• Environmental biotechnology focuses on bioremediation that includes a wide array of applications, such as waste treatment, degradation, vermi-technology. It also includes the second aspect i.e., prevention, that will primarily deal with the production of biofuels and avenues in the field of biodegradation and manufacture of biodegradable products.
• Biofuels are the fuels produced from biological products from living organisms or from waste generated from biological products such as from landfills, recycled vegetable oil, etc. Fuels produced from crops are known as agrofuels. Based on their characteristics, biofuels can be broadly divided into biodiesel, bioalcohol, biogas and biomass in different forms.
• Biodegradation using biotechnology helps in environmentfriendly waste recycling.
• Bioremediation of heavy metals in soil or water such as As, Cr, Hg, Cd, Zn, etc. is being done by plants and microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi using biotechnology.
• GM technology has evolved to generate a number of products and crops with improved traits, such as resistance crops, against herbicides, biotic and abiotic stresses, etc., as well as with improved nutritional quality and quantity.
• Regenerative medicine is an emerging multidisciplinary specialty in medicine with the goal of cell and organ replacement to restore the loss of function resulting from degeneration, trauma and other disease processes.
• Stem cells exhibit an intrinsic ability to assemble into complex structures. When placed within a hydrogel (often Matrigel) and in the presence of suitable exogenous factors, the stem cells can be coaxed into forming structures that contain organised clusters of cells.
• The recent availability of stem cell derived organoid systems to provide 3D self-organised tissue models provides a compelling new class of biological model to serve as both tissue and organ substitutions.
• Organoids are ultra-small, self-assembled three-dimensional tissue cultures that are derived from stem cells. Organoids have been created from both pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) and adult stem cells (ASCs) by simulating the biochemical and physical characteristics of tissue development and homeostasis.
• Nanoscience is the study of materials in the range that includes size in nanometer which is less than one micron i.e., 10-9 to 10-12. The application of material in nanoscale is called nanotechnology.
• Nanobiotechnology implies the use of nanotechnology in the field of biotechnology. Nanomedicine is the strongest arm of nanobiotechnology used for diagnosis, drug/gene delivery and therapy.
• Nanobiosensors: Nanotechnology has revolutionised the area of sensor development for the detection of biological molecules which may be biomarkers of disease. Point of care devices can be developed which are low cost, more sensitive and the tests can be done at bedside villages with a small volume of test materials. The scientists are working with the concept of “Lab on a Chip”, where many tests can be done simultaneously using nanotechnology and microfluidics.
• Synthetic biology may be defined as a rational design approach of constructing biological components leading to certain functions.
• The application of automation and artificial intelligence (e.g., in designing and building plasmids) may help to reduce the time and cost to improve the return on investment.