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...chemicals materials including environmental protection and remediation. This article considers how the business" sector will modified by developments in the understanding of living organisms. Will the 21st century see the growth of a Bioeconomy based on applications of biotechnology as pervasive and as powerful as the information economy has been at the end of the 20th century?
Keywords: bioeconomy, industrial biotechnology, European Commission
Introduction
There is widespread and growing conviction that advances in life sciences research will transform major sectors of the world's economy. Some economists argue that almost every business sector will be modified by developments in the understanding of living organisms (1). Others predict that the 21st century will see the growth of a Bioeconomv based on applications of biotechnology as pervasive and as powerful as the information economy has been at the end of the 20th century (2). This Bioeconomv has already been recognised by the European Commission in its Life Sciences and Biotechnology (LSB) European Strategy (3) as the next wave of the knowledge-based economy. It is sure to become one of the key contributors to the attainment of the March 2000 Lisbon European Council objective of becoming "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustained economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion" (4).
Biotechnology is one of the major drivers of the Knowledge-Based Bio-economy (KBBE)
The life sciences knowledge revolution that started in the latter half of the 20th century and has given us such topics as genetic engineering, genomics and proteomics has not yet ended. The 'science and technology push' is still throwing up numerous novel developments (consider the impact for marine biotechnology of Ventor's use of metagenomics of the sea) of huge potential for commercial exploitation. The ability to sequence complete genomes and the free dissemination of the sequence data have dramatically changed the nature of biological and biomedical research. The continuing reduction in the cost of sequencing (by at least four orders of magnitude in the next 10 years, is the current hope and expectation--a mammalian genome for 1000 [euro]) and the use of micro-array technologies have the potential to lead to remarkable improvements in many facets of human life and society. Molecular biology and genomics are becoming even more innovative and exciting as they fuse and interact with other disciplines such as information technology, nanotechnology, material, cognitive and neurosciences in what is known as 'converging' technologies. Based on the tools available to the molecular biologist a new field of synthetic biology is emerging. Based on an understanding of 'the rules' for the assembly of living systems (systems biology) duplication of nature's designs (biomimicry) is almost inevitable.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
Biotechnologies therefore, have the potential to significantly impact the quality of life in a sustainable society (Figure 1) through the understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases (known as 'Red' biotechnology), advances in agriculture and food production ('Green' biotechnology), and numerous industrial applications ranging from chemicals to materials including environmental protection and remediation, ('White' biotechnology).
'Red' biotechnology accounts for the largest number of biotech companies in Europe and some 250 million patients have benefited from the 142 biopharmaceuticals approved since 1982 for the treatment of diabetes, heart attacks, multiple sclerosis, breast cancer, cystic fibrosis, leukaemia, etc. (5). 'Green' biotechnology, in comparison has made little progress in Europe and despite all the efforts expended in provision of the world's toughest regulatory framework there appears to be little change in consumer attitudes towards so-called "genetically modified" foods. The third wave of biotechnology known as industrial or 'White' biotechnology is proving much more popular and successful; with governments, industry and the general public.
The OECD has defined biotechnology for sustainable industrial development (6) as the application of biotechnology for the processing and production of chemicals, materials and fuels (Figure 2). It is based on the use of renewable resources which gradually will replace fossil fuels in the production of chemicals, materials and bio-energy. 'White' biotechnology uses mainly enzymes and microorganisms to make products from renewable feed-stocks (biomass) in sectors such as chemistry, food and feed, paper and pulp, textiles and energy and as its name suggests it provides clean and sustainable processes.
Feed-stocks, instead of being derived from increasingly scarce and expensive fossil fuels, which mostly have to be imported, are typically locally produced agricultural materials such as starch or wastes, converted first to simple sugars and then transformed into a wide range of higher-value end products ranging from bulk chemicals such as ethanol to pharmaceutical products such as antibiotics or growth hormones, often via fermentation (Figure 3). Instead of relying on high temperature, energy-intensive processes using chemical catalysts and reagents which may result in toxic waste streams, 'white' biotechnology achieves the same results using biological catalysts-enzymes or whole micro-organisms operating at lower temperatures and pressures.
To achieve this, a wide range of sophisticated scientific disciplines, including biochemistry, microbiology, genomics, proteomics, bio-informatics and process engineering (hence Knowledge-Based BioEconomy) is brought together under the concept of 'white' biotechnology.
The basis of any biotechnological process is the use of enzymes or whole cell systems (typically micro-organisms either yeasts, bacteria, algae or filamentous fungi). Mankind has made use of them for many hundreds of years in processes we consider traditional: using yeasts to make bread, beer or wine or lactic acid bacteria to produce yogurt, for example. These examples rely on using selected strains of naturally-occurring micro-organisms, but biotechnology now gives us a whole battery of sophisticated tools to improve their performance or modify biosynthetic pathways to make new products. A simple example, now well-established in the food industry, is the use of a pure form of the enzyme chymosin, made by bacterial fermentation, to produce the majority of our hard cheeses. Prior to this, the same cheeses were made using rennet, a material extracted from calves' stomachs, which contains exactly the same enzyme in an impure form.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
Drivers of industrial biotechnology
The OECD report (6) published in 1998, "Biotechnology for Clean Industrial Products and Processes: Towards Industrial Sustainability" played a key role in raising awareness of this topic in industrial, academic and political circles. The report illuminated the potential for modern process biotechnology to penetrate industrial operations, and highlighted the environmental and economic advantages compared with the use of other technologies. It also identified technical and other bottlenecks to further exploitation of the technology, and emphasized that industry and governments must act together to address the challenges of...
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