BioBusiness Overview Quiz

BioBusiness Overview

• BioBusiness is a commercial activity leveraging life sciences and life science processes.
• It constitutes over 25% of global GDP.
• It employs approximately 40% of the world's workforce.
• In 2014, BioBusiness accounted for nearly $32 trillion.

BioBusiness Opportunities

• Herbal and traditional medicine
• Biopharming
• Biomaterials
• Fisheries and aquaculture
• Pharmaceuticals
• Nanotechnologies
• Medical devices
• Marine biotechnology
• Biomedical biotechnology
• Agri-biotechnology
• Bio-IT
• Bioengineering
• Diagnostics
• Management of biodiversity

Successful BioBusiness

• Key components include smart people, smart ideas, smart money, and smart alliances.
• Access to capital alone is insufficient for success.

Entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneurship involves creating a new economic entity centered on a novel product or service.
• The product or service can differ significantly from existing ones.

Businessman vs. Entrepreneur

• An entrepreneur establishes a business from the ground up, developing a brand for their products/services.
• A businessman focuses on capturing existing market share by enhancing existing products/services.

Biopharmaceuticals

• Biopharmaceuticals are medicinal products derived from or manufactured using biological sources.

• They include proteins (e.g., antibodies), nucleic acids (e.g., DNA, RNA, antisense oligonucleotides).

• These are used for therapeutic or in-vivo diagnostic purposes.

• Global market was estimated at US$220 billion in 2014 and projected to reach US$500 billion by 2020.

Bioenergy

• Biomass currently supplies about a third of the developing world's energy.
• Increasing energy demand ensures biomass energy will remain significant.
• Biomass sources include: coal, tyres, sugar cane bagasse, oil sludge/waste, energy crops, oil seed rape husks, rice and corn husks, packaging waste, chicken waste, wood chips/waste, straw, nut shells, sewage sludge, olive pips, bone meal, leather waste, and animal litter.

Biofuel Crops

• Key biofuel crops include various root crops, oil palm, soy beans, and corn.

Biopharming

• Biopharming involves cultivating transgenic crops to produce pharmaceutical products.
• Examples include drugs, antibodies, and proteins.
• Products include edible vaccines, plantibodies, and plant-made therapeutic proteins.
• Examples of plant-made vaccines under development include pig vaccines in corn, HIV-suppressing proteins in spinach, and hepatitis B vaccines in potatoes.
• Plantibodies are monoclonal antibodies produced in plants, including tobacco, corn, potatoes, soy, alfalfa, and rice.

Biopolymers

• Biopolymers are polymers produced by living organisms.
• Main classes: Polynucleotides, Polypeptides, and Polysaccharides.

Bioplastics

• Some biopolymers, like polylactic acid (PLA), can be molded into plastics.
• They are often bio-degradable (oxy- and UV-degradable).
• Suitable for domestic composting.
• Bioplastics now have various applications, including shopping bags, fruit/vegetable/meat trays and containers, and bottles for drinks and dairy products.

Biopolymer Market

• The global biopolymer market is growing at a 14.5% compound annual rate.
• Estimated 2018 global revenue is US$3.7 billion.

Bioeconomics

• Bioeconomics is a discipline merging biology and economics.
• It bridges through holism and interdisciplinary methodology, empirical biology, and literary economics.

Biobankonomics

• A biobank is a repository of biological samples (biospecimens).
• These biospecimens are stored and retrieved.
• Biobanks are a fast-growing business in the era of biomedicine.
• Human biospecimens include; tissue samples (e.g., biopsy, resection, autopsy), and body fluid samples (e.g., blood, sputum, urine, bone marrow).

Biorobotics

• Biorobotics combines cybernetics, genetic engineering, and robotics.
• It investigates robots for replacing limbs and enhancing the human body.
• Applications include advancements in biology, engineering, and military uses; as well as for disabled people.
• Robotic insects present insights into the neural control mechanisms governing walking insects.

Biomimicry

• Biomimicry studies nature's models and processes to solve human problems.

Bioadhesion

• Bioadhesion describes the state in which two materials, at least one being biological, are bonded for an extended period through interfacial forces.
• This often concerns attaching drug-carrier systems to specific biological locations (e.g., epithelial tissue or mucous membranes).

Gecko Tape

• Gecko tape mimics the adhesion of geckos to surfaces.

Biosteel

• Biosteel is a product based on spider silk, used in various applications.

Biocomputers

• Biocomputers use biologically-derived molecules like DNA and proteins to calculate.
• The field is still early, though significant investment was made in developing the first DNA computer.

Advantages of Biocomputers

• Perform millions of operations simultaneously.
• High-capacity working memory (1 gram of DNA holds 1 x 10^14 MB).

Medical Applications of Biocomputers

• Integration of computational genes into patient cells
• Programming DNA markers to react to specific inputs, with output coding for protein structures.

Bioweapons

• Gene technology is employed in military laboratories to produce and test biological warfare agents and defensive strategies.
• Potential for engineered agents to survive extreme conditions (like bomb explosions).

Bioelectronics

• Bioelectronics combines bio-chemistry, bio-physics, molecular biology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and microelectronics.
• A relatively new interdisciplinary field.

Biosensors

• Biosensors utilize the direct coupling of a biologically active component and a signal converter (transducer) to provide measurable readings.
• Various biomolecules serve as electronic components in biosensors to build biochips.

Agribusiness

• Agribusiness deals in the cultivation of biotech crops, which include soybean, cotton, maize and canola.
• Global biotech crop market revenue (2014) was approximately $22.84 billion and the cultivated area increased 100-fold in 18 years.

Be Your Own Boss

• Entrepreneurship involves high risk and high reward.
• Entrepreneurship can be challenging but also rewarding with persistence and good ideas.

Test your knowledge on the BioBusiness sector, exploring its impact on global GDP, employment, and innovations such as biopharmaceuticals and biocomputers. This quiz covers fundamental concepts and characteristics of successful BioBusiness practices.