Environmental biotechnology theory and application part 11 the way ahead

11

The Way Ahead

Implicit in the very essence of biotechnology is the idea of the use of biological

systems for commercial benefit and consequently, as has been a recurrent theme

throughout much of this book, this inescapably means that it is subject to business

pressures. Economic, legislative and political forces will shape the future of

environmental biotechnology every bit as much as they have its past. Such is the

inherent nature of the subject. At the same time, the use of biological solutions

in environmental applications depends on the current state of the art and this is

ever changing as new developments are made. One of the areas where major

advancement may occur is in the field of biosensors.

Biosensors

Some are currently available which have been very successful in environmen￾tal monitoring of pollution. A genetically modified yeast has been developed

which detects oestrogen, 17ß-oestradiol and other molecules many of which are

also endocrine disrupters. Although this sensor was designed for use in human

therapeutics, there is the potential for use in pollutant detection, especially in

the light of concern over these chemicals in the watercourses, although consid￾erable development is required (Tucker and Fields 2001). However, the use of

biosensors for ‘one-off’ analyses such as in testing materials about to be tipped

into landfill sites, must await refinement to a much higher level of reliability.

The possibility of producing them with enormous sensitivity and selectivity is

becoming a reality with the development of ‘microchip’ type sensors combining

biological activity with nanowire electronics (Cui et al. 2001a). This technol￾ogy has reached a stage of being able to detect a change in an electric current

attributable to the binding of a single molecule (Cui et al. 2001b). Although these

studies raise exciting prospects for biosensors, the ‘ever-present’ question of cost

remains for environmental applications.

Manufacturing

In the manufacturing sphere, it seems certain that there will be increasing pres￾sures to continue the reductions in pollution and waste production. These are