Overview

1. What is Biotechnology?
•Definitions of Biotechnology
•Timeline of Biotechnology
•Techniques used in Biotechnology
•Who's Who in Biotechnology

2. How is Biotechnology being used?

•Applications of Biotechnology
•Medicines on the market today
•Agriculture - GM Foods and Animals
•DNA fingerprinting and forensic science
•Gene Therapy and Transgenic Animals
•Human Embryonic Stem Cells and Cloning

3. What are some of the societal issues Biotechnology

raises?
•Bioethics / "Genethics"
•Public attitudes to biotechnology - safety, awareness
•Therapeutic uses of human genes and tissues
 What is biotechnology?
• Biotechnology = bios (life) + logos (study of or
essence)
– Literally ‘the study of tools from living things’

• CLASSIC: The word "biotechnology" was first used in

1917 to describe processes using living organisms to
make a product or run a process, such as industrial
fermentations. (Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A
History of Biotechnology)

• LAYMAN: Biotechnology began when humans began

to plant their own crops, domesticate animals,
ferment juice into wine, make cheese, and leaven
bread (AccesExcellence)
 What is biotechnology?
• GENENTECH: Biotechnology is the process of
harnessing 'nature's own' biochemical tools to make
possible new products and processes and provide
solutions to society's ills (G. Kirk Raab, Former
President and CEO of Genentech)

• WEBSTER’S: The aspect of technology concerned

with the application of living organisms to meet the
needs and ends of man.

• WALL STREET: Biotechnology is the application of

genetic engineering and DNA technology to produce
therapeutic and medical diagnostic products and
processes. Biotech companies have one thing in
common - the use of genetic engineering and
manipulation of organisms at a molecular level.
 What is biotechnology?
• Using scientific methods with organisms to produce
new products or new forms of organisms

• Any technique that uses living organisms or

substances from those organisms or substances from
those organisms to make or modify a product, to
improve plants or animals, or to develop
microorganisms for specific uses
 What is biotechnology?
• Biotechnology is a multidisciplinarian in nature,
involving input from

• Engineering
• Computer Science
• Cell and Molecular Biology
• Microbiology
• Genetics
• Physiology
• Biochemistry
• Immunology
• Virology
• Recombinant DNA Technology  Genetic manipulation
of bacteria, viruses, fungi, plants and animals, often for
the development of specific products
 What are the stages of biotechnology?

• Ancient Biotechnology
• early history as related to food and shelter,
including domestication

• Classical Biotechnology
• built on ancient biotechnology
• fermentation promoted food production
• medicine

• Modern Biotechnology
• manipulates genetic information in organism
• genetic engineering
 Ancient biotechnology
History of domestication and agriculture

• Paleolithic society – Hunter-gatherers  Nomadic

lifestyle due to migratory animals and edible plant
distribution (wild wheat and barley) (~2 x 106 yrs.)
• Followed by domestication of plants and animals
(artificial selection)  People settled, sedentary
lifestyles evolved (~10,000 yrs. ago)
• Cultivation of wheat, barley and rye (seed
collections)
• Sheep and goats  milk, cheese, button and
meat
• Grinding stones for food preparation
• New technology  Origins of Biotechnology 
Agrarian Societies
 Ancient biotechnology
Fermented foods and beverages

• Long history of fermented foods since people

began to settle (9000 BC) (fervere –to boil)
• Often discovered by accident!
• Improved flavor and texture
• Deliberate contamination with bacteria or
fungi (molds)
• Examples:
•Bread
•Yogurt
•Sour cream
•Cheese
•Wine
•Beer
•Sauerkraut
 Ancient biotechnology
Fermented foods and beverages

• Dough not baked immediately would undergo

spontaneous fermentation  would rise 
Eureka!!

• Uncooked fermented dough could be used to

ferment a new batch  no longer reliant on
“chance fermentation”

• 1866 – Louis Pasteur published his findings on

the direct link between yeast and sugars  CO2 +
ethanol (anaerobic process)

• 1915 – Production of baker’s yeast –

Saccharomyces cerevisiae
 Classical biotechnology
Industry today exploits early discoveries of the fermentation
process for production of huge numbers of products
•Different types of beer
•Vinegar
•Glycerol
•Acetone
•Butanol
•Lactic acid
•Citric acid
•Antibiotics – WWII (Bioreactor developed for large
scale production, e.g. penicilin made by fermentation
of penicillium)
•Today many different antibiotics are produced by
microorganisms
•Cephalosporins, bacitracin, neomycin,
tetracycline……..)
 Classical biotechnology

Chemical transformations to produce therapeutic

products

• Substrate  + Microbial Enzyme  Product

• Examples:
• Cholesterol  Steroids (cortisone, estrogen,
progesterone) (hydroxylation reaction  -OH
group added to cholesterol ring)
 Classical biotechnology

Microbial synthesis of other commercially valuable

products

• Amino acids to improve food taste, quality or

preservation

• Enzymes (cellulase, collagenase, diastase,

glucose isomerase, invertase, lipase, pectinase,
protease)

• Vitamins

• Pigments
 Modern biotechnology
• Cell biology
• Structure, organization and reproduction

• Biochemistry
• Synthesis of organic compounds
• Cell extracts for fermentation (enzymes
versus whole cells)

• Genetics
• Resurrection of Gregor Mendel’s findings  1866 
1900s
• Theory of Inheritance (ratios dependent on traits of
parents)
• Theory of Transmission factors

• W.H. Sutton – 1902

• Chromosomes = inheritance factors

• T.H. Morgan – Drosophila melanogaster

 Modern biotechnology

Molecular Biology

• Beadle and Tatum (Neurospora crassa)

• One gene, one enzyme hypothesis
• Charles Yanofsky  colinearity
between mutations in genes and amino
acid sequence (E. coli)
• Genes determine structure of proteins

• Hershey and Chase – 1952

• T2 bacteriophage – 32P DNA, not 35S protein
is the material that encodes genetic
information
 Modern biotechnology

• Watson, Crick, Franklin and Wilkins (1953)

• X-ray crystallography
• 1962 – Nobel Prize awarded to three men
• Chargaff – DNA base ratios
• Structural model of DNA developed

• DNA Revolution – Promise and Controversy!!!

