Are biotechnology degree courses relevant?

摘要

Intensive research in biological sciences following the understanding of structure of DNA and its control of protein synthesis in living cells initiated the exciting field of molecular biology in the 1960s. Further basic research, using the ever-increasing sophisticated and precision methods, allowed better understanding of some of the more obvious ways in which the genetic information, inherited from parents as DNA molecules, functions. Inter alia, these studies also provided insights into the specific class of enzymes, the restriction enzymes, with which bacteria defend themselves by restricting or destroying the invader's genetic information. A good understanding of these and other enzymes that help DNA molecules to copy themselves in our cells was available by the early 1970s. Such knowledge made it possible to manipulate or modify DNA molecules or the genetic information in a test tube. This gave rise to the exciting field of genetic engineering. The power to manipulate our genetic blue-print in a desired manner fueled the desire of scientists, to some extent altruistic, to apply the knowledge of genetic engineering for benefit of common man. Thus the current version of 'Biotechnology' was born in 1970s. The initial altruism was, however, soon overtaken by the desire to exploit the unprecedented opportunity to convert intellectual property into material wealth. This has contributed to the unusually rapid establishment and wide appeal of biotechnology as a profession and an industry. With an unprecedented rapidity, paralleled in recent years only by information technology, biotechnology has affected not only the conventional paradigms of the industry, but has also changed the academic establishments.