Chapter 4
Introduction to Microbial and Biochemical Technology 1
Sharon P. Shoemaker and Randall W. Swartz
2,3
1
Downloaded by EAST CAROLINA UNIV on January 2, 2018 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: January 7, 1988 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1988-0362.ch004
Genencor, Inc., 180 Kimball Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080
2
Tufts University Biotechnology
Engineering Center, Medford, MA 02155
3
Swartz Associates, Biotechnology Consultants, 15 Manchester Road, Winchester, M A 01890
Biotechnology processing has been the focus of the Microbial and Biochemical Technology Division of the ACS since i t s formation more than 25 years ago. In the tradition of the f i r s t biochemical engineers (Babylonian beer makers, circa 6000 B.C.) the division emerged from the Division of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. The founders were fermentation people committed to optimizing the technology for the preparation and purification of antibiotics. This required a multidisciplinary approach and this division brought together microbiologists, biochemists and chemical engineers and defined their relationship along with the new f i e l d of BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING. The technology arising from the antibiotic programs was then applied to fermentation pathway engineering and the purification of enzymes, single c e l l protein, and biopolymers. Most recently this has been extended to the preparation of therapeutically important enzymes and the preparation of monoclonal antibodies. In the intervening period many new refinements have been made but there is a clear and well defined trail leading from the projects begun i n various university and industrial labs i n the 40's and the process designs used today to prepare recombinant proteins i n mammalian and microbial cells. The development of this technology in part i s exemplified i n the contributions to this section. RECEIVED
September
14, 1987
Phillips et al.; The Impact of Chemistry on Biotechnology ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1988.
