History of biotechnology

The Hungarian engineer Károly Ereky coined the word “biotechnology”: his work published in 1919 in Berlin laid the groundwork for this new discipline. Nevertheless, history shows that the biotechnologies were first used at the dawn of humanity.

Biotechnology spans two main periods:

Traditional biotechnology

Biotechnology was first used several millennia ago. It was applied empirically, but it was not well understood, and it was perceived as being magical. Already in ancient times, people selected and crossed animal and vegetable species in order to make them more productive; microorganisms such as yeast were used in order to ferment bread, beer, wine and more. This made it possible to feed a growing population and prepare and preserve certain foods. This traditional or classical biotechnology does not reflect biotechnology as we know it today, because the processes were experimental and not really controlled.

Modern biotechnology

Since the 19th century, the intense development of chemistry and biology has enriched the body of theoretical knowledge and the comprehension of phenomena that had previously been attributed to magic. Louis Pasteur created a new discipline (microbiology), and his work on fermentation in the 1850s demonstrated the existence of microorganisms. Applications emerged from these discoveries, in both industry and medicine.

Theoretical knowledge continued to progress in the 20th century. For example, genetic engineering, which appeared in the 1970s, brought knowledge about living organisms to new levels. Since then, humans have had more control over this modern or new biotechnology. Applications have developed in the fields of agriculture, agrifood, the environment, industry and health. Biotechnology is also a new source of innovations in bioinformatics and nanotechnology, i.e. the design of new technical systems inspired by the living world.