{"id":2686,"date":"2021-02-05T15:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T07:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/?p=2686"},"modified":"2021-01-28T15:11:23","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T07:11:23","slug":"biotechnology-degrees-what-you-can-do-with-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/biotechnology-degrees-what-you-can-do-with-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Biotechnology degrees, what you can do with them?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Biotechnology harks back\nto the early days of human civilisation, when people discovered the beneficial\nproperties of fermentation, utilised in bread-making, beer brewing, wine\nproduction (Buchholz & Collins, 2013) and even conversion of milk into\ncheeses and yoghurt. In the 19th<\/sup> century, zymotechnology was the\ncollective term for a host of techniques and technologies used primarily for\nbrewing beer (Bud,1992)! It was in the early twentieth century, that the term\nBiotechnology appeared in the scientific literature of American, British and\nGerman scientists, replacing zymotechnology as the discipline for obtaining new\nmaterials from the fermentation or conversion of agricultural produce (Bud,\n1992).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to today,\nBiotechnology has rapidly evolved into a broad discipline that harnesses the\nfunctions of microbes to produce useful biomolecules in medicine, as well as\nutilising molecular biology and genetic engineering to modify plants and\nanimals to improve agricultural productions. Hence, biotechnology is broadly\nclassified into biologics\/therapeutics production and agricultural\nbiotechnology, which is also abbreviated as agro-biotechnology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major\nbiopharmaceutical companies with manufacturing facilities based in Singapore, such\nas GSK, Lonza, AMGEN and ABBVIE, all employ biotechnology graduates to staff\ntheir factories which function 24\/7 in a continuous line production. These\nfactories produce both biologics and chemically synthesised drugs. Biologics\nrefer to large and complex biomolecules that are produced in cell cultures or\nbacterial systems, and these biomolecules have therapeutic effects against\ntheir respective target human diseases (Amgen, 2017; Roger, 2006; Gottlieb,\n2008). These therapeutic biomolecules include hormones, monoclonal antibodies\nand even engineered T-cells, which are far more complex and 200-1000 times\nlarger than the chemical synthesised drugs, which are termed small molecule\ndrugs (Roger, 2006; Gottlieb, 2008).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than being involved\nin the monitoring of the biologics commercial production, the biotechnology\nstaff can also be deployed in the research and development laboratories. In the\nresearch and development departments, the staff work on developing new\nbiologics through genetic and molecular manipulation of microorganisms and\ncells as well as enhancing the medical therapeutic properties of existing\ntherapeutics. Additionally, the quality assurance and quality control\ndepartments deploy biotechnology staff to screen batches of biologics produced,\nto ensure that the biologics conform to reference standards of purity, quality\nand efficacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For individuals who prefer\nto engage customers rather than doing factory-based work, the biopharmaceutical\ncompanies maintain a legion of biotechnology graduates as sales, marketing and\nliaison staff. These personnel are responsible for communicating product\nspecifications and promoting products to customers, as well as maintaining\ncollaborative links with research institutes and key opinion leaders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the field of\nagro-biotechnology, the focus is on the modification of agricultural produce\nand organisms to improve on produce quality and quantity. The largest\nagro-biotechnology firm Monsanto maintains a sales representative office in\nSingapore, to market their products which include seeds, agricultural\nbiologicals and crop protection products (Monsanto, 2020).  The seeds had been genetically modified or\nselectively bred to produce crops that are \u201cmore tolerant to adverse weather\nconditions, strengthen plant resistance to insects, and enable more effective\nweed control and farming practices that are more sustainable and better for the\nenvironment\u201d (Monsanto, 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example of an\nagro-biotechnology company is AquaBounty Technologies which is famous for\nbreeding fast-growing salmon through biotechnological means. The growth hormone\ngene from the Chinook salmon was integrated into the Atlantic salmon, to create\na transgenic Atlantic salmon which grows twice as fast and consumes 25% less\nfeed than the wildtype (AquaBounty, 2020). The transgenic Atlantic salmon are\nbred and farmed on land, in facilities called recirculating aquaculture systems\n(RAS) (AquaBounty, 2020). The RAS was developed to overcome the issues of farming\nin sea cages: \u201cviolent storms, predators, harmful algal blooms, jellyfish\nattacks, fish escapes, and the transmission of pathogens and parasites from\nwild fish populations residing near the cages.\u201d (AquaBounty, 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marine Aquaculture\nCentre (MAC) and the Aquaculture Innovation Centre (AIC) are the two Singapore\nagencies, specialised in the R&D of innovative aquaculture practices and\nbreeding of aquaculture crop species. Located on St. John\u2019s Island, MAC is an\ninstitute within the Singapore Food Agency (Marine Aquaculture Centre, 2020),\nwhile the AIC is a centre of excellence located at Temasek Polytechnic, formed\nby a consortium comprising Temasek Polytechnic, Agency for Science, Technology\nand Research (A*STAR), James Cook University, Nanyang Polytechnic, Nanyang\nTechnological University, National University of Singapore, Ngee Ann\nPolytechnic, Republic Polytechnic and the Singapore Food Agency (SFA)\n(Aquaculture Innovation Centre, 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Singapore, the major\nagro-biotechnology firms are farms which employ variations of hydroponics and\nRAS aquaculture to intensively cultivate vegetables and fish respectively, on\nlimited land parcels which span one to two acres or less. Examples of such\nfirms are Oh Farms (Oh Farms, 2020), Kok Fah (Kok Fah Farms, 2020) and Fin by\nBOAT (Fin by BOAT, 2020). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, local farms can\nonly supply 10% of Singapore\u2019s local demand, and with Singapore Food Agency\u2019s objective\nto achieve 30% self-sufficiency in meeting local agricultural produce by 2030\n(Singapore Food Agency, 2020), the agro-biotechnology industry is primed to\nrequire more biotechnology graduates to drive high-tech farm productions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence, in the\nagro-biotechnology industry, Biotechnology graduates can be deployed in the\nR&D of transgenic organisms and selective breeding to boost production\nlevels as well as manning high-tech RAS and hydroponic farms to meet demands\nfor local agricultural produce. These two functions are essential for\nmaintaining Singapore\u2019s self-sufficiency in food production and food security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary, Biotechnology\ngraduates are required to drive Singapore\u2019s economy, by running factories\nproducing medicine and biologics to breeding and farming commercial crops to\nsustain Singapore\u2019s growing demand for food. Hence, a Biotechnology degree is a\nvaluable qualification, as it equips the graduate with the requisite skills for\nthe biopharmaceutical and agro-biotechnology industries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biotechnology harks back to the early days of human civilisation, when people discovered the beneficial properties of fermentation, utilised in bread-making, beer brewing, wine production (Buchholz & Collins, 2013) and even conversion of milk into cheeses and yoghurt. In the 19th century, zymotechnology was the collective term for a host of techniques and technologies used primarily for brewing beer (Bud,1992)! It was in the early twentieth century, that the term Biotechnology appeared in the scientific literature of American, British and German scientists, replacing zymotechnology as the discipline for obtaining new materials from the fermentation or conversion of agricultural produce (Bud, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":283,"featured_media":2687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2688,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686\/revisions\/2688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdis.edu.sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}