by Alptekin Aksan, PhD and Allison Hubel, PhD
Volume 7, Issue 4 (Winter 2008)
Today, technology has reached a point where organisms (bacteria, plant and animal cells) can be genetically engineered to produce specific macromolecules and perform complex chemical reactions. Hence, they are called “cellular factories.” Cellular factories have applications in: biomedicine (e.g., implanted insulin secreting cells for the management of diabetes); biotechnology (recombinant protein and enzyme production for pharmaceutical and food industries); bioremediation (toxic waste and pollutant clean-up); green chemistry (production of chemicals with minimum toxic bi-product generation); alternative energy generation (electricity and hydrogen production by bacteria); biosensors (e.g., devices housing “canary cells”, which can signal the presence of pollutants, viral agents, or toxic chemicals); bioreactive devices (that can detect low concentrations of chemicals, etc.)…
Citation:
Aksan A, Hubel A. Biopreservation of Cells for Use in Biotechnology and Cell Therapy. BioProcess J, 2008; 7(4): 43-47. http://dx.doi.org/10.12665/J74.Hubel