Nanotech BSU

BIOTECH:

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P3. Biotech is the use of microbial, animal, or plant cells or enzymes to synthesize, break down, or transform materials
Bio and nano are enabling technologies with applications in many industrial sectors

P5. Biotech is as old as bread and beer
The new biotech revolution began in the 70’s and early 80’s when scientists leaned to alter precisely the genetic constitution of living organisms

P7. Biotech applications and co’s in therapeutics, diagnostics, agriculture/forestry/horticulture, food, environment, chemical, equipment, bioprocess technology, enzyme technology, waste technology, renewable resources, healthcare

P11. 2/3 biotech funding is in healthcare (probably more now in energy)
Traditional biotech: beer (fermentation) new: genetically engineering human insulin

P13. Organisms are a convenient form for a biotech process to take place in (bioreactor) note utilitarian view of life- mostly microbes

P21. More than 10 times more energy is generated annually by photosynthesis than is consumed by humankind

P23. Lignocellulose is the most abundant and renewable natural resource available to humanity throughout the world (solar?) trees are composed mainly of lignocellulose, massive technological difficulties must be overcome before economic use may be made of this plentiful compound (corn cobs, oat hulls, straw, bagasse, wood wastes, sulphite liquor, paper wastes)- however, normally requires complex pretreatment involving reduction in particle size followed by various chemical or enzymic hydrolyses (energy intensive and costly)
Land plants produce 24 tonnes of cellulose per person per year, time will surely show that lignocellulose will be the most useful carbon source for biotech developments

P25. The largest proportion of total volume of waste matter is from animal rearing (feces, urine), then agricultural wastes, wastes from food industries, and domestic wastes

P31. Factors determining competitiveness of natural (biomass) and synthetic (fossil biomass) derived products: relative price of raw materials, quality/variability/regularity or supply and safety of raw materials, relative costs of chemical base material conversion compared to conversion of agricultural products, premium accorded be the market to ‘natural’ as compared to synthetic products and increasing requirement for products to be biodegradable

P33. Biotech has been around a very long time, but coenetic engineering (molecular manipulation of DNA and RNA) is only a few decades old

P43. Early genetic energy studies used E. coli and a special strain that has been developed that will only grow in labs

P49. Many bioproducts could be produced economically any other way (+: complex molecules, such as proteins and antibodies, cannot be produced by chemical means, bioconversions give higher yields, biological systems operate at lower temperatures near neutral pH, much greater specificity of catalytic reaction, can achieve exclusive production of an isomeric compound) (--: can be easily contaminated with foreign unwanted microorganisms, the desired product will usually be present in a complex product mixture requiring separation, need to provide handle and dispose of large volumes of water, bioprocesses are usually extremely slow when compared with conventional chemical processes)

P75. Enzyme of tergents could make good story p 78

P109. At least 25% of the world’s population currently suffers from hunger and malnutrition (shouldn’t that take priority over environment?)

P125. Many chronic diseases will most probably not have a single identifiable gene cause but rather arise from a complex, cascading series of biological events interacting with environmental factors
A considerable amount of raw material must be nearby for single cell protein production to be economical (true of bioprocin gen?)

P126. Biopharmaceuticals: recombinant protein drugs, recombinant vaccines, monoclonal antibodies

P127. Achieving regulatory approval for pharmaceuticals can cost millions, so products must have high sales potential
Biotech medical treatment: therapeutic products (hormones, proteins, antibodies), prenatal diagnosis of genetic diseases, vaccines, immunodiagnostic and DNA processes for disease ID, genetic therapy

P128. There is now little doubt that the incorporation of medically important antibodies into feed was led to increased spread of drug resistant microorganisms, increased shedding of dangerous salmonella bacteria in animal dung and the transfer of antibiotic residues into human food

P129. It is regrettable that most studies on antibiotics have been concerned with diseases prevalent in the developing nations, probably the reason lies with the economies of developing new drugs for countries with limited financial resources, malaria is the most common infectious disease in the world
Biotech may well make it possible to economically produce ‘orphan drugs’- drugs with specific needs but small profit return

P137. Gene therapy— “Undoubtedly, the most far reaching and controversial area of genetic engineering of humans is gene therapy. This is the treatment of disease by the transfer and expression of genetic material in a patient’s cells in order to restore normal cellular function. Is it, however, essential to distinguish between germ cell gene therapy and somatic cell gene therapy. In germ cell gene therapy changes are directed at the individual’s genetic make-up and can be passed on to the offspring. Ethics and practical wisdom ensures that this type to therapy will not be permitted in any country, in the foreseeable future. In contrast, in somatic cell gene therapy, functioning genes are introduced into body cells that lack them. The effects of the therapy are confined to the person undergoing the treatment and are not passes on to the offspring.”

