Biotechnology

Biotechnology is the application of living systems, such as microbes, cells and enzymes, or their components, to create or modify products and processes. Defined broadly, it is very old: people have selectively bred crops and livestock for about ten thousand years and have used yeast and bacteria to make bread, beer, wine and cheese for thousands of years. Modern biotechnology, in the narrower sense, began in the 1970s with recombinant DNA techniques that let scientists cut, join and move genes between organisms.

Today's tool kit includes molecular cloning, the polymerase chain reaction, DNA sequencing, cell and tissue culture, and genome editing with CRISPR. In medicine, biotechnology produces recombinant proteins such as human insulin, along with vaccines, antibodies and diagnostic tests. In agriculture, it supports marker-assisted breeding and genetically modified crops that resist insects or tolerate herbicides. Industrial and environmental uses include making enzymes and biofuels and using microbes to clean up pollution, which is called bioremediation.

Because it draws on molecular biology, genetics, microbiology and engineering, biotechnology is both a field of study and a major industry, and it raises questions of safety, regulation and ethics.