ABSTRACT
After 2000, this discipline of biotechnology has experienced more than a quadrupling of the discovery, development, production, and commercialization of innovative biological products, with about 360 more products by the end of 2019. The earliest origins of biotechnology harken back thousands of years, employing the process of fermentation to create new food sources. For medical biotechnology and product development, critical discoveries in the biological sciences especially over the preceding 30 years that led to this first product achievement are identified in a timeline. Core basic technologies employed in biotechnology include combinatorial chemistry, high-throughput screening, bioinformatics, genomics, polymerase chain reactions, pharmacogenomics, proteomics, and X-ray crystallography. The cornerstone technologies in biotechnology for product creation are recombinant DNA technology for proteins (100 or more amino acids) and peptides (less than 100 amino acids) and, secondly, monoclonal antibodies (mabs) technology. Biotechnology further encompasses biological products that have agricultural uses and industrial applications.
