What is Biotechnology?

In its broadest sense, biotechnology is anything but novel. One accepted definition of the word is ‘any technique that uses living organisms (or parts of organisms) to make or modify products, to improve plants or animals, or to develop micro-organisms for specific uses.’ Defined this way, biotechnology is thousands of years old. For millennia, humanity has used micro-organisms for the production of food: fermenting wine, leavening bread, and making cheese and yoghurt. Centuries before the principles of genetics were discerned, farmers were purposefully breeding more desirable strains of domestic animals.

Humanity’s ability to harness biological processes accelerated with Mendelian genetics. Employing an understanding of the rules by which genetic traits were transmitted, researchers became increasingly successful in producing new hybrids, cultivars, and even, on occasion, new species. Scientists also developed methods for deliberately accelerating the rate of mutation, such as radiation and the use of chemicals. Similarly, by artificially creating stressful environments, researchers could create pressures that would favor the development and expression of a particular genetic trait.

Last century, bacteria produced antibiotics and pesticides, and were purposefully used in manufacturing processes. The first major bacterial strain improvements began after the Second World War, as researchers sought to create higher yielding penicillin-producing molds. Subsequently, hundreds of other strains of micro-organisms have been deliberately modified for commercial purposes.

Since 1970, molecular biology, molecular genetics, and other basic sciences have advanced exponentially. The structure of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule was discovered only thirty years ago. The ability to select and transfer a single gene from one organism to another is barely two decades old. Hybridoma technology, too, is another recent innovation. The first commercial products of these new techniques are relatively new. New techniques and methodological refinements continue to be developed.

Recombinant DNA, hybridomas, and other new methods offer several significant advantages over traditional methods. For example, conventional chemical-induced mutagenesis changes the genotype in random, unpredictable, and unascertainable ways. Through recombinant DNA technology, scientists can cause precise, known genetic changes. Moreover, novel genetic compositions can be established for an organism.

Collectively, these new methods are commonly called ‘biotechnology’. However, although the term is widely employed, the meaning is imprecise. A recent survey of United States government agencies showed that the Cooperative State Research Service of the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration each defined the term differently. The definition can and will vary widely from country to country.

Citing the imprecision of the term, some commentators have suggested that the word be abandoned but the term seems too well entrenched for this to happen. Usually, whenever the term ‘biotechnology’ is used, we ordinarily mean “new wave biotechnology”, for instance innovative molecular biology, such as recombinant DNA and hybridomas.