved development in the field of biotechnology throughout Europe.

The Future of Bio-technology

Science.gov (United States)

Trent, Jonathan

2005-01-01

Hosts of technologies, most notably in electronics, have been on the path of miniaturization for decades and in 2005 they have crossed the threshold of the nano-scale. Crossing the nano-scale threshold is a milestone in miniaturization, setting impressive new standards for component-packing densities. It also brings technology to a scale at which quantum effects and fault tolerance play significant roles and approaches the feasible physical limit form many conventional "top-down" manufacturing methods. I will suggest that the most formidable manufacturing problems in nanotechnology will be overcome and major breakthroughs will occur in a host of technologies, when nanotechnology converges with bio-technology; i.e. I will argue that the future of bio-technology is in nanotechnology. In 2005, methods in molecular biology, microscopy, bioinformatics, biochemistry, and genetic engineering have focused considerable attention on the nano-scale. On this scale, biology is a kind of recursive chemistry in which molecular recognition, self-assembly, self-organization and self-referencing context-control lead to the emergence of the complexity of structures and processes that are fundamental to all life forms. While we are still far from understanding this complexity, we are on the threshold of being able to use at least some of these biological properties for .technology. I will discuss the use of biomolecules, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins as "tools" for the bio-technologist of the future. More specifically, I will present in some detail an example of how we are using a genetically engineered 60-kDa protein (HSP60) from an organism living in near boiling sulfuric acid to build nano-scale templates for arranging metallic nanoparticles. These "extremophile" HSP60s self-assemble into robust double-ring structures called "chaperonins," which further assemble into filaments and arrays with nanometer accuracy. I will discuss our efforts to use chaperonins to organize quantum

An Exploration of High School (12 17 Year Old) Students' Understandings of, and Attitudes Towards Biotechnology Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Dawson, Vaille

2007-03-01

The products of modern biotechnology processes such as genetic engineering, DNA testing and cloning will increasingly impact on society. It is essential that young people have a well-developed scientific understanding of biotechnology and associated processes so that they are able to contribute to public debate and make informed personal decisions. The aim of this study was to examine the development of understandings and attitudes about biotechnology processes as students progress through high school. In a cross-sectional case study, data was obtained from student interviews and written surveys of students aged 12 to 17 years. The results indicate that students' ability to provide a generally accepted definition and examples of biotechnology, cloning and genetically modified foods was relatively poor amongst 12 13 year old students but improved in older students. Most students approved of the use of biotechnology processes involving micro-organisms, plants and humans and disapproved of the use of animals. Overall, 12 13 year old students' attitudes were less favourable than older students regardless of the context. An awareness of the development and range of students' understandings and attitudes may lead to a more appropriate use of biotechnology curriculum materials and thus improved biotechnology education in schools.

Cassava: constraints to production and the transfer of biotechnology to African laboratories.

Science.gov (United States)

Bull, Simon E; Ndunguru, Joseph; Gruissem, Wilhelm; Beeching, John R; Vanderschuren, Hervé

2011-05-01

Knowledge and technology transfer to African institutes is an important objective to help achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Plant biotechnology in particular enables innovative advances in agriculture and industry, offering new prospects to promote the integration and dissemination of improved crops and their derivatives from developing countries into local markets and the global economy. There is also the need to broaden our knowledge and understanding of cassava as a staple food crop. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a vital source of calories for approximately 500 million people living in developing countries. Unfortunately, it is subject to numerous biotic and abiotic stresses that impact on production, consumption, marketability and also local and country economics. To date, improvements to cassava have been led via conventional plant breeding programmes, but with advances in molecular-assisted breeding and plant biotechnology new tools are being developed to hasten the generation of improved farmer-preferred cultivars. In this review, we report on the current constraints to cassava production and knowledge acquisition in Africa, including a case study discussing the opportunities and challenges of a technology transfer programme established between the Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute in Tanzania and Europe-based researchers. The establishment of cassava biotechnology platform(s) should promote research capabilities in African institutions and allow scientists autonomy to adapt cassava to suit local agro-ecosystems, ultimately serving to develop a sustainable biotechnology infrastructure in African countries.

Biotechnology information service of the GDR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poetzsch, E.

1990-05-01

The paper gives a survey of the biotechnology information in the GDR and describes the establishment of the Biotechnology Information Service of the GDR (BioInfo GDR). BioInfo GDR is a referral database and is to provide information on information sources available in the GDR, and on institutions working in the various fields of biotechnology in the GDR. In addition, some general problems of the building and use of databases are discussed. (author). 8 refs

Biotechnology information service of the GDR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Poetzsch, E [Academy of Sciences, Berlin (Germany). Scientific Information Center

1990-05-01

The paper gives a survey of the biotechnology information in the GDR and describes the establishment of the Biotechnology Information Service of the GDR (BioInfo GDR). BioInfo GDR is a referral database and is to provide information on information sources available in the GDR, and on institutions working in the various fields of biotechnology in the GDR. In addition, some general problems of the building and use of databases are discussed. (author). 8 refs.

Biotechnology in Switzerland and a glance at Germany.

Science.gov (United States)

Fiechter, A

2000-01-01

The roots of biotechnology go back to classic fermentation processes, which starting from spontaneous reactions were developed by simple means. The discovery of antibiotics made contamination-free bioprocess engineering indispensable, which led to a further step in technology development. On-line analytics and the use of computers were the basis of automation and the increase in quality. On both sides of the Atlantic, molecular biology emerged at the same time, which gave genetic engineering in medicine, agriculture, industry and environment new opportunities. The story of this new advanced technology in Switzerland, with a quick glance at Germany, is followed back to the post-war years. The growth of research and teaching and the foundation of the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) are dealt with. The promising phase of the 1960s and 1970s soon had to give way to a restrictive policy of insecurity and anxiousness, which, today, manifests itself in the rather insignificant contributions of many European countries to the new sciences of genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics, as well as in the resistance to the use of transgenic agricultural crops and their products in foods.

