Biotechnology is a broad field of science, but at its core, this discipline uses biological systems, living organisms, and derivatives to manufacture products and processes for use in a wide range of industries.
Due to the broad nature of this scientific field, the need for a clear and concise classification system has arisen over the past few decades. To satisfy this demand, scientists now classify the diverse types of biotechnology with a color-coded system. This article will explore this classification system and highlight its current uses and relevance.
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Key Colors of Biotechnology
The key colors in this classification system include red, blue, yellow, grey, green, and gold.
Red biotechnology is a well-established area in biotechnology that deals with utilizing organisms and their by-products in human health and medicine. It is linked to both the medical sector and the pharmaceutical industry. It also covers applications of biotechnology in areas such as clinical trials, molecular diagnostics, antibiotics manufacturing, vaccine development, and disease research. 1
Blue biotechnology is concerned with areas such as marine, coastal, and aquaculture biotech. It utilizes the vast biodiversity found in these environments as resources to produce biological products. Furthermore, this area of biotechnology is applied to the preservation of marine biodiversity, restoring aquatic wildlife to natural habitats, and using marine bioproducts to engineer climate change-resistant plants.2
The use of biotechnology in food production and nutritional science, such as engineered probiotics and sustainable food packaging, is referred to as yellow biotechnology. Grey biotechnology is the field of biotechnology associated with environmental applications such as ecosystem restoration, waste management, and bioremediation.
Green biotechnology is applied in the agricultural sector, seeking to reduce the sector’s reliance on chemical and mechanical methods in favor of less environmentally harmful biological organism-derived processes and products.3
Gold biotechnology is an emerging color within the classification system. This area covers the use of computational methods in biotechnology and data-driven innovations. This color covers technological innovations such as AI, bioinformatics, and computational biology.3
Other colors include white (industrial) and black (bioweapons and bioterrorism.) Purple biotechnology refers to the ethical, legal, and philosophical aspects of biotechnology.
8 Types of Biotechnology Explained
The Colors of Biotechnology; What do they mean?
Applications and Relevance
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, biotechnology is a broad-brush term, and by classifying the field in terms of color, it is easier to categorize the applications in each area.
Across the various colors of biotechnology, several important applications have been developed, driving R&D efforts forward in multiple industries and relevant scientific fields. This classification system is used to drive innovation forward in several important and cutting-edge fields of scientific research.
In blue biotechnology, for instance, researchers have developed several novel drugs, antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, and cosmetics from marine and freshwater organisms. Jellyfish have been used to produce Green Fluorescent Protein, which is a reporter protein important for industrial biotechnology and molecular biology. Shrimp alkaline phosphatase is an enzyme used in applications such as PCR.2
Research in blue biotechnology has also produced transgenic fish with enhanced growth, productivity, and quality. Transgenic fish are also used as environmental pollutant indicators in marine and freshwater habitats.
Yellow biotechnology applications include biofuels, bioplastics, industrial enzyme production, fermentation, and industrial bioprocessing. Green biotechnology is used to produce haploid plants and virus- and extreme weather-resistant crops, as well as in somatic hybridization and protoplast culture. Gold biotechnology is applied to mechanistic and data-driven models used in multiple industries.
Companies across multiple industrial sectors use different specialized types of biotechnology to address global challenges such as food security, climate change, and outbreaks of human, animal, and plant diseases.
For instance, grey biotechnology applications such as bioremediation and waste management can address environmental pollution and degradation. Utilizing biotechnological innovations in sewage treatment plants reduces the need for harsh and potentially toxic chemicals. Transgenic and virus-resistant plants produced using green biotechnology can address global food security issues.
Yellow biotechnologies, such as biodegradable food packaging, can help reduce the carbon footprint of the food and manufacturing industries. Biofuels can reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector, and bioplastics reduce the exploitation of non-renewable hydrocarbons.
Moreover, the huge biodiversity found in marine environments can be leveraged by pharmaceutical companies to produce novel drugs and vaccines to fight emerging diseases. Both blue and red biotechnology have vast commercialization potentials for companies in the pharmaceutical and human health sectors. Many industries are using the spectrum of colors in this classification system.
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Commercial Relevance
As can be seen above, the field of biotechnology is extremely vast and complex, necessitating a relatively simple and concise classification system. The color-based system is becoming more widely established, and companies such as Bayer, Moderna, and Novozymes are investing in diverse biotech fields, leveraging the benefits of this classification system.
Bayer, for instance, is heavily invested in GMOs to improve food security in developing nations, which falls under the umbrella of green biotech. Novozymes is the world’s largest producer of industrial enzymes, leveraging white (industrial) biotech solutions.
Novozymes is also involved in producing innovative solutions, which encompass a wide range of technologies such as bio-derived nutritional supplements, fermentation products, and laundry-detergent enzymes. Bio solutions have the potential to improve human health and reduce the environmental impact of numerous everyday products.4
There are several market opportunities in biotech, such as personalized medicine, solutions to improve sustainability, and bio-based materials. A color-based classification system would benefit these areas greatly.
Future commercially relevant trends include gold biotech innovations such as AI and machine learning integration, 3D bioprinting, and synthetic biology.
Challenges and Future Directions
Whilst the field of biotechnology has huge potential to address several key issues, such as disease pandemics, food security, pollution, and climate change, several key challenges persist.
These include regulatory hurdles, ethical considerations, and the public acceptance of emerging biotechnologies.
There exists a huge potential in currently underrepresented biotech areas such as gold and grey biotechnology. For instance, biotech and other industries are becoming increasingly data-driven, which presents opportunities for the field of gold biotech. Grey biotechnologies can help to meet climate targets and solve several critical environmental challenges.
Applications of Biotechnology
In Summary
As can be seen, biotechnology is an incredibly complex and broad discipline, with key applications in multiple industries, including food, pollution remediation, biomedicine, pharmaceuticals, textiles, aquaculture, and agriculture.
This complexity necessitates a concise and comprehensive classification system, and the color system satisfies this need.
While several challenges persist, biotechnology continues to provide innovations that address key issues in the modern world, such as climate change, sustainability, and food security. In short, it is incredibly important that companies embrace emerging scientific fields to solve the problems faced by human society in the 21st century.
References
- Minchin, S (2022) Everything you need to know about Red Biotechnology [online] Explore Biotech. Available at: https://explorebiotech.com/everything-need-know-red-biotechnology/ (Accessed on 9 December 2024)
- Khatiwada, B (2022) A Brief Introduction and Applications of Blue Biotechnology [online] Explore Biotech. Available at: https://explorebiotech.com/blue-biotechnology-introduction-and-applications/ (Accessed on 9 December 2024)
- Barcelos, M.C.S et al. (2018) The colors of biotechnology: general overview and developments of white, green and blue areas Microbiology Letters FEMS 365:21 [online] Oxford Academic. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/femsle/article/365/21/fny239/5106815 (Accessed on 9 December 2024)
- Novonesis (2024) The era of biosolutions [online] novonesis.com. Available at: https://www.novonesis.com/en/era-of-biosolutions (Accessed on 9 December 2024)
Further Reading