Becoming a Biotechnologist

Biotechnologists are concerned with the production of synthetic substances through biological processes. They apply their knowledge of organisms and biological systems and processes to the chemical processing of materials, such as vaccines, drugs, hormones, pesticides, food, and diagnostic aids. Biotechnology is a relatively new field, bringing together microbiology, biochemistry, genetics, and cell physiology with chemical engineering.

The job:

Biotechnologists recombine the genetic material of plants and animals to make a living organisms grow and multiply efficiently. They also produce artificial organic substances, such as antibiotics, fuel solvents, or animal feed.

Biotechnologists may work in the public sector, a manufacturing company, or a research organization. Biotechnologist can specialize in types of work or within different industries and organizations.

Biotechnologists may be employed in research and development work where processes are scaled up from the laboratory to industrial production, or in the design and management of the various production stages, such as cell culture and, chemical processing, or the separation and purification of end products.

Biotechnologists may be concerned with micro organisms, computerized or fermentation technology, protein engineering, or genetic engineering, and they may be employed in the pharmaceutical, food, dairy, agricultural, brewing, water, or energy industries.

In healthcare, biotechnologists produce genetically engineered insulin for improving the treatment of diabetes and develop new products, such as genetic probes to diagnose hereditary disease.

In the food and drink industries, biotechnologists produced mycoprotein from plant starch as a fibrous edible fungus that can be used to imitate poultry meat.

The agricultural industry, they have produced insecticides that do not kill bees.

In the water and energy industries, they use of microbes for treating sewage and for generating fuels, such as methane, from sewage and effluents. In metal extracting, organisms are used to concentrate metals from the ore and microbes are used to eat metals so that they do not have to be recycled. In the oil industry, biopolymers are used to alter the viscosity of crude oil.

Some very small biotechnology firms specialize in making the biochemical materials such as peptides that are needed by research workers.

Biotechnology graduates may use their scientific background to work in other fields as well. The biotechnologists have the technical skills and knowledge, for example, to work in hospital and public health laboratories. Graduates with good communication skills may also training for teaching jobs. The biotechnologists may be employed on technical feasibility studies, market assessment, or business development.

Training involved:

A bachelors degree in biotechnology, or and other signs or technological discipline, such as biochemistry, biochemical engineering, brewing, chemistry, food science, or microbiology, is required. It may be possible to specialize at first degree level in, say, plant biotechnology, or to combine biotechnology with another biological or engineering discipline, such as: biotechnology with microbiology, for example, or biotechnology with chemical process engineering.

Specialist masters courses provide in depth knowledge of particular aspects of biotechnology. These include agricultural biotechnology, medical biotechnology, food science, environmental technology, or water science.

A higher research degree such as a PhD is useful for research work in most countries.

Future prospects:

Biotechnology is one of the oldest industries, however, developments such as genetic engineering, have given the biotechnology industry a tremendous boost. This is still a small profession but opportunities are expanding fast and there is scope for specialization. In industrial countries, for example, there may be many hundreds of organizations involved in biotechnology, including research organizations and product manufacturers.

Many of the new biotechnology companies are small and specialist, and recruit graduates with experience in particular techniques, such as computerized fermentation technology, genetic engineering, and protein engineering.

Most of the work is conducted in the laboratory or factory. Individual promotion prospects depend on the size and structure of the organization.

For further information, please contact a relevant professional body such as the Association, Institute, or society for biochemistry, biotechnology, or bio industry.