NEWS MEMBERS
INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY what’s in it for you? The challenges of meeting the rising demands of a growing population for food, energy, water and technology are well publicized, and not unique to current times. However, we are in a privileged position of having the biotechnological tools available to address these issues. Advances in bioinformatics, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering have led to speculation that biotechnology will be the distinguishing feature of the 21st century. This is not to say that the answer lies with bioscience alone; rather the solution will come from biologists collaborating with other disciplines, including chemists, engineers, geologists, sociologists and economists. This is a multifaceted problem, and so requires a multifaceted solution. Industrial Biotechnology (IB) can integrate these scientific advances into the technologies that underpin our everyday lives.
Understanding, manipulating and exploiting the metabolism of microorganisms is at the core of IB 24
microbiologist
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June 2014
IB is the use of cross-disciplinary technologies to exploit biological resources for producing and processing desirable products, such as chemicals, materials and energy. The primary advantage of using biological resources, such as plants or algae, as feedstocks or factories, is that the energy they provide is fixed from recent photosynthesis, unlike that in fossil gas, oil and coal, thus reducing the energy input and CO2 emissions associated with their use. Cells have the potential to act as reactors for complex, multi-step reactions that would be prohibitively resource- or time-consuming when performed using conventional chemistry. Understanding, manipulating and exploiting the metabolism of microorganisms is at the core of IB. Novel sources of enzymes to catalyse reactions more efficiently are attractive targets and are commercially interesting to a variety of industries. Biologically deriving end products and intermediates, including biosurfactants, terpenoids and polyketides, is increasingly important as an alternative to conventional chemistry.
QUICK LINKS http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/business/ collaborative-research/ tsb-competitions/ib-catalyst.aspx. http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/BBSRCNIBB.
www.sfam.org.uk