As a common man or as a junior college student I used to be as fascinated as you would be with the fancy word "BIOTECHNOLOGY"!!
To simply put, it is the fancy mixture of biology(study of life) and technology!!
not just a single field but compilation of several number of fields makes "biotechnology"
To put it in the words of my HOD and mentor Dr. S. S. Barve, it is "virtually the future of the world!"
Many branches such as Cell biology, Microbiology, Molecular biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Bioinformatics, Biophysics, Biostatistics, Plant tissue culture, Animal tissue culture, Nanotechnology as also bioprocess engineering, biorobotics, food technology and the list goes on!!
I will go into details of that later but above branches do have sub-branches!
Once a post graduate in Biotechnology one scratches his head as to what should i select as my research field!!
However there are 4 basic types:
1. RED BIOTECHNOLOGY: used for medical purposes like invention of various antibiotics, genetic manipulations
2. GREEN BIOTECHNOLOGY: used with reference to agricultural processes, with the goal of inventing environment friendly solutions, plant tissue culture.
3. WHITE BIOTECHNOLOGY: term used in reference to industrial processes ie. cost effective production of industrial goods.
4. BLUE BIOTECHNOLOGY: deals with marine and aquatic usages of biotechnology.
Now lets begin with some primary definitions of the above discussed versatile branches:
1. Cell Biology: It is the study of physiological and physical properties of th cell and its components that is organelles(mentioned in the diagram below) and deals with its interaction with their environment(that is blood, cellular spaces as also the atmosphere!) and their organisation.
2. Microbiology: It is the study of micro-organisms, their structure, organization, effects on environment, diseases related to them, prevention of their growth, use in production of various antibiotics, food products(wine, bread etc)
3.Biochemistry: It is the study of chemical processes in living organisms. biochemistry deals with the metabolic processes of animals, photosynthesis mechanisms of plants, mainly the biogeochemical cycles and their association.
4. Molecular Biology: Since now you know what is biochemistry, molecular biology is biochemistry at molecular level. it associates with genetics as well. It deals with DNA, RNA, and protein biosynthesis.the best example being the most discussed Human Genome Project.
5. Genetics: How do you resemble your parents? why are you prone to certain diseases if your grand mother/grand father/ father/ mother has it? why do certain characteristics distinguish your family with others? all these questions are answered by genetics!!
the genetic makeup of the child is 50% maternal and 50% paternal! Genetics is the branch that deals with heredity and variation in living organisms!
6. Bioinformatics: it is said that genome sequence or dna content of an organism is as long as several miles put together! it is difficult to write and preserve this data as it can fill a whole of Asian library!! then how do we store the data?? answer is bioinformatics! it not only helps storing the data but also quick reviewing of the data by putting keywords! bioinformatics has engineered several tools to store the data in computer!
7. Biostatistics: statistical analysis of biological problems! it is used to analyze the population.
8. Biophysics: an interdisciplinary science dealing with application of physics to study biological processes.
9. Plant and Animal tissue culture: cultivating plant/animal cells/tissues artificially in the laboratory on the media to study their characteristics and develop various products out of them.
10. Nanotechnology: It is difficult to define nanotechnology completely. it is the engineering of functional systems at atomic or molecular level. it encompasses the understanding of fundamental physics, chemistry, biology and technology of nano-meter scale objects.
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