FP6 - Biotechnology, Agriculture and Food Biotechnology 2020 - From the Transparent Cell to the Custom-Designed Process

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Biotechnology 2020 - From the Transparent Cell to the Custom-Designed Process
European Commission Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 2005 94 pp. ISBN 92-79-00418-2 - 15€

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The following information is abstracted from this publication.

Foreword

In the context of the Lisbon Strategy, The EU is meant to become by 2010 the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, frontier technologies such as biotechnology have a pivotal role to play.

The shift towards a European Knowledge-Based Bio-economy depends on our ability to manage biological resources in a sustainable manner, and to exploit the advances in microbial, plant and animal biotechnologies for the efficient creation of new, eco-efficient and competitive products and services.

These considerations are placed at the heart of the discussions preparing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities, and of course a lot of attention is paid to studies which aim at indicating how and in which direction science and technology will evolve in the coming years

In this respect we are very grateful to DECHEMA e.V. who have provided to us the possibility to translate 'Biotechnologie 2020.Von der gläsernen Zelle zum massgeschneiderten Prozess' into English, thus opening up this interesting document to a much wider audience.

In particular we need to thank the two editors Dr. Rüdiger Marquardt and Prof. Gerhard Kreysa, Ms. Adriane Polak, responsible for the layout, Prof. Alfred Pühler (Biotechnology Research Committee) and Prof. Susanne Grabley (Biotechnology Subject Division), who wrote the preface and of course all the editorial team: Dr. Rüdiger Marquardt (DECHEMA e.V. Frankfurt am Main), Dr. Christian Hertweck (Hans-Knöll Institute Jena), Prof. Dirk Heinz (GBF Braunschweig), Prof. Susanne Grabley (Hans-Knöll Institute Jena), Dr. Christine Lang (Organobalance GmbH Berlin), Prof. Roland Lauster (Technical University Berlin), Dr. Rolf Lenke (DECHEMA e.V. Frankfurt am Main), Dr. Ralf Pörtner (Technical University Hamburg-Harburg) and Dr. Thomas Reinard (Hannover University).

Introduction

Biotechnology is one of the most important technologies for our future. The last quarter of the 20th century saw the advent of new techniques, notably in the field of genetic engineering, which have enabled a leap in scientific understanding and the development of numerous new and innovative applications. These developments have been accompanied by intensive debate in society on the use and consequences of this new knowledge.

The DECHEMA Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology has been interested in the potential of new biotechnology since the early 1970s. We should mention in particular here the report on biotechnology drafted by Prof. Hans-Jürgen Rehm, a unique publication which described the new fields of research and discussed future developments. It was even translated into Japanese, and had a considerable influence on the development of biotechnology. This was not least because the authors succeeded in describing biotechnology as a forward-looking field deserving of funding. Since then, as the largest charitable organisation in German biotechnology, DECHEMA has worked intensively to promote research and applications of biotechnology.

This brochure provides a team of young experts with the opportunity to look ahead and forecast possible applications of biotechnology from now until 2020. The team of authors come from very different fields of biotechnology and had intensive discussions of the content. They chose a few particularly important examples from a huge range of new areas of research and examined these in detail, giving the reader an idea of those developments which the experts consider to be the most significant. As a crosscutting technology biotechnology is already having an impact on a large number of traditional fields. These include medicine, pharmacology, agriculture, food technology, chemistry and environmental protection. And the future holds out the possibility of many new fields of application.

The impact of biotechnology on our daily lives will be far greater than in the past. We shall benefit from the potential of regenerative medicine and have access to new cellular therapies. Plants and animals will be used as bioreactors to produce drugs cheaply. Medical treatment will be tailored to the patient to a far greater extent than today, and improvements in medical diagnosis will alter our lives and allow us to take greater responsibility for our health. We shall also be able to purchase food products with designed health benefits going far beyond their nutritional value.

The outlooks presented in this brochure are not speculation. They are based on the current state of scientific knowledge and describe highly likely developments. At the heart of all these developments is the living cell and its incredible capabilities. That is why the subjects discussed in this brochure range from our growing understanding of metabolic processes in the cell to the use and optimisation of some of these characteristics. The chapters are targeted both at the general public and more expert readers. Each chapter has a glossary to explain essential technical terms to a lay readership.

The brochure is less of a scientific publication than a science-based discussion of the opportunities and challenges resulting from new developments in biotechnology. A broad discussion of the implications of these developments for society is outside the scope of this brochure. The individual chapters and the conclusion do however contain a few thoughts on the subject, particularly as regards training, the organisation of research, and career opportunities in biotechnology.

On behalf of the Research Committee and the Biotechnology Subject Division of DECHEMA, who were responsible for initiating this project, we wish you an interesting and exciting read.

Contents

Foreword
Introduction
1. The Transparent Cell
2. Full Check-Up
3. Tissue Engineering
4. A New Tooth instead of a Set of Spare Teeth
5. Finding the Right Nerve?
6. Health off the Shelf
7. Ill? Sponge it out!
8. The Farm in a Tower
9. Large-scale Biotechnology
10. Small, Smaller, Smallest
11. Systematic Analysis
12. The Customised Cell
Epilogue:
Biotechnology Training - Are we doing enough?
Glossary
Sources of images
Authors