Biotechnology Conference

The 2012 International Conference on Applied Biotechnology (ICAB 2012) was held in Tianjin, China on October 18-19, 2012. It provides not only a platform for domestic and foreign researchers to exchange their ideas and experiences with the application-oriented research of biotechnology, but also an opportunity to promote the development and prosperity of the biotechnology industry. The proceedings of ICAB 2012 mainly focus on the world's latest scientific research and techniques in applied biotechnology, including Industrial Microbial Technology, Food Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Environmental Biotechnology, Marine Biotechnology, Agricultural Biotechnology, Biological Materials and Bio-energy Technology, Advances in Biotechnology, and Future Trends in Biotechnology. These proceedings are intended for scientists and researchers engaging in applied biotechnology. Professor Pingkai Ouyang is the President of the Nanjing University of Technology, China. Professor Tongcun Zhang is the Director of the Key Laboratory of Industrial Fermentation Microbiology of the Ministry of Education at the College of Bioengineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, China. Dr. Samuel Kaplan is a Professor at the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas at Houston Medical School, Houston, Texas, USA. Dr. Bill Skarnes is a Professor at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, United Kingdom.

Environmental Biotechnology is an emerging field of scientific and technological investigations that is truly global. People around the world are now joined together by a common technical bond. Furthermore, popular recognition is high for the environmental problems being faced and solved by biotechnology methods. With a feeling of winning, but recognizing there is much work to be done, workers with in-depth experience in solving one problem in environmental biotechnology meet to learn from the background of other workers how they, too, are addressing and solving environmental problems. This text includes papers from the third biennial meeting of the International Society for Environmental Biotechnology, the ISEB, held in Boston, Massachusetts, on the campus of Northeastern University. Technical oral presentations of state-of-the-art research were integrated with tutorials and workshops by practising technologists in the broad field of environmental biotechnology. This meeting was in every respect truly global. For example, presentations were heard from technical workers in Southeast Asia, Russia, China, Europe, North Africa, India, and the United States. By having these selected presenters, all participants benefited from this interactive symposium. Various persons of political stature were the keynote, banquet, and luncheon speakers; these social events further promoted informal exchange of ideas, discussions of technical problems, and exploration of new applications. This international symposium on environmental biotechnology was held on the campus of Northeastern University, but all Boston area universities were included and participated as conference Co-Chairs. This symposium was considered a success because workers with experience in one area of environmental biotechnology learned from the wealth of established backgrounds of those in other areas of environmental biotechnology. To formally disseminate conference results, all technical presentations were reviewed for formal publication.

Biotechnology is advancing at a rapid pace with numerous applications in medicine, industry, agriculture and environmental remediation. Recognizing this, government, industrial and academic research and development invest ment in biotechnology has expanded rapidly. The past decade has seen the emergence of applications of this technology with a dual-use potential. Mili tary applications focus on four major areas: biomedical technology, such as vaccine development and medical diagnostics; detection of toxins, chemicals and pathogens; material biotechnology; and biological decontamination, in cluding biodegradation and bioremediation. This conference emphasizes the non-medical applications of biotechnol ogy. The first two sessions focus on the synthesis and properties of molecules that may be used in detectors. The traditional approach to detection of chemical and biological agents relied on the development of specific assays or analyses for known agents. Advances in molecular biology have made possible the production of large quantities of toxins which were previously available in minute quantities, and the molecular engineering of toxins and pathogens with specific pharmacologic and physical-chemical properties. In addition to the traditional approaches to detection of specific known compounds, biotechnology now offers generic approaches to detection. Physiological targets, known as receptors, are primary targets for many drugs and toxins. Similarly, pathogens rely on receptors to gain access to cells. These receptors function as sensitive detectors, generating signals which are transduced and amplified.

The 2012 International Conference on Applied Biotechnology (ICAB 2012) was held in Tianjin, China on October 18-19, 2012. It provides not only a platform for domestic and foreign researchers to exchange their ideas and experiences with the application-oriented research of biotechnology, but also an opportunity to promote the development and prosperity of the biotechnology industry. The proceedings of ICAB 2012 mainly focus on the world's latest scientific research and techniques in applied biotechnology, including Industrial Microbial Technology, Food Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Environmental Biotechnology, Marine Biotechnology, Agricultural Biotechnology, Biological Materials and Bio-energy Technology, Advances in Biotechnology, and Future Trends in Biotechnology. These proceedings are intended for scientists and researchers engaging in applied biotechnology. Professor Pingkai Ouyang is the President of the Nanjing University of Technology, China. Professor Tongcun Zhang is the Director of the Key Laboratory of Industrial Fermentation Microbiology of the Ministry of Education at the College of Bioengineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, China. Dr. Samuel Kaplan is a Professor at the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas at Houston Medical School, Houston, Texas, USA. Dr. Bill Skarnes is a Professor at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, United Kingdom.

An international computer conference on the bioconversion of lignocellulosics for fuel, fodder, and food took place from May to December 1983. It was initiated to evaluate the appropriateness of using computer conferencing to facilitate scientific discussions and to explore the application on the subject matter to development purposes.