Biotechnology: A Flag of Many Colors绚丽多彩的生物技术

文/菲利普·布林森 纳尔逊·布林森 译/姚海涛

By Phillip Brinson ＆ Nelson Brinson

Although there are many ways to classify biotechnology, the use of a color code is actually the most popular one. This is used to help us better categorize the different areas of biotechnology research in ways that are easy to remember.

2 At the opening of the National Biotechnology Weekheld on the 24 November 2008, Philippines’ Department of Science and Technology Secretary Estrella Alabastro described biotechnology in the following way :

“If we could weave a flag for biotechnology, it would have three colors.Red for medical, green for agricultural,and white for industrial applications.”

Alabastro also said that more colors would be added to the biotechnology spectrum, and these have indeed happened.

虽然生物技术有很多分类方式，但最普遍的做法还是使用色彩代码。这有助于以便于记忆的方式对生物技术研究领域进行分类。

22008年11月24日，在国家生物技术周开幕式上，菲律宾科技部长埃斯特拉利亚·阿拉瓦斯特罗对生物技术作了如下描述：

“如果为生物技术编一面旗帜，它会有三种颜色。红色代表医疗，绿色代表农业，白色代表工业应用。”

阿拉瓦斯特罗还说生物技术会增添新的颜色，而这确实已经发生。

3 生物技术主要有四种：医学生物技术（红色）、工业生物技术（白色）、环境生物技术（绿色）和海洋生物技术（蓝色）。

3 The four main types of biotechnology are medical biotechnology (red),industrial biotechnology (white), environmental biotechnology (green), and marine biotechnology (blue).

Medical “red” biotechnology

4 Medical biotechnology is all about human health and medicine. So, medical biotechnology will involve producing new pharmaceutical drugs, antibodies, vaccines, and more.

5 Red biotechnology can figure out the best drug dosages for patients, thus working towards making drugs and treatments much more specific for people based on their genetic code.

6 Red biotechnology makes use of biological materials to find solutions to health-related problems.Often,gene expression, antibodies, and proteinsare researched to find howtheycan be used tocreate genetically-modifiedcellsor organisms to assist in treating various diseases.

Some examples include how proteins have been modified to encourage the production of enzymes in hamster cells and these can be used to treat heart disease in humans.

Industrial “white” biotechnology

7 Industrial biotechnology affects many sectors, such as the textile, food,and energy sectors.

Industrial biotechnology makes use

医学：“红色”生物技术

4 医学生物技术应用于人类健康和医疗事业。因此，医学生物技术涉及生产新的药物、抗体、疫苗等。

5 红色生物技术可以测算适合病人的最佳药物剂量，从而根据遗传密码使药物和治疗更具针对性。

6 红色生物技术利用生物材料为健康相关问题寻找解决方案。基因表达、抗体和蛋白质常被作为研究对象，设法用其制成转基因细胞或有机体，帮助治疗各种疾病。

例如，通过修改蛋白质促进仓鼠细胞产生酶，这些酶可用于治疗人类心脏疾病。

工业：“白色”生物技术

7 工业生物技术对纺织、食品和能源等许多领域都有影响。

工业生物技术利用取自植物、细菌和酵母等的活细胞，制成的产品不仅在生产过程中耗费资源（如能源）较少，产生的废物也更少。of living cells derived from sources such as plants, bacteria, and yeast, and creates products that need less resources(such as energy) during their production. They also produce less waste.

8 There have already been valuable developments made by industrial biotechnology. An example is how the use of bacterial enzymes have been used to manufacture food as well as to make washing powder so as to decrease artificial ingredients.

Environmental and agricultural “green”biotechnology

9These two areas of biotechnology are both put into the “green” color category.

10Basically, green biotechnology concentrates on technologies related to agriculture, such as when it comes to fniding ways to produce stronger crops or creating new biopesticides to reduce chemicals used by farmers.

11Other projects that agricultural biotechnologists will be involved in include the following:

● Using bacteria to encourage plant growth and improve crop yields.

● Using plants to remove heavy metals from the environment that can be toxic to it as well as to human health.

● Using genetic manipulation to help plantsthriveinspiteof damaging weatherconditions,suchas frost.

8 工业生物技术已取得重大进展。例如，细菌酶被用于制造食品和洗衣粉，以减少人造成分。

环境和农业：“绿色”生物技术

9 环境和农业生物技术都属于“绿色”类别。

10 绿色生物技术主要涉及农业相关技术，例如，设法培养生命力更强的农作物；研发新的生物杀虫剂，从而让农民减少化学制品用量。

11 农业生物技术专家还将参与以下项目：

·利用细菌促进植物生长，提高作物产量。

·利用植物清除环境中对环境和人类健康有害的重金属。

·利用基因操作帮助植物抵御霜冻等灾害性天气。

● Using technology in animal breeding, such as the use of artificial insemination, which is said to be the most widely applied animal biotechnology.

