Introduction Biotechnology and Biocatalysis

Biocatalysis or biotransformation encompasses the use of biological systems, whether whole cells, cellular extracts or isolated enzymes, to catalyze the conversion of one compound to another. 

To a significant extent these new options of biotechnology have already been exploited in the health sector (new types of drugs and diagnostic tools), whereas practical applications are emerging at lower speed in other sectors, such as nutrition, environment, raw material supply, or specialty chemicals. New biotechnological production systems based on mammalian cell cultures are in use, e.g., for the manufacture of recombinant therapeutic proteins and antibodies. 

A recently published OECD-Report [1] analyzes the state of the art and the future development needs for industrial biotechnology. Some important conclusions in this report summarizing the state of the art are  

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