This program combines biological disciplines like genetics, microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, embryology, and cell biology with technical disciplines like chemical engineering, information technology and robotics to develop products and technology for plant, animal, and human welfare. Organizations are using biotechnology in drug development, medical treatments, agriculture and food processing, biofuel production, and environmental protection, with new techniques and applications for biotechnology continuously being discovered.
Some of the best innovations and developments that have come out of modern biotechnology include products like enzymes, vaccines, antibiotics, biofertilizers, biopesticides, disease-resistant plants, stress-tolerant crops, biofuels, probiotics, and many more. Most of the R&D work in medical biotechnology is focused on advanced therapies like stem cell and gene therapies which open up possibilities to treat historically incurable diseases. Prospects in the field of bioinformatics, one of the emerging fields of biotechnology, include its future contribution to a functional understanding of the human genome, leading to the enhanced discovery of drug targets and personalized therapy.