Microbial Gifts: Biotechnology

Overview: Microbes have been providing us with tangible products since the dawn of humanity, and probably before: think of foraging for mushrooms to eat and production of early fermented foods, like bread and milk products, and drinks like mead, wine and beer. However, they also gift us and the rest of the biosphere with manifold and vital goods and services, like providing oxygen we need to breathe, consuming the greenhouse gas methane, recycling biological wastes, and so forth. Whereas these activities occur without us noticing, others have been harnessed technologically and commercialised, providing us with important goods and services, and the biotechnology industry and all the employment it creates. In the past, massive reductions in mortality from infectious diseases, and resulting massive improvements in lifespan and life quality, were achieved by the development of vaccines against lethal infections and wastewater treatment processes, and later by the development of microbially-inspired antibiotics and other medicines. But microbes (and clever microbiologists) continually deliver new biotechnological applications, ranging from the production of new biodegradable materials, healthcare products for disease diagnosis, prevention, therapy and epidemiology, forensics, foods and food supplements, chemicals, environmentally-friendly extraction of natural resources, pollution mitigation, and waste recycling, among others. Let’s discover the fantastic range of applications offered by microbial biotechnology