Hyperthermostable cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic enzymes and their biotechnological applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tipparat Hongpattarakere

2002-07-01

Full Text Available Hyperthermal cellulases and hemicellulases have been intensively studied due to their highly potential applications at extreme temperatures, which mimic industrial processes involving cellulose and hemicellulose degradation. More than 50 species of hyperthermophiles have been isolated, many of which possess hyperthermal enzymes required for hydrolyzing cellulose and hemicelluloses. Endoglucanases, exoglucanases, cellobiohydrolases, xylanases, β-glucosidase and β-galactosidase, which are produced by the hyperthermophiles, are resistant to boiling temperature. The characteristics of these enzymes and the ability to maintain their functional integrity at high temperature as well as their biotechnological application are discussed.

Biotechnological studies in the Far-Eastern Region of Russia.

Science.gov (United States)

Stonik, Valentin A; Mikhailov, Valery V; Bulgakov, Victor P; Zhuravlev, Yuri N

2007-07-01

Achievements and problems in both the studies on natural bioactive compounds from the Far-Eastern higher plants and marine invertebrates and development of the corresponding biotechnologies concerning new drugs and food supplements, as well as pharmaceutical leads are discussed. Special emphasis is made on recent results from the Far-eastern Institutions belonging to the Russian Academy of Sciences, and their application in both medicine and the food industry, as well as on peculiarities of biological and chemical diversity in the North-Western part of Asia and adjoining seas.

Decree 831/976 Industry and Energy Ministry approve an organic regulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1976-01-01

The ordinance 831 of 1976 approve the organic regulation of the Ministry of Industry and Energy and organization manuals and functions according to the principle and elaborated technical approaches and systematized by the National Office of the Civil Service. Among some of their made they are projecting the industrial politics and energetics of the country exercising supervision and control, as well as the development of the industry and diverse energy sources, to propitiate the use of the atomic energy in the Uruguay coordinating the activities that are carried out

Brief Note on the Development of Biotechnology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karl Bayer

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Biotechnology, with the main applications in food and nutrition, dates back to the early times of mankind. In the recent decades the progress in natural sciences, mathematics and computer science has led to a new branch termed molecular biotechnology, which finally developed as an autonomous scientific discipline. The field of biotechnology, in the past generally empirically driven, now largely benefits from molecular biotechnology by improved systems, knowledge and understanding. Thereby, compliance with the recently published initiatives of the regulatory authorities to accelerate the approval process for the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals can be gained.

Specifications from a biotechnology industry perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Garnick, R L

1997-01-01

The emergence of new analytical technology and the production of pharmaceuticals for a global market in a cost-effective manner necessitate the establishment of worldwide specifications that are appropriate for the product and the manufacturing process. This requires a thorough knowledge of the protein and control of the systems that produce it as well as an understanding of the accuracy and precision of the assays used for testing. Harmonization of specifications among the worldwide regulatory authorities is critical for the future development of new pharmaceuticals. A continuing dialogue between industry and regulators to achieve this goal needs to be encouraged and supported.

Teachers' Concerns about Biotechnology Education

Science.gov (United States)

Borgerding, Lisa A.; Sadler, Troy D.; Koroly, Mary Jo

2013-01-01

The impacts of biotechnology are found in nearly all sectors of society from health care and food products to environmental issues and energy sources. Despite the significance of biotechnology within the sciences, it has not become a prominent trend in science education. In this study, we seek to more fully identify biology teachers' concerns…

Information System Development: Can Traditional Project Management Tools Be Successful in Post-Industrial Organizations?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carugati, Andrea

2002-01-01

Literature on project management of information systems development suggests practices based on success stories in industrial organizations. Recent trends towards post-industrial organizational forms and loosely coupled networked organizations raise questions regarding the applicability of these ...... of information systems development projects in post-industrial organizations. The guidelines are both the result of post-rationalization of the team members and of the case analysis....

Emerging Genetic Counselor Roles within the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries: as Industry Interest Grows in Rare Genetic Disorders, How are Genetic Counselors Joining the Discussion?

Science.gov (United States)

Field, Tessa; Brewster, Stephanie Jo; Towne, Meghan; Campion, MaryAnn W

2016-08-01

Traditionally, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry (BPI) has focused drug development at the mass-market level targeting common medical issues. However, a recent trend is the development of therapies for orphan or rare disorders, including many genetic disorders. Developing treatments for genetic disorders requires an understanding of the needs of the community and translating genomic information to clinical and non-clinical audiences. The core skills of genetic counselors (GCs) include a deep knowledge of genetics and ability to communicate complex information to a broad audience, making GCs a choice fit for this shift in drug development. To date there is limited data defining the roles GCs hold within this industry. This exploratory study aimed to define the roles and motivation of GCs working in BPI, assess job satisfaction, and identify translatable skills and current gaps in GC training programs. The authors surveyed 26 GCs working in BPI in the United States; 79 % work for companies focused on rare disorders. GC positions in BPI are growing, with 57 % of respondents being the first GC in their role. GCs in BPI continue to utilize core genetic counseling competencies, though 72 % felt their training did not fully prepare them for BPI. These data suggest opportunities for exposure to BPI in GC training to better prepare future generations of GCs for these career opportunities. GC satisfaction was high in BPI, notably in areas traditionally reported as less satisfying on the National Society for Genetic Counselors Professional Status Survey: salary and advancement opportunities. BPI's growing interest in rare disorders represents a career opportunity for GCs, addressing both historic areas of dissatisfaction for GCs and BPI's genomic communication needs.

