Microbiology and Infectious Diseases

Microbial Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a broad area of biology, involving the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make products. Depending on the tools and applications, it often overlaps with related scientific fields. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, biotechnology has expanded to include new and diverse sciences, such as genomics, recombinant gene techniques, applied immunology, and development of pharmaceutical therapies and diagnostic tests. The term biotechnology was first used by Karl Ereky in 1919, meaning the production of products from raw materials with the aid of living organisms

Application of scientific and engineering tools and principles to the processing of material by microbial species to create useful products and processes.  Microbial species that are being used may be native isolates, genetically modified microbes or laboratory selected mutants. Microbial biotechnology enabled with genomics lead to breakthroughs such as improves vaccines and better disease-diagnostic tools and improves microbial agents.