Due to the rapid expansion of biotechnology and the vast range of scientific fields it has found application in, a color-coded system has been developed to easily identify the primary areas of biotechnological research. This article aims to describe this classification system and highlight how it is used today.
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What Do Biotech Colors Mean?
The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity defines Biotechnology as ‘any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use’.1
With such a broad definition, a clear classification system is important to help easily distinguish between different areas. This has led to the adoption of “colors” to represent the main applications of biotechnology research. The main colors are white (industrial) green (agriculture) blue (marine/fresh water biotech) and red (medicine and human health.)2
Whilst these are considered to be the main areas, the expansion of biotechnology into more areas of scientific endeavor has led to more colors being added to the wheel of biotechnology, including yellow, gold, purple, brown, and grey.
White Biotechnology: Industrial
White biotechnology is arguably the largest area of biotechnology. It revolves primarily around the use of biocatalysts for the industrial-scale production and processing of products. These include industrial chemicals such as ethanol, lactic acid, and acetic acid and products such as amino acids and vitamins.
There is also a focus on reducing the environmental impact of industrial processes, involving the production of biodegradable polymers and renewable biofuel to encourage a more sustainable system and move away from reliance on fossil fuels.2
What is Industrial Biotechnology?
Red Biotechnology: Medicine and Human Health
Red biotechnology, also referred to as biopharmaceuticals, involves the use of biotechnology in the medical field. This is often in, but not limited to, the pharmaceutical industry. Red biotechnology covers applications of biotechnology relating to clinical trials, vaccine development, disease research, antibiotic production, drug development, and molecular diagnostics.3
Red biotechnology, along with white biotechnology, is one of the largest branches of biotech. The field has produced many life-saving products such as vaccines, cancer therapies, gene therapies, and technologies such as implantable biochips. Additionally, red biotechnology has been instrumental in several molecular diagnostics techniques and the emerging field of regenerative medicine.
Green Biotechnology: Agriculture
Green biotechnology plays a key role in the increased production of food to meet the demand of an increasing population, as well as in developing less environmentally damaging fertilizers and biopesticides. Many techniques are utilized in green biotechnology, from tissue cultivation, micropropagation, marker-assisted selection, and reverse breeding to genetic engineering.2
One of green biotech’s main contributions to agriculture is the genetic modification of crops. This has led to the development of insect- and disease-resistant crop strains, agricultural crops with better adverse environmental condition tolerance, and greater crop yields. Green biotech is being used to create crops that can better withstand climate change.
Although genetic modification of food products has been the subject of some controversy, it still plays a pivotal role in agriculture, and as the industry continues to adapt to the challenges of climate change, population growth, and rapid industrialization, biotechnology will likely continue to be central to food production..
Alongside its use in the production of new crop strains, green biotech is also used in the production of biofuels and biopolymers, meaning that green and white biotech can be closely aligned with each other.2
Biotechnology and the Development of Hypoallergenic Agriculture
Blue Biotechnology: Marine
Considering that the vast majority of biodiversity is found in the ocean, blue biotechnology aims to utilize this to develop new products to benefit both society and the environment. Marine organisms have important roles in the production of many enzymes and proteins that have been used in numerous applications, from biodegradable plastics and cosmetics to medicinal products.
Given that much of the Earth’s oceans have not been fully explored, there is huge potential for the discovery of new organisms with novel uses as well as novel bioactive compounds.
Thus far, blue biotechnology has produced a range of FDA-approved bioactive compounds such as Cytarabine, a compound extracted from sponges that treats leukemia, and Ziconotide, an analgesic found in marine snails. 2
Marine Biology: An Overview
Other Colors
Although the aforementioned categories are considered to be the most established, other areas have also been assigned colors. Yellow biotechnology is closely related to green biotech, and is also referred to as “insect biotechnology.” It is mainly used in the extraction of useful products from insects and the production of food and improving nutrition.4
Grey biotechnology heavily focuses on environmental preservation and contaminant removal, whist brown biotechnology involves the use and management of desert land. Smaller branches include gold biotechnology, primarily bioinformatics, violet biotechnology, relating to patents and law, and dark biotechnology, associated with biological weapons and bioterrorism.
Summing Up
As biotechnology as a whole is such a broad and varied field, the color code offers a simple classification system that allows similar areas of biotechnology to be grouped together. This makes searching for articles or news about a particular area easier, as it reduces the need for multiple specific keywords.
For example, when searching for articles or papers on advances in health-related biotechnology, a search for ‘red biotechnology’ may return more relevant results in one go than multiple searches using specific keywords such as health, medicine, vaccines, and pharmaceuticals.
Although widely used, the color code is not definitive and different authors and institutions may use slight variations. Although there are definite benefits to such system, there is definitely room for improvement. To be most effective, it would be beneficial to support an official color code, with properly defined categories, to minimize confusion caused by different adaptations of the code.
There is also some degree of debate as to whether certain colors are truly representative of their relative sectors, however, the colors themselves are mostly arbitrary and serve only as a simple and easily recognizable label. If this could be more widely agreed on and made uniform across different organizations, the color-coding system could become an increasingly valuable tool.
Learn More: Beyond the Rainbow: Emerging Colors in Biotechnology
References:
- UN Convention on Biological Diversity (website) Article 2: Use of Terms [online] United Nations. Available at: https://cbd.int/kb/record/article/6872?RecordType=article (Accessed on 12 April 2025)
- Barcelos, M.C.S et al. (2018) The colors of biotechnology: general overview and development of white, green and blue areas FEMS Microbiology Letters 356:21 [online] Oxford Academic. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/femsle/article/365/21/fny239/5106815 (Accessed on 12 April 2025)
- 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 12 April 2025)
- Niglia, S (2022) Everything You Need to Know About Yellow Biotechnology [online] Explore Biotech. Available at: https://explorebiotech.com/about-yellow-biotechnology/ (Accessed on 12 April 2025)
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