Red biotechnology focuses on human health care and drug development, including gene manipulation and therapy. China is a leading research arena, producing blood-related products, vaccines, and diagnostic agents. The field also involves the production of basic biological materials for genetically modified cells and organisms to generate drugs. Red biotech aims to address prevalent ailments such as tuberculosis, malaria, and viruses.
Red biotechnology is a branch of biotechnology that deals specifically with human health care and treatment methods through the development of drugs such as antibiotics. The field may also involve research into gene manipulation through germline engineering in the embryonic stage or gene therapy in adult patients. The focus of red biotech is usually in the pharmaceutical sector, where an estimated 80% of all biotech breakthroughs have been made as of 2011.
Biotechnology in general has become a very broad scientific research field as of 2011, covering the range of development for genetic engineering, drugs and medical implants, and the cultivation of cells, tissues and organs for research and the treatment of disease or injury. This resulted in the field being split into several color-identified subfields, including green, blue, white, and gray biotechnology. Blue biotechnology is confined to the marine environment, while green biotechnology focuses on agricultural applications. White biotechnology has an industrial basis involving organic enzymes and the processes they facilitate, and gray biotechnology has a similar basis, where natural cells and organisms are used to create synthetic compounds.
China is seen as a leading research arena in red biotechnology and is involved in the development of everything from blood-related products to vaccines and drugs that affect the body at the genetic level. The nation was, as of early 2010, marketing over 20 blood products to the international community such as immunoglobulin. The research includes the production of diagnostic agents in the three main fields of immunology, molecular diagnostics and biochemical diagnostics, as well as the study of stem cells, antibody treatments and more. Worldwide, China is also the leading producer of vaccines, producing millions of doses annually.
Because red biotechnology has both pure research and practical medical applications, it often relies on the laboratory production of basic biological materials. Proteins, gene expression and antibodies are being studied as vectors that can be used to create genetically modified cells or whole organisms, such as yeast or bacteria, that can be engineered to generate drugs and insulin to treat diabetic patients. The proteins have also been altered to encourage the production of enzymes in hamster cells that can be used in the treatment of human heart disease. Increasingly, the development of such drugs, as in the field of cancer treatment, are extremely toxic in normal doses and must be administered in minimal and carefully controlled quantities to be effective medical treatments. This makes the field of nanotechnology research for drug delivery an important aspect of red biotechnology as well.
The field of red biotechnology involves creating new forms of drugs or cellular treatments for age-old diseases such as tuberculosis and resistant strains of malaria or viruses that do not respond to traditional antibiotics. It is an inclusive field of research involving basic science in biological processes, diagnostic methods to detect disease, and treatments in both conventional forms, such as medicine, or advanced forms, such as genetic manipulation. Red Biotech uses this multi-layered approach to try to address some of humanity’s most prevalent ailments, from hepatitis and AIDS to suppressing resistant strains of the influenza virus.
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