• Scientific foundation of modern biotechnology

• based on knowledge of DNA, its replication,
repair and use of enzymes to carry out in vitro
splicing DNA fragments
 Modern biotechnology
• Breaking the Genetic Code – Finding the Central
Dogma

• An “RNA Club” organized by George Gamow (1954)

assembled to determine the role of RNA in protein
synthesis

• Vernon Ingram’s research on sickle cell anemia (1956)

tied together inheritable diseases with protein structure
• Link made between amino acids and DNA

• Radioactive tagging experiments demonstrate

intermediate between DNA and protein = RNA
• RNA movement tracked from nucleus to cytoplasm  site of
protein synthesis
 Modern biotechnology

• DNA  RNA  Protein

Transcription Translation

Genetic code determined for all 20 amino acids by

Marshal Nirenberg and Heinrich Matthaei and Gobind
Khorana – Nobel Prize – 1968

• 3 base sequence = codon

 What are the areas of biotechnology?

• Organismic biotechnology
• uses intact organisms and does not alter genetic
material

• Molecular Biotechnology
• alters genetic makeup to achieve specific goals

Transgenic organism: an organism with artificially

altered genetic material
 What are the benefits of
biotechnology?
• Medicine
• human
• veterinary
• biopharming

• Environment
• Agriculture
• Food products
• Industry and manufacturing
What are the applications of biotechnology?

• Production of new and improved crops/foods,

industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals and livestock
• Diagnostics for detecting genetic diseases
• Gene therapy (e.g. ADA, CF)
• Vaccine development (recombinant vaccines)
• Environmental restoration
• Protection of endangered species
• Conservation biology
• Bioremediation
• Forensic applications
• Food processing (cheese, beer)
 Transfer of new Anti-cancer drugs
Culture of plants
genes into animal from single cells Diagnostics
organisms

Cell Monoclonal
Culture Antibodies
Crime solving
Molecular
Biology

DNA Tracers
technology Genetic
Engineering
Synthesis of
Banks of Cloning specific DNA
DNA, RNA Synthesis
probes
and proteins of new Mass prodn. of
proteins human proteins
Complete Localisation of
New types of Resource bank
map of the genetic disorders
plants and for rare human
human
animals chemicals
genome
New
New types antibiotics
of food Gene therapy
 Biotechnology Timeline
1750 BC The Sumerians brew beer.
500 BC Chinese use moldy soybean
curds as an antibiotic to treat
boils
1590 Janssen invents the microscope
1675 Leeuwenhoek discovers cells
(bacteria, red blood cells)
1830 Proteins are discovered
1833 The first enzymes are isolated
1855 The Eschirium coli bacterium
is discovered
 Biotechnology Timeline

1859 Charles Darwin publishes On

the Origin of Species

1864 Louis Pasteur shows all living

things are produced by other
living things

1865 The age of genetics begins

1902 Walter Sutton coins the term

‘gene’ - proposed that
chromosomes carry genes
 Biotechnology Timeline
1910 Chromosomal theory of
inheritance proved

1928 Fleming discovers antibiotic

properties of certain molds

1941 George Beadle and Edward Tatum propose

that one gene makes one protein

1949 Sickle cell anaemia demonstrated to be

molecular disease
 Biotechnology Timeline
1952 The ‘Waring Blender’
experiment

1953 The double helix is unravelled

1967 The genetic code is cracked

1973 Recombinant DNA

technology begins

1975 First international conference

on recombinant DNA
technology
 Biotechnology Timeline
1975 DNA sequencing discovered

1975 Monoclonal antibody

technology introduced

1978 Genentech Inc. established

1978 Genentech use genetic engineering to produce

human insulin in E.coli - 1980 IPO of $89

1978 Kary Mullis discovers PCR

 Biotechnology Timeline
1989 The Human Genome Project begins

1990 First use of gene therapy

1990 First product of recombinant

DNA technology introduced
into US food chain
1993 FDA announces that
transgenic food is safe

1994 The FLAVRSAVR tomato -

first genetically engineered
whole food
 Biotechnology Timeline

1996 First mammal cloned from adult

cells

1990s First conviction using genetic

fingerprinting

1996 Development of Affymetrix

GeneChip

1997 First artificial chromosome

 History of Biotechnology
1998 Human embryonic stem cells
grown

1999 Celera announces completion

of Drosophilia genome
sequence

2000 90% of Human Genome

sequence published on web

2001 Human genome project

complete
 Discussion

• What is the societal impression of biotechnology?

• What are the negative impacts that biotechnology may
have?
• What are the potential ethical issues associated with
biotechnology?
• Why are biotechnology companies targeted by anti-
globalisation protesters?
• How can the image of biotechnology to the public be
improved? Should it be improved?
• What are the potential dangers of biotechnology?