Biotechnological conversion of methane to methanol: evaluation of progress and potential

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charlotte E. Bjorck

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Sources of methane are numerous, and vary greatly in their use and sustainable credentials. A Jekyll and Hyde character, it is a valuable energy source present as geological deposits of natural gas, however it is also potent greenhouse gas, released during many waste management processes. Gas-to-liquid technologies are being investigated as a means to exploit and monetise non-traditional and unutilised methane sources. The product identified as having the greatest potential is methanol due to it being a robust, commercially mature conversion process from methane and its beneficial fuel characteristics. Commercial methane to methanol conversion requires high temperatures and pressures, in an energy intensive and costly process. In contrast methanotrophic bacteria perform the desired transformation under ambient conditions, using methane monooxygenase (MMO enzymes. Despite the great potential of these bacteria a number of biotechnical difficulties are hindering progress towards an industrially suitable process. We have identified five major challenges that exist as barriers to a viable conversion process that, to our knowledge, have not previously been examined as distinct process challenges. Although biotechnological applications of methanotrophic bacteria have been reviewed in part, no review has comprehensively covered progress and challenges for a methane to methanol process from an industrial perspective. All published examples to date of methanotroph catalysed conversion of methane to methanol are collated, and standardised to allow direct comparison. The focus will be on conversion of methane to methanol by whole-cell, wild type, methanotroph cultures, and the potential for their application in an industrially relevant process. A recent shift in the research community focus from a mainly biological angle to an overall engineering approach, offers potential to exploit methanotrophs in an industrially relevant biotechnological gas

Cleaning and sterilization in biotechnological clean system. Biotechnological clean system no senjo sakkin

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Inoue, M.

1994-02-20

Despite their usefulness for mankind, many of microorganisms are generally emphasized of the aspect of their harmfulness as decomposable and pathogenic microorganisms, apt to implant people with wrong preconception. Moreover, the food industries have a habitual practice that they leave unexpectedly unclean conditions unattended. This paper indicates such actual circumstances by quoting various examples, and introduces characteristics and test results on commercially available chemicals having excellent cleansing and sterilizing effects. High-pressure and high-temperature sterilization processes fit the purpose of preservation, but secondary contamination may occur in subsequent processing, for example, from the ceiling and walls of a work room, or operators' fingers. Problems exist there that should be considered in biotechnological clean systems. Technologies have been advanced that mix a small amount of chemicals into plastic sheets, wall materials, and floor materials so that their surfaces are kept away from growth of microorganisms for extended periods of time. About 300 kinds of chemicals have been developed, and are available commercially. 3 refs., 8 figs.

29 CFR 401.10 - Labor organization engaged in an industry affecting commerce.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... commerce. 401.10 Section 401.10 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor OFFICE OF LABOR-MANAGEMENT STANDARDS... organization engaged in an industry affecting commerce. A labor organization shall be deemed to be engaged in an industry affecting commerce if it: (a) Is the certified representative of employees under the...

A review on plant importance, biotechnological aspects, and cultivation challenges of jojoba plant.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Obaidi, Jameel R; Halabi, Mohammed Farouq; AlKhalifah, Nasser S; Asanar, Shanavaskhan; Al-Soqeer, Abdulrahman A; Attia, M F

2017-08-24

Jojoba is considered a promising oil crop and is cultivated for diverse purposes in many countries. The jojoba seed produces unique high-quality oil with a wide range of applications such as medical and industrial-related products. The plant also has potential value in combatting desertification and land degradation in dry and semi-dry areas. Although the plant is known for its high-temperature and high-salinity tolerance growth ability, issues such as its male-biased ratio, relatively late flowering and seed production time hamper the cultivation of this plant. The development of efficient biotechnological platforms for better cultivation and an improved production cycle is a necessity for farmers cultivating the plant. In the last 20 years, many efforts have been made for in vitro cultivation of jojoba by applying different molecular biology techniques. However, there is a lot of work to be done in order to reach satisfactory results that help to overcome cultivation problems. This review presents a historical overview, the medical and industrial importance of the jojoba plant, agronomy aspects and nutrient requirements for the plant's cultivation, and the role of recent biotechnology and molecular biology findings in jojoba research.

A review on plant importance, biotechnological aspects, and cultivation challenges of jojoba plant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jameel R. Al-Obaidi

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Jojoba is considered a promising oil crop and is cultivated for diverse purposes in many countries. The jojoba seed produces unique high-quality oil with a wide range of applications such as medical and industrial-related products. The plant also has potential value in combatting desertification and land degradation in dry and semi-dry areas. Although the plant is known for its high-temperature and high-salinity tolerance growth ability, issues such as its male-biased ratio, relatively late flowering and seed production time hamper the cultivation of this plant. The development of efficient biotechnological platforms for better cultivation and an improved production cycle is a necessity for farmers cultivating the plant. In the last 20 years, many efforts have been made for in vitro cultivation of jojoba by applying different molecular biology techniques. However, there is a lot of work to be done in order to reach satisfactory results that help to overcome cultivation problems. This review presents a historical overview, the medical and industrial importance of the jojoba plant, agronomy aspects and nutrient requirements for the plant’s cultivation, and the role of recent biotechnology and molecular biology findings in jojoba research.

Proceedings of ISEC 2008, International Solvent Extraction Conference - Solvent Extraction: Fundamentals to Industrial Applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moyer, Bruce A.

2008-01-01

The North American industry has employed major solvent-extraction processes to support a wide range of separations including but not limited to chemical, metallurgical, nuclear, biochemical, pharmaceutical, and petroleum applications. The knowledge enabling these separations has been obtained through fundamental studies in academe, government and industry. The International Solvent Extraction Conferences have been and continue to be a major gathering of scientists, engineers, operators, and vendors from around the world, who present new findings since the last meeting, exchange ideas, make business contacts, and conduct collegial discussions. The ISEC 2008 program emphasizes fundamentals to industrial applications of solvent extraction, particularly how this broad spectrum of activities is interconnected and has led to the implementation of novel processes. The oral and poster sessions have been organized into seven topics: Fundamentals; Novel Reagents, Materials and Techniques; Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing; Hydrometallurgy and Metals Extraction; Analytical and Preparative Applications; Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Life-Science Products, and Organic Products; and Process Chemistry and Engineering. Over 350 abstracts were received, resulting in more than 260 manuscripts published in these proceedings. Five outstanding plenary presentations have been identified, with five parallel sessions for oral presentations and posters. In recognition of the major role solvent extraction (SX) plays in the hydrometallurgical and nuclear industries, these proceedings begin with sections focusing on hydrometallurgy, process chemistry, and engineering. More fundamental topics follow, including sections on novel reagents, materials, and techniques, featuring novel applications in analytical and biotechnology areas. Despite the diversity of topics and ideas represented, however, the primary focus of the ISEC community continues to be metals extraction. Four papers from these

