Biotechnology Today [antikvár]

PREF ACE/INTROOUCTION Microbiai physiology is the major uncierpinning discipline of those biological activities which help to create biotechnology. It may not have the immediate appeal of genetic engineering but it provides the essential framework on the behaviour of microorganisms without biotechnology would remain an empirical discipline. Biotechnology itself is about yields, productivities and the performance of microorganisins in their bioreactors. It is alsó about using the component parts of microorganisms, that is their enzymes, to bring about desirable changes in the production of biological materials. Often the growing cell is too diverse in its activities: too many reactions, too many products. The desirable reactions have to be indentified and intensified; the undesirable ones eliminated. Sometimes it is difficult to achieve this without genetic alteration of the organism, but sometimes it becomes possible to achieve production of the desirable end-product by the simple expedient of immobilizing the cell, or partiaily disrupting it or, if need be, using isolated enzymes from the microorganism and immobilizing these in their turn. The application of these latter tecnniques rightly calls for particular and special skills and thus creates a natural grouping of biotechnologists interested in the subject of biocatalysis. Biocatalysis though is more than just enzymology as the precending remarks will have made clear; it is alsó .10re than the application of inmobilization techniques into biotechnology. Biocatalysis could be said to begin where microbiai physiology finishes: the application of microorganisms - or their enzymes - under non-proliferating conditions to achieve production of desirable products. Thus this meeting in Hajdúszoboszló has combined two complementary biotechnological activities which are reflected in them being two of the speciálist Working Parties of the European Federation of Biotechnology. The EFB seeks to promote interest and development in biotecnnology across a Pan-European grouping and has placed primary responsibility for this in the hands of ten Working Parties set up to cover the whole spectrurn of biotechnological activities. Two of these Working Parties are those of Applied Biocatalysis and Microbiai Physiology. For somé time these groups have wished to hold a joint meeting to explore areas of mutual interest, each group having much to contribute to the other. Opportunely, an invitation to hold such a joint meeting came from Hungary, a country with a fine history of microbiology and biochemistry and with a flourising biotechnology industry of