P139. Complex multifactorial diseases like Parkinson’s, cancer can have complex interactions with environment, so gene therapy for them is a long way off

P143. Biotic- living
Abiotic- nonliving
Environmental biotech- the application of biological systems and processes in waste treatment and management
“It is the microbes in their multivarious forms that largely direct the orderly flow of materials and energy (biogeochemical cycles) through the world’s ecosystems by way of their immense and varied metabolic ecology is an extremely relevant scientific discipline with proven practical applications and must be seen as one of the most critical scientific approaches to environmental problems.”
“Organic chemicals that cannot easily be degraded by microorganisms, or are indeed totally resistant to attack lignin, for example, are termed recalcitrant. Xenobiotics are synthetic compounds not formed by natural biosynthetic process and, in many cases, can be recalcitrant. A xenobiotic compound is, therefore, a foreign substance in our ecosystem and may often have toxic effects. All environmental biotechnological processes make use of the metabolic (degradative and anabolic) activities of microorganisms, demonstrating, again, the indispensable nature of microbes in our ecosystem.”

P145. In volumetric terms biological treatment of domestic waste-waters and sewage in the industrialized nations is by far the largest biotechnological industry and the least recognized by lay people
“Controlled use of microorganisms has led to the virtual elimination of such waterborne diseases as typhoid, cholera, and dysentery in these communities. Yet, if water and sewage treatments are seriously interrupted, major epidemics may quickly develop, as witnessed in 1968 in Zermatt, Switzerland, where typhoid developed following the breakdown of the water treatment plant. Thus, not only does biotechnology generate a whole new range of useful products, it also plays an indispensable part, through water and sewage treatment processes, in the reduction of infectious diseases of humans and animals.”

P153. More then 12 million tonnes of oil are estimated to enter the sea each year

P157. Mining with microbes: 10% of the US copper, 300,000 tonnes annually worldwide, uranium too US 4,000 tonnes per year

P164. Two big advances in plant biotech: isolate plant cells and keep them alive and reproducing in suspension, develop cells into entire plants (cloning)

P165. We now manipulate plant cells and plants for virus elimination, strain selection, mutation, resistance to herbicides
Recombinant DNA we move DNA from one plant cell (or even other types of organisms) into cells of another

P166. Foreign genes can be inserted into bacterium plasmid DNA then integrated into plant genome “Ti Plasmid- derived vector”
Particle gun used to bombard plant cells with genes in the form of DNA- coated particles which penetrate cell walls and deliver DNA to nucleus

P167. Ti plasmids have also been used to insert ‘antisense genes’ in order t negate the functions of specific plant genes concerned with an undesirable phenotype
Genetic energy allows improved resistance to specific herbicides, insect pests and microbial diseases and improved post harvest characteristics

P168. Global estimate of losses due to plant diseases in 1987 was approximately $90 billion

P169. Flavr Savr Tomota- example of antisense gene energy (still marketed?)

P171. World production: harvested wood- 1.6 billion tonnes, paper- 200 million tones 1992

P173. First example of transfer of foreign gene across species by recombinant DNA was ‘super mouse’ (first transgenic animal) rat gene for growth hormone into mouse genome result- larger mouse

P174. Efforts to create transgenetic pigs, sheep and cattle only succeed about 1% of the time
Locating animals can be engineered to produce human proteins which can be used in pharmaceuticals (pharming)

P175. In 1980’s gene responsible for bovine growth hormone (somatotropin or BST) isolated and transferred to bacterial cells to produce large quantities of BST
Cows injected with BST show 10-30% increase in milk production (continued injections required to maintain yield)
“There is no evidence of increased concentrations of BST in the mild nor that the constituents of milk are in any way altered.”

P177. BST treated cows showed increased mastitis

P185. Almost 90% of all revenues from biotechnology come from the food and beverage sectors

P205. European patent office: “To find a substance freely occurrence in nature is… mere discovery and therefore unpatentable. However, if a substance found in nature has first to be isolated from its surroundings and a process for obtaining it is developed, that process is patentable. Moreover, if the substance can be properly characterized, either by its chemical structure, by the process by which it is obtained or by other parameters and if it is ‘new’ in the sense of having no previous recognized existence, then the per se may be patentable.”

P208. Society has for centuries, used the products and process of biotechnology, these processes have employed microorganisms of known pathogenic potential

P209. Risk assessment studies have failed to demonstrate that most cells can acquire novel hazardous properties from DNA donor cells

P215. There have been no adverse effects recorded from the examples so far of genetically modified microorganisms released into the environment

P218. Substitutability- genetic engineering advances (sweeteners, hormone injected cow’s milk) can disrupt traditional economy (sugar cane, small dairy farms)
For many aspects of new biotechnology, these will be a social price to pay and particularly in the developing countries the number of jobs in alternative will decrease

posted by jnmullendore @ Monday, December 18, 2006