An Industrial-Organization Approach to Money and Banking

OpenAIRE

Gunji, Hiroshi; Miyazaki, Kenji

2016-01-01

In this paper, we study the effect of conventional interest rate policy, quantitative easing and the reserve accounts’ interest rate on the money stock in an industrial-organization model of the banking industry with money creation. Our main findings are as follows. First, under a plausible setting of the parameters, the model with money creation supports the liquidity puzzle, in which tight monetary policy increases the money stock. Second, quantitative monetary easing has a similar effect. ...

Biological fundamentals. 2. completely rev. ed

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sahm, H. (ed.) (Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH (Germany). Inst. fuer Biotechnologie)

1993-01-01

This fully revised and expanded Second Edition takes into account all recent developments in biotechnology. It is extraordinarily broad in scope, up-to-date, carefully structured and wellbalanced. 'Biotechnology' considers both basic concepts and widely-differing industrial applications: It is a successful synthesis of theory and practice. Any scientist aiming for success in industrial microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology and chemical engineering must turn to 'Biotechnology'. Everybody involved in biotechnology will appreciate having this volume at their fingertips. It offers a unique collection of current information on the basic biology (ecology, taxonomy, biochemistry, physiology, and genetics) of industrially important organisms. This book contains the background material indispensable for the development of biotechnological processes. Topics included are: - Cell Structure, - Metabolism, - Growth of Microorganisms, - Metabolic Design, - Immobilized Organisms, - Methylotrophs, - Pseudomonas, - Yeasts, - Filamentous Fungi, - Bacteriophages, - Cell Cultures. (orig.)

Biotechnology, nanotechnology, and pharmacogenomics and pharmaceutical compounding, Part 1.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Loyd V

2015-01-01

The world of pharmaceuticals is changing rapidly as biotechnology continues to grow and nanotechnology appears on the horizon. Biotechnology is gaining in importance in extemporaneous pharmaceutical compounding, and nanotechnology and pharmacogenomics could drastically change the practice of pharmacy. This article discusses biotechnology and the factors to consider when compounding biotechnology drugs.

A Case for Teaching Biotechnology

Science.gov (United States)

Lazaros, Edward; Embree, Caleb

2016-01-01

Biotechnology is an innovative field that is consistently growing in popularity. It is important that students are taught about this technology at an early age, so they are motivated to join the field, or at least motivated to become informed citizens and consumers (Gonzalez, et al, 2013). An increase in biotechnology knowledge can result in an…

Acid-resistant organic coatings for the chemical industry: a review

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møller, Victor Buhl; Dam-Johansen, Kim; Frankær, Sarah Maria Grundahl

2017-01-01

Industries that work with acidic chemicals in their processes need to make choices on how to properly contain the substances and avoid rapid corrosion of equipment. Certain organic coatings and linings can be used in such environments, either to protect vulnerable construction materials, or......, in combination with fiber reinforcement, to replace them. However, degradation mechanisms of organic coatings in acid service are not thoroughly understood and relevant quantitative investigations are scarce. This review describes the uses and limitations of acid-resistant coatings in the chemical industry...

Feasibility study of the application of biotechnology to nuclear waste treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashley, N.V.; Pope, N.R.; Roach, D.J.W.

1987-12-01

A number of biotechnology areas applicable to the removal of radionuclides from industrial nuclear effluents were considered, namely: use of Biopolymers; Biosorption using biomass; microbial leaching and solubilisation of metal ions. The potential of biomagnetic separation technology, genetic engineering and monoclonal antibody technology was also examined. It appeared that the most appropriate technologies to develop for radionuclide removal in the short term were based on biosorptions of radionuclides by biomass and modified and unmodified biopolymers. (author)

Environmental Biotechnology Research and Development Program 1989-1992

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brinkman J; Rulkens WH; Visscher K

1989-01-01

This report is an English translation of the Dutch Research and Development Program on environmental biotechnology 1989-1992. In this program an overview is given of the recent developments in environmental biotechnology. Based on this overview, the possibilities of biotechnology for management

Frontiers in biomedical engineering and biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Feng; Goodarzi, Ali; Wang, Haifeng; Stasiak, Joanna; Sun, Jianbo; Zhou, Yu

2014-01-01

The 2nd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (iCBEB 2013), held in Wuhan on 11–13 October 2013, is an annual conference that aims at providing an opportunity for international and national researchers and practitioners to present the most recent advances and future challenges in the fields of Biomedical Information, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology. The papers published by this issue are selected from this conference, which witnesses the frontier in the field of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, which particularly has helped improving the level of clinical diagnosis in medical work.

Advancement of Marketing Developing Biotechnology-Based Business

OpenAIRE

Vilmantas, Vaidas; Melnikas, Borisas

2014-01-01

The article, in a complex way, analyzes the needs of marketing improvement in developing biotechnology-based business and highlights its role in the context of modern society and globalization challenges. The article distinguishes between the existing problems of biotechnology business, the present perspectives and specific characteristics of developing the marketing of biotechnological business. The paper represents the possibility of the substantial modernization of marketing tools with reg...

The Theory of Benchmarking and the Measurement of Industrial Organization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ten Raa, T.

2006-01-01

If more productive firms grow relatively fast, an industry performs better, even when no firm exhibits technical or efficiency change.In other words, the two well-known sources of productivity growth-technology and efficiency-can be augmented by a third one, namely the industrial organization

Organization, structure, and performance in the US nuclear power industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lester, R.K.

