Milestones in Biotechnology: Classic Papers on Genetic Engineering (Biotechnology S.)

This is a collection of the seminal papers that have had an important impact on the development and direction of the biotechnology field. The book contains papers which will provide an historical perspective on the development of such topics as bioprocessing, cloning, expression, immunology and intellectual property. Biotechnology, the use of living organisms or their components to provide processes or products useful to man, has been known for a long time. Despite this, the term "biotechnology" has taken on a new meaning in the past 20 years, as if the word and the subject had been recently discovered. What has changed, since the demonstration of recombinant DNA methodology in the early 1970s, is the technology of biotechnology. Scientists no longer need to rely on natural sources for the most effective processes; it is now possible to engineer genes and organisms for more convenient, efficient and safe production, modification and isolation. The two decades have been an exciting period in the field, which "Milestones in Biotechnology" aims to communicate by providing a compendium of key publications that describe the essentials of the development of modern biotechnology.