Biotech companies have a lot to be proud of. They have made so many significant contributions to society and in so many different fields, it’s surprising that most people don’t know exactly what these brilliant entities do.
From consumer goods to life-saving medication, biotechnology has been used for centuries to create a variety of goods. This article will examine the numerous applications of biotechnology and educate you on such an important field.
What is Biotech?
Simply put, biotechnology uses living organisms, such as bacteria, fungus, and microbes to create a variety of products. By using such “raw materials”, biotechnology has a reduced impact on the environment without compromising on quality or quantity.
Medicine
Pharmaceuticals can’t be the only ones who get credit for producing groundbreaking medication. Biotech has made significant contributions to the field of medicine and has introduced several drugs that have been used to treat debilitating illnesses. To treat arthritis, we have Humira and Enbrel is used to treat a variety of autoimmune disorders. Last, and most definitely not least, is Rituxan which is used to reduce the growth of tumor cells in various types of cancer. Rituxan was truly considered a groundbreaking milestone in the field of medicine.
Consumer Goods
While biotech’s application to medicine and consumer goods might be new, the processes it employs have been around for centuries and have been refined with the passage of time. One example is beer, which has been produced for almost 5000 years and the overall process of fermenting barley has remained virtually the same throughout the centuries. Another example of biotech being used for food and edibles is cheese. As with beer, the processes used to produce cheese have been around for centuries.
Other consumer goods that are produced using biotech include detergent, keeping our clothes, dishes, and utensils squeaky clean and hygienic. Also, while the impact of biotechnical companies on the environment is much lower than other industries, it has produced one consumer good that has caused significant damage to the planet, plastic bags.
Industrial Biotech Services
Nowadays, biotech services are used by various industries, such as food, for mass production processes and to streamline the production of goods. The field has so much promise that startups are constantly popping up and they do not seem to have a difficult time securing any funding because there is a demand for their services and they produce results. In a relatively short amount of time, biotech has become a $150 billion-a-year industry and seems to show no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
The Future
Even having given society so much, biotech still has a lot more to contribute. One promising development is by a lab in the United States which has used biotechnology to treat sewage water and turn it into clean drinking water. If the process is perfected and industrialized, global access to clean drinking water can move from being a dream to becoming a reality. In the medical field, biotech is developing bacterial phages to treat serious viral infections, and development in the field could help developing countries fight disease with a lot more ease.