12 As for environmental biotechnology, the main goal is combining biology with engineering. This can develop various processes to clean contaminated sites.

13 Fungi, bacteria, and microbes are often used as organic ways of eliminating pollutants in the environment. Some tasks that environmental biotechnologists will have include the following:

● Converting plants into biofuels.

● Inventing plant-based bioplastics that are kinder to the environment and can reduce waste.

● Engineering microbes or plants that can process and eliminate toxins and contaminants in the environment.

● Using geographic information systems to find and map contaminated sites as well as how the pollutants spread.

● Transforming waste into biogas or other natural sources of energy.

● Finding ways to make industrial processes cleaner, such as by using biological enzymesinstead of chemical substances.

Marine “blue” biotechnology

·在动物育种中使用人工授精等技术，据说这是应用最广泛的动物生物技术。

12 环境生物技术的主要目标则是把生物学与工程学结合起来，由此设计各种工艺，清理受污染的场所。

13 真菌、细菌和微生物常用于消除环境中的污染物，这是一种有机方式。环境生物技术专家将致力于以下工作：

·将植物转化为生物燃料。

·发明对环境更友好、产生更少废物的植物性生物塑料。

·培育特定微生物或植物，用于处理及消除环境中的毒素和污染物。

·使用地理信息系统，寻找受污染场所，了解污染物传播方式，并绘制地图。

·将废物转化为生物气或其他自然能源。

·探究更清洁的工业流程，如用生物酶代替化学物质。

海洋：“蓝色”生物技术

14 蓝色生物技术是指海洋生物研究，重点是利用海洋生物满足人类各种需求，如研制新的药物或食品补充剂以提升人类健康水平。

14 Blue biotechnology refers to the study of marine organisms with a focus on using these organisms for various human purposes, such as creating new medicines or food supplements to enhance human health.

15 Blue biotechnology makes use of a wide variety of marine organisms and resources for various tasks, such as shellfish,algae,andother substances.Forexample,theuseofziconotide,a substance derived from the venom of cone snails, is said to be an effective human painkiller.

16 An exciting idea is using marine biotechnology to create alternative sources of energy. Biofuel, for example,can be made from microalgae. The benefit is that algal biomass can be artificially grown without competing with other plants.

17 The industrial sector benefits greatly from “blue” biotechnology. Various proteins, biopolymers, biomaterials, and enzymes are produced in large quantities from the marine ecosystem.

18 Examples include biotechnology products such as green fluorescent protein derived from jellyfish that’s used to create energy due to how it reacts to UV light.

The other biotechnology colors

15 蓝色生物技术利用各种海洋生物和资源（如贝类、藻类和其他物质）实现不同用途。例如，芋螺的毒液提取物“齐考诺肽”据说可是有效的人体止痛剂。

16 有一种令人振奋的设想是用海洋生物技术创造替代能源。例如，生物燃料可以由微藻制成。这样做的好处是，可以人工培育藻类生物量，不与其他植物形成竞争。

17 “蓝色”生物技术对工业大有裨益。海洋生态系统可以大量产出多样的蛋白质、生物聚合物、生物材料和酶。

18 此类生物技术产品包括源自水母的绿色荧光蛋白，人们根据它对紫外线的反应制造能量。

其他颜色的生物技术

19 尽管生物技术以上述四种类型为主，但新的研究领域也已经建立，拥有各自的色彩。

19 While we might concentrate on the above four types of biotechnology, new fields of research have been established and they have their own colors.

● Yellow Biotech is the use of bioengineering to make food better. It also refers to applied entomology that covers the use of insects in drug discovery.

● Brown Biotech involves the use and management of desert land.

● Golden Biotech makes use of computational techniques to allow for quick organization and analysis of biological data. It’s sometimes referred to as “bioinformatics.”

● Gray Biotech encompasses the environment and biodiversity, environmental protection, maintenance of biodiversity and removal of pollutants.

● Violet Biotech is reserved for the laws, ethics and philosophy revolving around biotechnology.

● Dark Biotech, as you can imagine,focuses on a darker topic: Bioterrorism and biological warfare. ■

· 黄色生物技术：利用生物工程优化食品；也指应用昆虫学，包括将昆虫用于药物研发。

· 棕色生物技术：沙地的使用和管理。

· 金色生物技术：利用计算技术快速组织和分析生物数据。有时也称为“生物信息学”。

· 灰色生物技术：包含自然环境和生物多样性、环境保护、维护生物多样性和清除污染物。

· 紫色生物技术：专指生物技术相关的法律、伦理和准则。

· 黑暗生物技术：可想而知，这是技术的阴暗面，即生物恐怖主义和生物战。 □