Is a Bio-Based Economy a Fantasy?

Among those who work in biotechnology, there are three main areas of study: Biomedical, industrial, and environmental biotechnology. In just 15 years since PCR and gene cloning became a part of mainstream biotech research, industrial applications for the products of enzyme technology and GMOs have become competitive alternatives to traditional manufacturing processes, but still, few people are aware of how many everyday enzyme products have made it into their homes.

Biofuels still seem to have a long way to go before widespread use and acceptance validate the claims of their proponents. While the biofuels industry has it's critics, the arguments in favour include the use of renewable feedstocks. Many pharmaceuticals today are actually semi-synthetic molecules, made in fermentation processes by living organisms and later chemically modified, if need be. The costs associated with batch production, and complications pertaining to large-scale protein purification and equipment sterilization, are among the downsides to bioprocessing. The most well-known biotech product in the home might be enzyme-based detergents, like those produced by the widely recognized Novozymes.

Just about everyone is familiar with the story of stone-washed jeans and how they came to be enzymatically-altered. But jeans don't make an industry and biotech has yet to gain acceptance in many areas where the public is wary of the bioethical ramifications and potential health risks (xenotransplantation, stem cell research, nanotechnology). With so many complex issues to solve, will we ever become a fully sustainable, bio-based world?