Biotechnology 2020. From the Transparent Cell to the Custom-Designed Process

Biotechnology is one of the most important technologies for our future. The last quarter of the 20th century saw the advent of new techniques, notably in the field of genetic engineering, which have enabled a leap in scientific
understanding and the development of numerous new and innovative applications. These developments have been accompanied by intensive debate in society on the use and consequences of this new knowledge.

The DECHEMA Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology has been interested in the potential of new biotechnology since the early 1970s. We should mention in particular here the report on biotechnology drafted
by Prof. Hans-Jürgen Rehm, a unique publication which described the new fields of research and discussed future developments. It was even translated into Japanese, and had a considerable influence on the development of
biotechnology. This was not least because the authors succeeded in describing biotechnology as a forward-looking field deserving of funding. Since then, as the largest charitable organisation in German biotechnology, DECHEMA has worked intensively to promote research and applications of
biotechnology.

This brochure provides a team of young experts with the opportunity to look ahead and forecast possible applications of biotechnology from now until 2020. The team of authors come from very different fields of biotechnology and had intensive discussions of the content. They chose a few particularly important examples from a huge range of new areas of research and examined these in detail, giving the reader an idea of those developments which the experts consider to be the most significant. As a crosscutting
technology biotechnology is already having an impact on a large number of traditional fields. These include medicine, pharmacology, agriculture, food technology, chemistry and environmental protection. And the future holds out the possibility of many new fields of application. The impact of
biotechnology on our daily lives will be far greater than in the past. We shall benefit from the potential of regenerative medicine and have access to new cellular therapies. Plants and animals will be used as bioreactors to produce drugs cheaply. Medical treatment will be tailored to the patient to a far greater extent than today, and improvements in medical diagnosis will alter our lives and allow us to take greater responsibility for our health. We shall also be able to purchase food products with designed health benefits going far beyond their nutritional value.

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