Medical-Pharma Biotech-Working Areas 

It includes biotechnological application for the betterment of human health it may therefore include therapeutic cloning, molecular farming, embryo cloning, gene therapy, xenotransplantation etc.

Working Areas

Followings are the working areas and branches coming under healthcare and medical biotechnology. They are interrelated to each other.

• Pharmaceutical Biotechnology/ Biopharmaceuticals: It includes role of the biotechnology sector as a whole in contributing to innovation in the pharmaceutical area.

• Medical Biotechnology: Application of biotechnology in solving problems related to medical sciences (diseases disorders etc.), whether through gene therapy, therapeutic cloning or animal tissue culture.

• Medical Biochemistry: It studies the molecular mechanisms of diseases, including infectious disease, metabolic disorders, storage disorders and cardiovascular disease etc.

• Medical Microbiology: It is the study of the causes and management of infectious diseases caused by agents like- parasites, fungi, bacteria, and viruses.

• Biomedical Sciences: It includes study of basic sciences pertaining to biology and medicine. Students of Biomedical Sciences are qualified to enter the health profession as a clinical scientist, or they can continue into research in human health and related areas.

• Cosmetic Biotechnology: Applications of biotechnology in cosmetics industry include solving many cosmetic problems related to the Skin, Aging and development of ingredients of flavors, fragrances and pigments.

• Biomedical engineering  is another branch which uses principles of biophysics and other engineering fields and apply them on medical field or healthcare.

Some other applications of biotechnology in Healthcare:

• Phytopharmaceuticals: They are pharmaceuticals (drugs) using traditional compounds derived from plants or botanicals instead of chemicals, e.g. isolation of anti-malarial drug quinine from Cinchona bark.

• Nutraceuticals: These are nutritional compounds acting as drug (pharmaceuticals), e.g., vitamin C, Beta carotene act as antioxidants and help in muscle fatigue, developing body resistance against fighting diseases, but they also participate in other metabolic activities.

• Molecular Pharming: Technique where the genetically engineered plants and animals are used to make human proteins generally having medicinal values. These molecules are specifically expressed and finally separated and collected from milk, egg and blood, or plant part; For example- anti-thrombin and tissue plasminogen are under trials used to treat blood clotting, and edible vaccine from carrot.

• Secondary Metabolite production- through plant tissue culture technique, which are used as medicine.

• Nutrition: We study the effects of certain food stuffs, minerals, protiens, carbohydrates, fats and vitamins, when consumed in excess or in deficient quantities, on the human body.

• Genetic diagnosis: To detect genes responsible for the genetic disease or disorder. e.g. Genetic Diseases

• Predisposition analysis – It is the analysis of how some people are more likely to get certain diseases as a result of their genetic make-up. It is generally done for Polygenic or Multigenic diseases (disease where many genes play a role in whether we get the disease or not), e.g. detection of Apolipoprotein E4, a blood protein variant, suggested as predictor of Alzheimer’s disease.

• Gene Therapy- replacing or correcting the defective gene of an Organism by getting corrected gene (carried with the help of recombinant DNA) into the cell of that organism (man), e.g. SCID

• Forensic Sciences and Biotechnology: Biotechnology is used to solve criminal cases and parental disputes. It uses following technique-

• DNA Fingerprinting – It uses VNTR (variable number tandem repeats) sequences. Here any one sequence is repeated several times which is specific for any individual of any species. Thus VNTR size varies among individual from different family.