1986-01-01

Several propositions are advanced concerning the effects of industry organization and structure on the economic performance of the American commercial nuclear power industry. Both the electric utility industry and the nuclear power plant supply industry are relatively high degree of horizontal disaggregation. The latter is also characterized by an absence of vertical integration. The impact of each of these factors on construction and operating performance is discussed. Evidence is presented suggesting that the combination of horizontal and vertical disaggregation in the industry has had a significant adverse effect on economic performance. The relationship between industrial structure and regulatory behavior is also discussed. 43 references, 4 figures, 9 tables

Biothechnology conferences held in Cuba. Cuba no biotechnology gakkai ni sankashite

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murata, M. (Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Tokyo, (Japan))

1990-04-25

Three biotechnology conferences including Cuba International Interferon Conference were held at Havana in April 1989, and the author participated in them. The number of participants was about 3,000. Most of them were from the Middle and the Central America, but there were also those from Europe, the USSR and the USA. The three conferences were composed of 16 symposiums and they covered a wide range of field such as medical science, agriculture and industry. High leveled reports were read in the conferences: on the application of interferons to medical treatments, curing effects of infections caused by herpes virus and B type hepatitis virus, anti-tumor effects, and anti-virus effects against AIDS virus; on the production of protein and vaccini by gene engineering, large quantity production of interleukin and epithelium cell multiplication genes. Especially impressing were the efforts the whole nation of Cuba makes to promote biotechnology and its modern facilities. 3 figs.

Knowledge management for nuclear industry operating organizations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-10-01

research facilities to reduce operating costs and a decline in support to the universities to reduce overheads. The above factors have led to a reduction in technical innovation and a potential loss of technical competences that have drawn the attention of many concerned parties to the need for effective strategies and policies for nuclear knowledge management. The Director General of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, in his statement to the forty-seventh regular session of the IAEA General Conference 2003, said: 'Whether or not nuclear power witnesses an expansion in the coming decades, it is essential that we preserve nuclear scientific and technical competence for the safe operation of existing facilities and applications. Effective management of nuclear knowledge should include succession planning for the nuclear work force, the maintenance of the 'nuclear safety case' for operational reactors, and retention of the nuclear knowledge accumulated over the past six decades'. This report is intended for senior and middle level managers of nuclear industry operating organizations and provides practical information that can be used to improve knowledge management (KM) in such organizations. The information provided in this report is based upon actual experiences of Member State operating organizations as well as other related industries. The Nuclear Power Industry's Ageing Workforce: Transfer of Knowledge to the Next Generation, IAEA-TECDOC-1399, highlighted some of the knowledge management issues in Member States resulting from the large number of retiring NPP personnel who had been involved with the commissioning and initial operation of NPPs. This report complements that publication by broadening the scope of KM strategic issues, methods and techniques for nuclear industry operating organizations

The flexible feedstock concept in Industrial Biotechnology: Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Pseudomonas, Bacillus and yeast strains for access to alternative carbon sources.

Science.gov (United States)

Wendisch, Volker F; Brito, Luciana Fernandes; Gil Lopez, Marina; Hennig, Guido; Pfeifenschneider, Johannes; Sgobba, Elvira; Veldmann, Kareen H

2016-09-20

Most biotechnological processes are based on glucose that is either present in molasses or generated from starch by enzymatic hydrolysis. At the very high, million-ton scale production volumes, for instance for fermentative production of the biofuel ethanol or of commodity chemicals such as organic acids and amino acids, competing uses of carbon sources e.g. in human and animal nutrition have to be taken into account. Thus, the biotechnological production hosts E. coli, C. glutamicum, pseudomonads, bacilli and Baker's yeast used in these large scale processes have been engineered for efficient utilization of alternative carbon sources. This flexible feedstock concept is central to the use of non-glucose second and third generation feedstocks in the emerging bioeconomy. The metabolic engineering efforts to broaden the substrate scope of E. coli, C. glutamicum, pseudomonads, B. subtilis and yeasts to include non-native carbon sources will be reviewed. Strategies to enable simultaneous consumption of mixtures of native and non-native carbon sources present in biomass hydrolysates will be summarized and a perspective on how to further increase feedstock flexibility for the realization of biorefinery processes will be given. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The future of the pharmaceutical, biological and medical device industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Burgess LJ

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Lesley J Burgess, Marli TerblancheTREAD Research/Cardiology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Tygerberg Hospital and University of Stellenbosch, Parow, South AfricaAbstract: Numerous factors contribute to the declining pharmaceutical industry on the one hand and the rapidly growing generic industry together with the growing importance of medical devices and biologicals on the other. It is clear that the pharmaceutical industry is going to undergo a change in the next decade in order to meet the current challenges facing it and ultimately sustain its profitability and growth. This paper aims to identify a number of fairly obvious trends that are likely to have a significant impact on the product development pipeline in the next decade. It is more than clear that the current production pipeline for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries is no longer sustainable and that urgent interventions are required in order to maintain its current level of profitability.Keywords: pharmaceutical industry, personalized medicine, trends, generics, biotechnology

Green leaf volatiles: biosynthesis, biological functions and their applications in biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

ul Hassan, Muhammad Naeem; Zainal, Zamri; Ismail, Ismanizan

2015-08-01

Plants have evolved numerous constitutive and inducible defence mechanisms to cope with biotic and abiotic stresses. These stresses induce the expression of various genes to activate defence-related pathways that result in the release of defence chemicals. One of these defence mechanisms is the oxylipin pathway, which produces jasmonates, divinylethers and green leaf volatiles (GLVs) through the peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). GLVs have recently emerged as key players in plant defence, plant-plant interactions and plant-insect interactions. Some GLVs inhibit the growth and propagation of plant pathogens, including bacteria, viruses and fungi. In certain cases, GLVs released from plants under herbivore attack can serve as aerial messengers to neighbouring plants and to attract parasitic or parasitoid enemies of the herbivores. The plants that perceive these volatile signals are primed and can then adapt in preparation for the upcoming challenges. Due to their 'green note' odour, GLVs impart aromas and flavours to many natural foods, such as vegetables and fruits, and therefore, they can be exploited in industrial biotechnology. The aim of this study was to review the progress and recent developments in research on the oxylipin pathway, with a specific focus on the biosynthesis and biological functions of GLVs and their applications in industrial biotechnology. © 2015 Society for Experimental Biology, Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Rethinking production of Taxol® (paclitaxel) using endophyte biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Kusari, Souvik; Singh, Satpal; Jayabaskaran, Chelliah

