Industrial biotechnology takes off in Europe

Abstract

Biotechnologies have the potential to significantly impact the quality of life in a sustainable society through the understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases, advances in agriculture and food production, and numerous industrial applications ranging from chemicals to materials including environmental protection and remediation. This article considers how the business sector will be modified by developments in the understanding of living organisms. Will the 21st century see the growth of a Bioeconomy based on applications of biotechnology as pervasive and as powerful as the information economy has been at the end of the 20th century?