One hope is that green biotechnology might produce more environmentally friendly solutions than traditional industrial agriculture. An example of this is the engineering of a plant to express a pesticide thereby eliminating the need for external application of pesticides. An example of this would be Bt corn. Whether or not green biotechnology products such as this are ultimately more environmentally friendly is a topic of considerable debate. The term blue biotechnology has also been used to describe the marine and aquatic applications of biotechnology but its use is relatively rare.
The investments and economic output of all of these types of applied biotechnologies form what has been described as the bioeconomy. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field which addresses biological problems using computational techniques and makes the rapid organization and analysis of biological data possible. The field may also be referred to as computational biology and can be defined as conceptualizing biology in terms of molecules and then applying informatics techniques to understand and organize the information associated with these molecules on a large scale. Bioinformatics plays a key role in various areas such as functional genomics structural genomics and proteomics and forms a key component in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector.
Pharmacogenomics is the study of how the genetic inheritance of an individual affects hisher bodys response to drugs. It is a coined word derived from the world pharmacology and genomics. It is hence the study of the relationship between pharmaceuticals and genetics. The vision of pharmacogenomics is to be able to design and produce drugs that are adapted to each persons genetic makeup.. Development of tailormade medicines. Using pharmacogenomics pharmaceutical companies can create drugs based on the proteins enzymes and RNA molecules that are associated with specific genes and diseases. These tailormade drugs promise not only to maximize therapeutic effects but also to decrease damage to nearby healthy cells.. More accurate methods of determining appropriate drug dosages. Knowing a patient’s genetics will enable doctors to determine how well his her body can process and metabolize a medicine. This will maximize the value of the medicine and decrease the likelihood of overdose.