2014-06-01

Taxol® (generic name paclitaxel) represents one of the most clinically valuable natural products known to mankind in the recent past. More than two decades have elapsed since the notable discovery of the first Taxol®-producing endophytic fungus, which was followed by a plethora of reports on other endophytes possessing similar biosynthetic potential. However, industrial-scale Taxol® production using fungal endophytes, although seemingly promising, has not seen the light of the day. In this opinion article, we embark on the current state of knowledge on Taxol® biosynthesis focusing on the chemical ecology of its producers, and ask whether it is actually possible to produce Taxol® using endophyte biotechnology. The key problems that have prevented the exploitation of potent endophytic fungi by industrial bioprocesses for sustained production of Taxol® are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An overview of biotechnological production of propionic acid: From upstream to downstream processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Negin Ahmadi

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The increasing demand for propionic acid (PA production and its wide applications in several industries, especially the food industry (as a preservative and satiety inducer, have led to studies on the low-cost biosynthesis of this acid. This paper gives an overview of the biotechnological aspects of PA production and introduces Propionibacterium as the most popular organism for PA production. Moreover, all process variables influencing the production yield, different simple and complex carbon sources, the metabolic pathway of production, engineered mutants with increased productivity, and modified tolerance against high concentrations of acid have been described. Furthermore, possible methods of extraction and analysis of this organic acid, several applied bioreactors, and different culture systems and substrates are introduced. It can be concluded that maximum biomass and PA production may be achieved using metabolically engineered microorganisms and analyzing the most significant factors influencing yield. To date, the maximum reported yield for PA production is 0.973 g·g-1, obtained from Propionibacterium acidipropionici in a three-electrode amperometric culture system in medium containing 0.4 mM cobalt sepulchrate. In addition, the best promising substrate for PA bioproduction may be achieved using glycerol as a carbon source in an extractive continuous fermentation. Simultaneous production of PA and vitamin B12 is suggested, and finally, the limitations of and strategies for competitive microbial production with respect to chemical process from an economical point of view are proposed and presented. Finally, some future trends for bioproduction of PA are suggested.

The Effect of Biotechnology Education on Australian High School Students' Understandings and Attitudes about Biotechnology Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Dawson, Vaille; Soames, Christina

2006-01-01

Our education system aims to equip young people with the knowledge, problem-solving skills and values to cope with an increasingly technological society. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of biotechnology education on adolescents' understanding and attitudes about processes associated with biotechnology. Data were drawn from…

Biotechnology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2014-01-01

The guidelines of the Biotechnology Program are research and development aiming at developing and manufacturing products of pharmaceutical interest. This Program has two main research areas, namely Pituitary Hormones and Biopharmaceuticals. The first one comprises a group with a long experience on Recombinant Human Pituitary Hormone synthesis, purification and characterization. Up to now they have worked mostly with human growth hormone (hGH), human prolactin (hPRL), human thyrotropin (hTSH), human follicle stimulating hormone (hFSH) and human luteotropin (hLH), with a particular emphasis on glycoprotein carbohydrate structures. An important research line is devoted to Growth Hormone Gene Therapy, working mostly on animal models: immunocompetent and immunodeficient-dwarf mice. For several years this development has been based on ex vivo grafting of transduced keratinocytes, while more recently very promising results have been obtained with the injections and electroporation of naked plasmid DNA. Besides research, they have also activities in the Biotechnological Production and Downstream Processing of the same recombinant hormones, which are produced in both E. coli and mammalian cells and in the development of joint-ventures with the National Industry. The biological effects of radiation on cells are also studied, specially concerning the administration of 131 I together with thyroid-stimulating hormone in thyroid cancer. The Biopharmaceutical area is dedicated to the research of isolation, structural analysis and biological activities in different biological systems of macromolecules. These macromolecules are peptides or proteins, either native or recombinant with medical or pharmaceutical interest. During this period new proteins related to serine protease activity, breast cancer development and angiogenesis were described. The effects of ionizing radiation on macromolecules have also been investigated to detoxify animal venoms in order to improve antigens for

Biotechnology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2014-07-01

The guidelines of the Biotechnology Program are research and development aiming at developing and manufacturing products of pharmaceutical interest. This Program has two main research areas, namely Pituitary Hormones and Biopharmaceuticals. The first one comprises a group with a long experience on Recombinant Human Pituitary Hormone synthesis, purification and characterization. Up to now they have worked mostly with human growth hormone (hGH), human prolactin (hPRL), human thyrotropin (hTSH), human follicle stimulating hormone (hFSH) and human luteotropin (hLH), with a particular emphasis on glycoprotein carbohydrate structures. An important research line is devoted to Growth Hormone Gene Therapy, working mostly on animal models: immunocompetent and immunodeficient-dwarf mice. For several years this development has been based on ex vivo grafting of transduced keratinocytes, while more recently very promising results have been obtained with the injections and electroporation of naked plasmid DNA. Besides research, they have also activities in the Biotechnological Production and Downstream Processing of the same recombinant hormones, which are produced in both E. coli and mammalian cells and in the development of joint-ventures with the National Industry. The biological effects of radiation on cells are also studied, specially concerning the administration of {sup 131}I together with thyroid-stimulating hormone in thyroid cancer. The Biopharmaceutical area is dedicated to the research of isolation, structural analysis and biological activities in different biological systems of macromolecules. These macromolecules are peptides or proteins, either native or recombinant with medical or pharmaceutical interest. During this period new proteins related to serine protease activity, breast cancer development and angiogenesis were described. The effects of ionizing radiation on macromolecules have also been investigated to detoxify animal venoms in order to improve antigens

Cellulases from Thermophilic Fungi: Recent Insights and Biotechnological Potential

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duo-Chuan Li

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Thermophilic fungal cellulases are promising enzymes in protein engineering efforts aimed at optimizing industrial processes, such as biomass degradation and biofuel production. The cloning and expression in recent years of new cellulase genes from thermophilic fungi have led to a better understanding of cellulose degradation in these species. Moreover, crystal structures of thermophilic fungal cellulases are now available, providing insights into their function and stability. The present paper is focused on recent progress in cloning, expression, regulation, and structure of thermophilic fungal cellulases and the current research efforts to improve their properties for better use in biotechnological applications.

