Biotechnology is a stream that infuses technology with biological processes in order to provide better services to people to improve their degree of living. Medical solutions with the help of biotechnology have created drugs through years of research and it is seen that hundreds of millions of people have been cured or treated with over 230 biotechnology vaccines and drugs. These drugs and vaccines have been created after careful research of the human body and its responsiveness to various environmental stimuli. Due to the advances in biotechnology, diseases such as many types of cancers, Alzheimer’s diseases, heart diseases, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and arthritis can be cured by the development of more than 400 biotech drugs products and vaccines. There are many new Biotechnology companies in United States that are putting in hours and are responsible for the numerous tests that can be used to keep the blood supply safe from the AIDS virus and also in detecting any early discrepancies which can be treated.
Food that is healthy and safe-
- Obesity is a disease that is slowly becoming an epidemic, and biotechnology is used to produce healthier oils from soybean, canola, and sunflowers. The trans fats in these oils are eliminated which reduces cholesterol and contributes to heart disease.
- The nutritional content of some products is improved through biotechnology. ‘Golden rice’ is one such product that helps people in developing countries absorb vitamin A which is found to be largely deficient and is necessary for eye sight and anaemia prevention.
- Sorghum is a crop that grows in arid regions and millions of Africans depend on it for consumption as well as livestock feed. African scientists are receiving grants from biotechnology companies in United States to make sorghum more digestible so that vital nutrients such as zinc, iron, vitamin A, amino acids, and protein can be absorbed by the human body.
Making manufacturing cleaner-
- Biotechnology is now focusing on making cleaner and efficient manufacturing processes of common products such as plastic and fuel through the use of renewable resources.
- Plastic products that are created from corn and other plants through a biotechnology process are slowly flooding the market. These plant products don’t add CO2 back to the environment when they are utilized or disposed of. This results in a cleaner environment which is not contaminated with plastic products that take a million years to degrade.
Public safety through biodefense-
- Biological and chemical agents have progressed that pose unimaginably dangerous threats to military units and disaster responders. Enzymes that are a product of biotechnology are used to breakdown toxic chemicals including nerve gases such as sarin and soman which are environmentally benign and effective. The are soluble in water and they can be sprayed at the affected areas or the site of the attack.
- Animal pathogens such as anthrax and chemical warfare agents can be detected by sentinel plants, which are biotech modified mustard plants. A Danish company had announced that they had developed a plant species that changes the colours of its roots when it encounters landmines and can effectively detect landmines. Criminal investigation and forensic medicine have been radically transformed through a biotech process called DNA fingerprinting.
