Simply put, biotechnology is the merging of medicine, science, and technology. The term “biotechnology” was believed to have been first used by Karl Ereky, a Hungarian engineer, and was defined as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity as, “any technological application that uses biological systems or living organisms or derivatives thereof to make or modify the process or products for specific use.”
Biotech has been around for thousands of years as part of agriculture, medicine, and food production. Over the last century, we have seen biotechnology become an integral part of significant advances in all of these areas. The field is now seeing exponential growth and has enabled developments that only a short time ago seemed impossible. These new and exciting areas include genomics, immunology, drug delivery systems, drug therapies, diagnostic testing, pollution controls, tissue regeneration, and even organ growth.
The potential within biotech is vast and the benefits are enormous. Biotechnology has been responsible for the development of products and processes that make the world a better place by improving our quality of life and the health of our planet.