Work of English

That is the biotechnology?

Engineer in Biotechnology
Student: Rolando Torres Benito
Register: UTM131096QMBT
Period of four months: 9A
Teacher: Yunuhen Anayd Estrada Barriga

Date: 12 September 2016

Along the history as such, biotechnology has been used by man since the
beginning of history in different activities such as the preparation of a bread,
alcoholic fermentations or crop improvement, without doubt the emergence of
biotechnology has been present for a long time.
At present the biotechnology is without a doubt one of the key technological areas
in the contemporary industrial development. The present work will establish a
better and accurate idea of what the biotechnology, which tells us that the term
biotechnology is considered as the set of techniques that use living organisms or
substances from these to make or modify a product, improve plants or animals, or
develop microorganisms for specific uses; is a science with a multidisciplinary
approach that involves several disciplines and sciences such as biology,
biochemistry, genetics, agronomy, engineering, chemistry, medicine, veterinary
medicine, clinical analysis, etc.

What is the importance of biotechnology in the present?

Today we are in the twenty first century and the world faces challenges where it
has a growing population that demand more and better food, new treatments for
health and also more energy, fiber and plastics, and on the other, the need to meet
these demands while preserving the environment, biodiversity and resources as
valuable as the water and soil.
To other many therapeutic substances, such as insulin and antibiotics are
produced

today

thanks

to

biotechnology, as

some

are

obtained

from

microorganisms live or inert, for example the penicillin. Other from transgenic
plants and animals, which intervenes in the coagulation of the blood. Vaccines are
obtained in the laboratory, cultivating Virus in living cells, for example the vaccine
against hepatitis B. Other applications of biotechnology to health what are
interferons and monoclonal antibodies that are part of the immune system.

In the future, the population of the world will virtually double to reach the10 billion
inhabitants in the year 2030. Mankind must respond to the increasing pressures on
the natural resources of the earth in order to feed a population in continuous
expansion that is why the biotechnology causes a great impact on our lives today.

What are the applications of biotechnology?

The applications of biotechnology are numerous and tend to be classified into:
Red Biotechnology: applies in the medical processes. Some examples are the
design of agencies to produce antibiotics, of new developments and safe vaccines,
new drugs, molecular diagnostics, regenerative therapies and the development of
genetic engineering to cure diseases through gene manipulation.
White biotechnology: known as the industrial biotechnology, is that which is applied
to industrial processes, an example of this is the design of micro-organisms to
produce a chemical product or the use of enzymes as industrial catalysts, either to
produce chemicals valuable or destroy hazardous chemical contaminants.
Green Biotechnology: is applied to agricultural processes, an example is the
design of transgenic plants capable of growing in unfavorable environmental
conditions or plants resistant to pests and diseases. It is expected that the products
are textile industry, in the creation of new materials such as biodegradable plastics
and production of biofuels. Its main objective is the creation of products easily
degradable, which consume less energy and generate less waste during the
production more friendly to the environment than the traditional methods of
industrial agriculture.
Blue Biotechnology: call marine biotechnology, is referred to the applications in
aquatic and marine environments. Even at an early stage of development, its
applications are promising for the aquaculture and health care.

What would be the advantages and disadvantages that would cause the use of
biotechnology?
Between the main advantages of biotechnology are:
-

Superior performance. Using the modified genetic agencies crop yield

increases, giving more food for less resources, declining lost harvests by

disease or pests as well as by environmental factors.

Reduction in pesticides. Every time that an organism modified genetic is
modified to resist a particular pest is helping to reduce the use of pesticides
that are associated with the same that tend to be the cause of great

environmental and health damages.

Improvement in nutrition. You can get to enter additional vitamins and
proteins in foods as well as reduce allergens and natural toxins. You can
also try to cultivate in extreme conditions which auxiliary to countries that
have less disposal of food.

Some of the disadvantages or risks in the application of biotechnology are:

-

The ecological risks arise from the great use of genetically modified crops
with genes that produce toxins insecticides such as the gene from Bacillus

thuringiensis. This can develop a resistance.

You can lose biodiversity, for example, as a result of the displacement of

traditional crops by a small number of genetically modified crops.

The decrease of the employed labor force by effects of mechanization; this
generates unemployment and rural exodus in many areas.

In conclusion biotechnology is a multidisciplinary science involved in different

areas, such as the area of health (red biotechnology), the industrial area (White
Biotechnology), the agricultural area (green biotechnology) and the marine area
(blue biotechnology); each and every one of them have the purpose to make
biotechnology sustainable environment friendly, without compromising the natural
resources intended for future generations.

Bibliographic citation

Muos, 2014 ArgenBio.

edu.ar/biologia/fisiologia.vegetal/Biotecnologia.pdf
CAR/PL (UNEP, Centro de Actividad Regional para la Prouccion Limpia)

2004
CIBIOGEM (biotecnologa y bioseguridad en mexico)
http://www.funcis.org/otri/formacion/bioemprendedores.