Biotechnology chemical engineering, first

Edwin Lightfoot I have a few remarks on topics that may have been missed. First, we can divide biotechnology into the areas of bioprocessing, which is truly a chemical engineering activity, and metabolic engineering, where we re concerned with the details of the living organism. Both of these have big opportunities for us. 

First, the delivery of any such potential Biotechnological Revolution in agriculture lies squarely in the domain of Chemical Engineering. Second, in tomorrow s world we cannot leave all the issues to science and technology the social/ethical/political questions will need full and open airing. 

The first of two stays of the senior author at Iowa State University was supported by a contract between Ae United Nations Industrial Development Organization and Ae National Chemical Laboratory, administered in the United States by the Carl Duisberg Society, Inc. This work was also supported by the Engineering Research Institute of Iowa State University. The authors thank Ron Niece, Cynthia Wadsworth, Nick Strickland, and Tony Grabski of the University of Wisconsin Biotechnology Center for providing confirmation of the amino acid sequence, and Brian Chait and Ron Beavis of Rockefeller University for attempting matrix-assisted laser desorption mass spectroscopy on Ac enzyme. This article is N(X Communication No. 4950. 

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