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Biotechnology and
biopharmaceuticals
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Biotechnology
is not an innovation of the 20th century but has
been an important part of the human civilization
for many thousands of years.
Microbiological fermentation has been used to meet
the nutritional needs of human beings and animals
for centuries.
Yeast has been used to produce bread, beer, wine
and, all of which have been found already in the
early Egyptian pyramids.
A variety of bacterial strains are employed in the
production of cheese, curds and yogurt.
Lactobacilli produce animal fodder from green plant
material stored in silos. All of these are examples
of biotechnological products, which have been
accepted as natural products.
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Industrial fermentation
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Industrial
fermentation is a recent development, which has
grown from the understanding of the basic
scientific background for these naturally occurring
events to estabished technologies which can be used
to produce large amounts of antibiotics, vitamins
and steroids for the prevention and treatment of a
variety of diseases. As a result, health and the
life expectancy of both humans and agriculturally
important animals has been improved.
Furthermore, a broad spectrum of industrial
chemicals, such as organic solvents and enzymes,
can be produced by using biotechnological
methodologies, some of them exclusively by
biotechnology. Others use the biotechnological
methods to replace chemical reactions which can
deplete and endanger the environment.
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Modern
biotechnology
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Today,
for many people, biotechnology has become
synonymous with genetic engineering or the
selective alteration and recombination of genetic
material within living cells. By the expanded
understanding and the combining of multiple
disciplines such as molecular biology, genetics,
immunology and genetic engineering, today's
biotechnology has opened new perspectives for the
future.
With 'classical' biotechnology, the selection of
interest was based on visible characters of an
organism. In modern biotechnology, new techniques
allow us to detect and select genes of choice, even
if their expression is not visible, and transfer
them to the desired cell line in a very efficient
and faster way.
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Modern
biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals
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Several
human proteins which are used in these treatments,
can be isolated in only very small amounts from
body fluids or tissues.
They cannot, however, be isolated in sufficient
amounts for therapeutic utilization. Therefore,
they must be produced in large quantities by other
means. Genetic engineering and biotechnology have
provided the opportunity to produce these large,
complex structures in sufficient amounts to be used
in modern therapy.
The breakthrough and benefits of biotechnology in
the pharmaceutical field has been the ability to
produce these endogenous human proteins, which are
required for the human organism to remain healthy,
in large quantities.
With this capability, these can now be administered
to humans in order to substitute a missing or
defective protein which may be responsible for the
pathological status in patients.
These processes are natural and, therefore, are
considered safer for the environment than many
older, accepted technologies.
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Safety
assessments
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In
addition, different European Pharmaceutical
Industry Associations have self-imposed
restrictions for manipulations on the human
genome.
Finally, the producing cell factories are so
constructed that nature, itself, has erected
barriers to restrict the life of genetic modified
organisms outside of laboratory conditions.
The aim of this website is to provide information
concerning biotechnology and, specifically, the use
of animal cell cultures in the production of
biopharmaceuticals to any interested party.
ACTIP is open for discussion and invites individual
responses to our website.
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1998 ACTIP
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