ABSTRACT
Pharmaceutical biotechnology is an important discipline in modern biotechnology and has been growing intensely since the 1980s. The first great advance in pharmaceutical biotechnology came with the production of insulin through fermentation process using genetically modified Escherichia coli. Vaccines against cancer, such as HybriCell, are an excellent example of 'individualized therapy', also called 'personalized medicine', which is becoming an important goal for pharmaceutical biotechnology. Pharmaceutical biotechnology offers the future possibility that cancer will be converted from a lethal disease to a chronic illness through the development and a combined use of new practical diagnostic devices and therapeutic protocols. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis results from a hardening and healing of motor neuron cell bodies that are located at the side area of the spinal cord and leads to a complete axon degeneration that ultimately results in atrophy and weakening of the skeletal muscles.
