What are some of the important products of modern biotechnology?

The modern biotechnology has the potential to give a wide variety of important products to prevent diseases, diagnose and treat illness, and help us improve our health. Biotech products are used in different areas like pharmacology, medicine, agriculture, bioremediation, food processing, forensics and energy production. Some of the biotech- based health products include the biological drugs such as vaccines, antibodies, antibiotics, recombinant proteins (e.g. hormones, enzymes, growth factors, blood products, etc), diagnostic tests and kits, cell therapy products and gene therapy. Some of the diseases currently treated or diagnosed with biotech - based health products are diabetes, haemophilia, cancer, etc. In addition to these, several improved crops in terms of disease and insect resistance, improved nutritional quality and content, and crops that can produce edible vaccines, antibodies and pharmaceutically important compounds have been developed through genetic manipulation techniques. Some of these GM crops like insect resistant Bt cotton, Bt corn, herbicide tolerant soybean and cotton have been commercialized in 23 countries. These are only few examples of important applications of biotechnology, and there could be many more exciting applications of this field in the near future.

Editor answered 11 years ago