Nuclear energy in the age of biotechnology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deocaris, C.C.

2002-01-01

The unprecedented rate of discovery in molecular biology and biotechnology, in particular, the human genome sciences, has already far surpassed advancements in aerospace and nuclear science. Its influence will not only permanently mold perspectives in health, medicine and the life sciences, but will also create an impact in the field of nuclear energy development. In the next 50 years, nuclear power run by fission-reactions will be relaunched. It is bound to present more diverse applications, e.g., in propelling ships, in the production of heat for industry and for space heating, and perhaps in the desalination of water. The general public will be more at ease with nuclear power knowing that there is no other form of energy capable of delivering so much power at reasonable cost with negligible impact on climate and environment in what is perceived to be the coming of a nuclear rennaissance (Blix, 2001). This paper surveys opportunities for future nuclear energy applications in biotechnology, including DNA-damage sensors, bioelectronics and computers, genetic testing of nuclear workers and upgrading of biofuels. The relevance of these myriads of biosystems applications may not 'ust complement requirements of a nuclear power program in improving overall efficiency and safety but may also provide more diverse uses of nuclear power that may find use for developing nations. (Author)

Application of biotechnology to fossil fuels explored

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haggin, J

1989-02-13

A review is presented of the December 1988 symposium on coal, oil and gas biotechnology held in New Orleans, organised by the Institute of Gas Technology. Papers discussed include: opportunities for R D in desulfurization, coal gasification and environmental cleanup; an assessment of the economic constraints that new energy biotechnology must overcome; biotechnology research at EPRI; microbial conversion of coal; bioconversion of low rank coal; and bioremediation of ground containing PAHs. 2 figs.

Founders hope new venture-capital fund will spur medical, biotechnology research

Science.gov (United States)

Gray, Charlotte

1995-01-01

Lack of a coherent industrial strategy and venture capital have hindered scientific researchers in Canada, but the Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund (CMDF) Inc. hopes to change that. Under the leadership of Dr. Henry Friesen, president of the Medical Research Council of Canada, and Dr. Calvin Stiller, head of the multiorgan transplant unit at University Hospital, London, Ont., the new fund proposes to invest in promising medical and biotechnology research companies in Canada. The research council's peerreview system gives the new fund scientific credibility.

Life sciences today and tomorrow: emerging biotechnologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Williamson, E Diane

2017-08-01

The purpose of this review is to survey current, emerging and predicted future biotechnologies which are impacting, or are likely to impact in the future on the life sciences, with a projection for the coming 20 years. This review is intended to discuss current and future technical strategies, and to explore areas of potential growth during the foreseeable future. Information technology approaches have been employed to gather and collate data. Twelve broad categories of biotechnology have been identified which are currently impacting the life sciences and will continue to do so. In some cases, technology areas are being pushed forward by the requirement to deal with contemporary questions such as the need to address the emergence of anti-microbial resistance. In other cases, the biotechnology application is made feasible by advances in allied fields in biophysics (e.g. biosensing) and biochemistry (e.g. bio-imaging). In all cases, the biotechnologies are underpinned by the rapidly advancing fields of information systems, electronic communications and the World Wide Web together with developments in computing power and the capacity to handle extensive biological data. A rationale and narrative is given for the identification of each technology as a growth area. These technologies have been categorized by major applications, and are discussed further. This review highlights: Biotechnology has far-reaching applications which impinge on every aspect of human existence. The applications of biotechnology are currently wide ranging and will become even more diverse in the future. Access to supercomputing facilities and the ability to manipulate large, complex biological datasets, will significantly enhance knowledge and biotechnological development.

Aspergilli: Systems biology and industrial applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knuf, Christoph; Nielsen, Jens

2012-01-01

possible to implement systems biology tools to advance metabolic engineering. These tools include genome-wide transcription analysis and genome-scale metabolic models. Herein, we review achievements in the field and highlight the impact of Aspergillus systems biology on industrial biotechnology....

Biotechnology network promotes knowledge of transgenics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blanco Picado, Patricia; Valdez Melara, Marta

2015-01-01

Red de Ingenieria Genetica Aplicada al Mejoramiento de Cultivos Tropicales (Rigatrop) integrated by a group of scientists from the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), Universidad Nacional (UNA) and of the Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica (TEC) have organized two forums on the topic of transgenics. The first forum has shown successful experiences of development of transgenic crops in Latin America, as for example: the transgenic bean, project realized in Brazil and transgenic eggplant in Bangladesh. The second forum has been about transgenics and environment effected at the UCR, on the occasion of World Environment Day. Rigatrop members are working currently in two projects applying biotechnological tools to coffee [es

Bioethical Considerations of Advancing the Application of Marine Biotechnology and Aquaculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Harrell, Reginal M

2017-06-24

Normative ethical considerations of growth of the marine biotechnology and aquaculture disciplines in biopharming, food production, and marine products commercialization from a bioethical perspective have been limited. This paucity of information begs the question of what constitutes a bioethical approach (i.e., respect for individuals or autonomy; beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice) to marine biotechnology and aquaculture, and whether it is one that is appropriate for consideration. Currently, thoughtful discussion on the bioethical implications of use, development, and commercialization of marine organisms or their products, as well as potential environmental effects, defaults to human biomedicine as a model. One must question the validity of using human bioethical principlism moral norms for appropriating a responsible marine biotechnology and aquaculture ethic. When considering potential impacts within these disciplines, deference must be given to differing value systems in order to find common ground to advance knowledge and avoid emotive impasses that can hinder the science and its application. The import of bioethical considerations when conducting research and/or production is discussed. This discussion is directed toward applying bioethical principles toward technology used for food, biomedical development (e.g., biopharming), or as model species for advancement of knowledge for human diseases.

