Biotechnology revolution

As the drug discovery process increased in intensity in the mid- to late 20th century, primarily as a result of the major screening and chemical synthetic efforts in the pharmaceutical industry in industrialized countries worldwide, but also as a result of the biotechnology revolution, the need for increased sophistication and efficacy in (1) how to discover new drugs, (2) how to reproducibly prepare bulk chemicals, (3) how to determine the activity and safety of new drug candidates in preclinical animal models prior to their... 

The biotechnology revolution has made an undeniable impression on the field of metabolism. For example, it is common, to seek in vitro metabolic data based on human CYPs. Currently, Cerep, Cyprotex, Novascreen, and many others (267-271) are providing larger and larger metabolism datasets, computational tools, and models, often in conjunction with other biological endpoints. However, the qualities of these datasets are yet to be established. 

R Fukuyama, Our Posthuman Future Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution (New Yotk Picadot, 2002), pp. 54,51-52. 

Nardone, R. M. (1990) The Biotechnology Revolution. A lecture presented at the Biotechnology Forum, San Juan, PR... 

MacGregor JT (2003) The future of regulatory toxicology Impact of the biotechnology revolution. Toxicological Sciences 75 236-248. 

Fermentation in its simplest forms, such as the production of bread or wine, is very old technology. In its application with recombinant DNA to produce pharmacologically active proteins (erythropoetin, human growth hormone, human insulin), it is central to the modem biotechnological revolution. In between, it is the method for production of antibiotics and vitamin B12 and provides a step in the production of vitamin C and the synthesis of cortisone from diosgenin. 

This volume and its companion. Inventing the Electronic Century The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries, focus on three revolutions that have transformed life and work on this planet during the past century and a half the Industrial, the Information, and the Biotechnology Revolutions. Inventing the Electronic Century deals with the second of these revolutions the present volume reviews the first and the beginning of the third. In this chapter, I compare and contrast the histories of all three revolutions and offer some summary observations and conclusions. 

The companies that focused on commercializing the new learning, assisted by the new computer-based techniques of discovery by design — Merck, Eli Lily, Squibb, and SmithKline French— became the industry s leaders. Abbott also succeeded when, more by chance than careful strategic planning, it became a first mover in the new biotechnology revolution. 

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. 

In short, I believe the widening sweep of the Biotechnological Revolution has implications for Chemical Engineering practice beyond the dreams of its wildest chauvinists. By way of anticlimax, I now turn to some for the more prosaic implications for the present and near future of the subject. 

Education received considerable attention at the 6th World Congress, from the discussion of its historical role in the development of the profession presented in Chapter 2, to consideration of the new curricula required to equip us for various visions of the future. The tone was set by Lord May (Chapter 1) in offering this as part of his future vision I believe the widening sweep of the Biotechnological Revolution has implications for Chemical Engineering practice beyond the dreams of its wildest chauvinists , and he goes on to suggest some elements of an appropriate curriculum. 

The hnished product will be subjected to inspection and rigorous testing for identity, uniformity, residual water content, stability, sterility and potency. In addition, all analytical techniques employed in testing these attributes will themselves have been subjected for reliability, reproducibility, experimental uncertainty limits. The biotechnological revolution has resulted in the appearance of ever more rehned and sensitive analytical techniques, mainly novel types of spectroscopy and coupled techniques, based on mass spectrometry, known usually by complex acronyms, e.g. MALDI-TOE-MS (Matrix-Assisted-Laser-Z)esorption-71me-of-Tlight-Mass Spectrometry). Some of the available analytical procedures are treated in more detail in the next chapter. 

A tremendous noticeable change in the process of drug discovery in the past three decades has been focused solely on the biotechnology revolution . In short, the techniques employed invariably in molecular biology and biotechnology opened up an altogether new trend in biomedical research . 

---