Glossary

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a collective term for a large number of processes, products and methods. According to the definition of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), biotechnology is the application of science and technology to living organisms, parts of them, their products or models of them. The purpose of this is to change living or non-living matter to expand the level of knowledge, to manufacture goods and to provide services.

Biotechnology has been used for a long time: this is how humans use living microorganisms, for example in the production of beer, wine and bread. Modern biotechnology as it is used today, however, uses the methods of molecular biology in a targeted manner. The foundations for this were laid only with the growing knowledge of microbiology in the 18th and 19th centuries. For example, the foundations lie in the discovery of the first enzymes as biocatalysts or of bacteria as producers of medicinal substances.