Bioethical Considerations of Advancing the Application of Marine Biotechnology and Aquaculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reginal M. Harrell

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Normative ethical considerations of growth of the marine biotechnology and aquaculture disciplines in biopharming, food production, and marine products commercialization from a bioethical perspective have been limited. This paucity of information begs the question of what constitutes a bioethical approach (i.e., respect for individuals or autonomy; beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice to marine biotechnology and aquaculture, and whether it is one that is appropriate for consideration. Currently, thoughtful discussion on the bioethical implications of use, development, and commercialization of marine organisms or their products, as well as potential environmental effects, defaults to human biomedicine as a model. One must question the validity of using human bioethical principlism moral norms for appropriating a responsible marine biotechnology and aquaculture ethic. When considering potential impacts within these disciplines, deference must be given to differing value systems in order to find common ground to advance knowledge and avoid emotive impasses that can hinder the science and its application. The import of bioethical considerations when conducting research and/or production is discussed. This discussion is directed toward applying bioethical principles toward technology used for food, biomedical development (e.g., biopharming, or as model species for advancement of knowledge for human diseases.

Biotechnology and species development in aquaculture

African Journals Online (AJOL)

STORAGESEVER

2008-12-29

Dec 29, 2008 ... The use of biotechnology in various aspects of human endeavour have obviously created a great ... the already adopted biotechnologies are being improved upon with lesser demerits. ... potential to improve the quality and quantity of fish reared .... become easier with the development of artificial breeding.

Journal of Tropical Microbiology and Biotechnology

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Journal of Tropical Microbiology and Biotechnology (JTMB) formerly Journal of Tropical Microbiology gives preeminence to the central role of modern biotechnology and microorganisms as tools and targets in current research, which is largely multidisciplinary. JTMB covers a broad range of topics, such as disease ...

Essays on Industrial Organization and Political Economy

Science.gov (United States)

Camara, Odilon Roberto VG de a

2009-01-01

This thesis presents three essays on industrial organization and political economy. In the first essay, I show how the attributes of a managerial workforce affect firms' placement decisions and wage offers, and managers' quit decisions. My OLG model features two division managers and a CEO, where each executive may be at a different point in his…

Financing biotechnology projects: lender due diligence requirements and the role of independent technical consultants.

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, J B; Plath, P B

1999-01-01

An increasing number of biotechnology projects are being brought to commercialization using conventional structured finance sources, which have traditionally only been available to proven technologies and primary industries. Attracting and securing competitive cost financing from mainstream lenders, however, will require the sponsor of a new technology or process to undergo a greater level of due diligence. The specific areas and intensity of investigation, which are typically required by lenders in order to secure long-term financing for biotechnology-based manufacturing systems, is reviewed. The processes for evaluating the adequacy of prior laboratory testing and pilot plant demonstrations is discussed. Particular emphasis is given to scale-up considerations and the ability of the proposed facility design to accommodate significant modifications, in the event that scale-up problems are encountered.

Biotechnological production of caffeic acid derivatives from cell and organ cultures of Echinacea species.

Science.gov (United States)

Murthy, Hosakatte Niranjana; Kim, Yun-Soo; Park, So-Young; Paek, Kee-Yoeup

2014-09-01

Caffeic acid derivatives (CADs) are a group of bioactive compounds which are produced in Echinacea species especially Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea angustifolia, and Echinacea pallida. Echinacea is a popular herbal medicine used in the treatment of common cold and it is also a prominent dietary supplement used throughout the world. Caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid (5-O-caffeoylquinic acid), caftaric acid (2-O-caffeoyltartaric acid), cichoric acid (2, 3-O-dicaffeoyltartaric acid), cynarin, and echinacoside are some of the important CADs which have varied pharmacological activities. The concentrations of these bioactive compounds are species specific and also they vary considerably with the cultivated Echinacea species due to geographical location, stage of development, time of harvest, and growth conditions. Due to these reasons, plant cell and organ cultures have become attractive alternative for the production of biomass and caffeic acid derivatives. Adventitious and hairy roots have been induced in E. pupurea and E. angustifolia, and suspension cultures have been established from flask to bioreactor scale for the production of biomass and CADs. Tremendous progress has been made in this area; various bioprocess methods and strategies have been developed for constant high-quality productivity of biomass and secondary products. This review is aimed to discuss biotechnological methods and approaches employed for the sustainable production of CADs.

Application of biotechnology to improve livestock products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Swati Gupta

Full Text Available Biotechnological achievements of recent years have emerged as powerful tool to improve quality attributes of livestock products including milk and meat products. Biotechnological approaches can be employed for improving productivity, economy, physicochemical and nutritional attributes of a wide range of livestock products. The target areas of biotechnological research in the field of livestock products can be envisaged as production of high yielding food animal, improvement in quality of their products, enhanced production of natural food grade preservatives, efficient byproduct utilization and so forth. Many of the biotechnological techniques can be explored in the area of quality assurance programmes, which would be of great help to produce livestock products of assured quality and public health safety. [Vet World 2012; 5(10.000: 634-638

Liquid phase oxidation via heterogeneous catalysis organic synthesis and industrial applications

CERN Document Server

Clerici, Mario G

2013-01-01

Sets the stage for environmentally friendly industrial organic syntheses From basic principles to new and emerging industrial applications, this book offers comprehensive coverage of heterogeneous liquid-phase selective oxidation catalysis. It fully examines the synthesis, characterization, and application of catalytic materials for environmentally friendly organic syntheses. Readers will find coverage of all the important classes of catalysts, with an emphasis on their stability and reusability. Liquid Phase Oxidation via Heterogeneous Catalysis features contributions from an internation