A Short History of Biotechnology

Biotechnology is defined by the US government as any technique that uses living organisms (or parts of organisms) to make or modify products, to improve plants and animals or to develop microorganisms for specific uses. With this definition in mind it is easy to see that biotechnology is an old and well established science affecting every day of our lives.

The history of biotechnology begins when primitive wo/man became domesticated enough to breed plants and animals; gather and process herbs for medicine; make bread and wine and beer; create many fermented food products including yogurt, cheese and various soy products; create septic systems to deal with their digestive and excretory waste products, and to create vaccines to immunize themselves against diseases. Archeologists keep discovering earlier examples of each of the uses of organisms by wo/man, but examples of most of these processes go back to between 5000 to 10,000 BC.

It is evident that biotechnology in the past has concentrated on the production of food and medicine and the use of biotechnology to solve environmental problems.

If one looks at modern biotechnology, based on recombinant DNA technology, one finds a similar distribution in the use of recombinant organisms to serve in the production of food and medicines and to solve environmental problems. This leads to the division of biotechnology into three areas: Agricultural Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, and Environmental Biotechnology. A fourth area of importance is Industrial Biotechnology. This course will focus on Pharmaceutical Biotechnology including human pharmaceutical proteins (human therapeutic, vaccine and diagnostic proteins) and industrial proteins. The latter include the proteases added to bread (bread conditioners) to decrease the rising time of bread; glucose isomerase which is used in fructose formation from glucose syrup; proteases and lipases incorporated into detergent products to take out stains; and proteases used in the leather industry to remove hair and soften leather.

Human therapeutic, vaccine and diagnostic proteins are made in one of two ways: using recombinant DNA technology or hybridoma technology. The first recombinant DNA experiments were carried out in the early 1970's and the first hybridomas were created in 1975. A description of the evolution of recombinant DNA technology in the early 1970's can be found in the next section. In hybridoma technology, a B-lymphocyte secreting antibodies against a specific antigen is fused with a myeloma cell (a cancerous B-lymphocyte). The resulting cell if injected in a mouse's abdomen or if cultured in a bioreactor will grow and divide, indefinitely, producing large quantities of antibody which can then be harvested. The resulting proteins are called monoclonal antibodies (MAb) and are most often used in diagnostic kits. The most famous MAb containing diagnostic kit is the pregnancy test.

Large quantities of proteins can be produced using bioprocessing technology. Using the principles of biology, chemistry and engineering, processes are developed to create large quantities of proteins in an economical manner. A facility is built or adapted to house these processes. These processes include media and buffer preparation; upstream processing; and downstream processing. All processes are monitored by quality control. Again the entire manufacturing process must take place in an atmosphere of current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) which is the ISO 9000+ of the protein pharmaceutical industry. The Food and Drug Administration is the agency that oversees the cGMP regulations.

Between the evolution of ancient biotechnology techniques into today's modern biotechnology industry that uses recombinant DNA to create its products is a huge chunk of history that includes the isolation of DNA in 1869 by Friederich Miescher, the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Flemming in 1928, the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 by James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin, the deciphering of the genetic code in 1961 by Marshall Nirenberg and H. Gobind Khorana, the first recombinant DNA experiments in 1973 by Walter Gilbert, the creation of the first hybridomas in 1975, the start of Genentech (the first biotechnology company) in 1976, the production of the first monoclonal antibodies for diagnostics in 1982, and the production of the first human therapeutic protein (humulin) in 1982.

REFERENCES:

Propst, Catherine 1996 Biotechnology: Concepts and techniques. In Biotechnology and Ethics: A Blueprint for the Future: p10-11, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

Yuan, Robert and Michael Hsu 1996 Herbal medicines-High tech or traditional, Part 1. Genetic Engineering News, June 15: p29.

Yuan, Robert and Michael Hsu 1996 Herbal medicines-High tech or traditional, Part 2. Genetic Engineering News, August 1996: p10.

http://www.gene.com/ae/AB/IE/Recombination_Up_Close.html(Illustration of protein production using recombinant DNA technology.)

http://www.gene.com/ae/AB/GG/monoclonal.html (Illustration of protein production using hybridoma technology.)