Lesson 1 of 12 · 6 min

Three research areas

NCERT §10 (chapter introduction)

Kavya's summer lab has ended, and her mentor hands her a list of places to visit next: a tissue culture unit, a cotton farm, a hospital, an animal house. 'Now see what all those tools are used for,' she says.

The story this chapter follows: Kavya's field notebook

Kavya, the Class 12 student from Hyderabad who spent her summer learning the tools of biotechnology, now spends a few weeks seeing them used: a tissue culture unit, a Bt cotton farm, a tobacco field with a root worm, a hospital ward and lab, an animal house, and a last talk with her mentor about who decides what is allowed. Each stop is one part of this chapter.

The lesson in notes

In short

Biotechnology, in the sense of the previous chapter, is mainly about making biopharmaceuticals and biologicals on an industrial scale, using genetically modified microbes, fungi, plants and animals.

Its applications span therapeutics, diagnostics, genetically modified crops, processed food, bioremediation, waste treatment and energy production.

Research in biotechnology has three critical areas. The first is supplying a superior catalyst: an improved organism (usually a microbe) or a pure enzyme.

The second is engineering optimal conditions in which that catalyst can act.

The third is downstream processing: the technologies that purify the protein or organic compound once it has been made.

This chapter follows those tools into two fields that touch daily life most: food production (agriculture) and health (medicine).