Biotech Economy

Welcome to the new Biotech Economy. Biotechnology is technology based on biology, agriculture, food science, and medicine. Modern use of the term usually refers to genetic engineering as well as cell- and tissue culture technologies. However, the concept encompasses a wider range and history of procedures for modifying living organisms according to human purposes, going back to domestication of animals and the cultivation of plants. Studying the history of biotechnology is an interesting and fruitful endeavor in understanding the basics of life on earth.

Biotechnology draws on the pure biological sciences (genetics, microbiology, animal cell culture, molecular biology, biochemistry, embryology, cell biology) and in many instances is also dependent on knowledge and methods from outside the sphere of biology (chemical engineering, bioprocess engineering, information technology, biorobotics).

Biotechnology is the BIG SCIENCE of the day, which will only later in this century give off to the tech heir – Nanotechnology. For today’s biotech, however, think food, think health, think of the economics surrounding food and health – it all touches the biotech economy. Welcome!       

Using Viruses to Kill Cancer Cells | Part 1 of 4

Marianne Stanford PH.D Biotechnology Lecture Series 2009 Viruses to the rescue? We often have the misconception that viruses are only nasty little things that can make us sick. Join Marianne Stanford in an exploration of how viruses can be used to help fight cancer. One new anti-cancer strategy which holds promise is the use of self-replicating viral strains with the ability to specifically kill tumour, but not normal cells. These so-called “oncolytic viruses” are able to exploit tumour-specific genetic defects to gain a growth advantage. Learn about the types of genetic mutations that we now know exist in tumours, and how these viruses can be used to target and kill cancer cells. www.sciencetech.technomuses.ca Recorded during the Biotechnology Lecture Series 2009 at the Canada Science and Technology Museum
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