Al-Farabi University College BIOTECHNOLOGY Biology Dept.

(Forth Class) Prof.Dr.Abdulwahid Al-Shaibani 2019- 2020

Lecture 1 (5 Pages)
General Introduction
Definition of Biotechnology:
There are several definitions for biotechnology, some of them are:
-“Any technological application that uses biological systems, living
organisms or derivatives to make or modify products or specific use
processes”. or
-“Using biological processes, organisms, or systems to manufacture products
intended to improve the quality of human life”. or
-“A collection of technologies that use living cells, systems, organisms
and/or biological molecules to solve problems and develop or make useful
products”.
-“Using biological processes and technology to solve problems or making
useful products”.

History of Biotechnology:
- The origins of biotechnology date back nearly 10,000 years ago when
people were collecting plant seeds for planting the next year. There is evidence
that Babylonians, Egyptians and Romans used these same selective breeding
practices for improving livestock.
-By 6000 B.C., beer, wine and bread were produced by fermentation.
-By 4000 B.C., the Chinese used lactic acid bacteria to make yogurt, molds for
making cheese and acetic acid bacteria to make vinegar.
-Louis Pasteur (1857-1885) is considered as the father of biotechnology by
discovering that fermentation is performed by microorganisms.
-Karl Ereky (1919) was the first to give the term biotechnology for
describing processes using living organisms to make a product or run a
process such as industrial fermentations.

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Historical Development of Biotechnology: (Figure 1-1).
1) Ancient Biotechnology:
• Discovering of microorganisms
• Traditional microbial industries (bread, cheese, beer and wine).
2) Classical Biotechnology:
• The fermentation theory of Pasteur.
• Production of: single cell protein (SCP), antibiotics, enzymes, vitamins,
nucleotides, steroids, acetone, butanol, ethanol and organic acids).
• Tissue cultures techniques
3) Modern Biotechnology:
• Improving microorganisms' productivity by genetic engineering techniques.
• Production of therapeutic proteins (insulin, interferons, etc).
• Production of new sources of energy (Biogas and biodiesel).

• Production of vaccines by plants.

• Production of genetically modified foods (GMF).

• Production of artificial chromosomes.

Figure (1-1): History and development of biotechnology.

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Areas of Biotechnology:
Term
Green Biotechnology
Red Biotechnology
White Biotechnology
Blue Biotechnology
Yellow Biotechnology
Brown Biotechnology
Gold Biotechnology
Dark Biotechnology
Purple Biotechnology
Application
Agriculture and Environment
Health, Medical and Diagnostics
Industry
Aquaculture, Coastal and Marine
Food and Nutrition sciences
Desert
Bioinformatics (‫ )المعلوماتية الحيوية‬and
Nanotechnology (‫)تقنية األجسام الدقيقة جدا‬
Biowarfare and Bioterrorism )‫الحرب‬
)‫واألرهاب البايولوجي‬
Patents, Publications and Inventions

Types (Names) of Biotechnology:

1- Animal biotechnology.
2- Plant biotechnology.
3- Microbial biotechnology. It is also called “Industrial microbiology” or
“Microbial fermentations”.
Steps (Operations) of Biotechnological Processes: (Figure 1-2).
Any biotechnological process is consisted of the following
five steps (or operations):
1- Strain (or culture) choice and improvement.
2- Mass culture (large-scale culture).
3- Optimization of cell responses.
4- Process operation (conditions).
5- Product recovery or downstream processing.
1-Strain choice): Identification of biological agent (microorganism/animal
cell/plant cells) able to produce the desired product is the first step in any

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 biotechnological process. This may involve isolation of such agent from an
appropriate habitat and improving it through suitable development strategies.
2-Mass Culture: It is necessary to culture the strain on a large scale,
because the developed suitable strain is maintained as long needed for use to
produce biomass (SCP) or to recover compounds from biomass or medium.
3-Optimization of cell responses: Generally, the conditions favoring rapid
cell growth and biomass production are different from those of producing
compound of interest, e.g., antibiotics. Therefore, to optimize the
biochemical yields, the culture conditions should be precisely regulated.
4-Process operation (conditions): The steps of a biotechnological process
need to be fully optimized for safety, reproducibility, control and efficiency at
all scales of operation. In major part, this is the function of process
engineering design developed with a full understanding of the biological,
chemical and socioeconomic factors.
5-Product recovery: The goal of any biotechnological process is to recover
(obtain) the needed product(s) in a useful form. The efficiency of product
recovery is directly reflected in the product cost. The mode of this operation
also determines the environmental friendliness of the process.
Examples on Applications of Biotechnology (Outputs):(Figure 1-2).
I-Medical applications:
1) Treatment of certain diseases such as cancer.
2) Production of vaccines and immunizations.
3) Diagnosis of diseases.
4) Gene therapy.
5) Stem cell technique.
6) Production of proteins and genes.
Biotechnology has created more than 200 new biotherapeutics and
vaccines, including products to treat cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and
autoimmune disorders. The majority of these products are therapeutic proteins.

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 Figure (1-2): Stages of the biotechnological process.
II-Agricultural applications:
1) Food production, such as genetically modified foods.
2) Increased nutritional value.
3) Resistance to herbicides, pesticides.
4) Plants not required addition of fertilizer.
5) Stress–resistant plant (alkalinity, acidity, frost, drought).
6) Plant used to produce vaccine and medical products.
III- Industrial applications:
-Enzymes are the most important outputs of industrial applications. There
are more than 450 enzymes catalyzing reactions of these applications, such
as: carbohydrate enzymes (e.g. amylases), proteases, peptidases, lipases,
oxidoreductases and transferases.
-Energy production.
IV-Environmental applications:
-The major environmental use is cleaning through bioremediation.
Bioremediation is the use of biotechnology to process or degrade a variety
of natural and manmade products, especially those contributing to pollution.