Earth Science: Biotechnology – Modern Biotechnology
The fields of application in modern biotechnology are diverse, but they fall into several main branches. Although these branches cannot be delineated precisely, a color-coded system can be used for easy recognition.
The color-coding system has not (yet) been officially adopted, but can aid in clarifying the different fields of application. Green biotechnology deals with agriculture, particularly genetically modifying commercially used plants, like cereal grains or maize (corn), to produce greater yields or become resistant to harmful organisms. This branch also deals with the further development of future food products to have new, additional characteristics: for instance, potatoes that will be able to produce surface molecules of certain disease carriers, in order to “immunize” humans against these diseases.
Therapy and diagnostics of diseases and the production of new medications belong to the red biotechnology. This branch not only develops new medications—for instance, human insulin—but also aids burn victims who need skin transplants. Tiny skin sections removed from the patient can be grown artificially in a laboratory into larger skin sections. When the patient recieves a skin transplant consisting exclusively of its own bodycells (a so-called autotransplant), rejection by the body is unlikely. Growing new tissue (tissue engineering), however, is not restricted to skin. It is also being tested for other tissue and even for organs. Another objective of red biotechnology is the selective use of medications or active components on diseased tissue, for example drug-delivery systems. For that purpose, “transporters” such as lipoproteins or viruses are specifically modified to transport active components to certain cells, where they are then released.
White technology optimizes industrial processes for manufacturing certain products. Plant raw materials, such as starch, oils, or cellulose, are modified in order to produce fibers, chemicals, or plastics with improved characteristics. The extraction of bioalcohol (ethanol) from plants as alternative fuel for motor cars is one of its objectives. A classic application of white biotecnnology is the optimization of certain enzymes used in detergents. Detergents that use enzymes (proteases) to breakdown and remove substances such as blood or milk products are normally active only in a temperature range from around 68 to 149°F (20 to 65°C). If optimum efficiency is at about 140T (60°C), there is only limited activity at 86°F (30°C), and they can be virtually inactive after only a short period at 203°F (95°C). Therefore attempts are made to improve the optimum temperature of these enzymes, in order to conserve energy through lower washing temperatures.
For more than a hundred years, waste water from cities and municipalities has not only been mechanically filtered, but biologically cleaned also. Gray biotechnology attempts to improve the conditions of the processes involved. It also deals with the decontamination of soils that may have been polluted by a chemical factory or a waste dump.
Blue technology deals with microorganisms in the world’s ocean; it studies deep-sea bacteria that live on hot vents (so-called black smokers), because these particular bacteria remain active at very high temperatures. Less clearly delineated is brown biotechnology, which focuses on environ- mental technology, and yellow biotechnology, which concentrates on activities involving foodstuff and raw materials associated with it.