Biotechnology: A Flag of Many Colors絢麗多彩的生物技術

文/菲利普·布林森 納爾遜·布林森 譯/姚海濤

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.

雖然生物技術有很多分類方式，但最普遍的做法還是使用色彩代碼。這有助于以便于記憶的方式對生物技術研究領域進行分類。

22008年11月24日，在國家生物技術周開幕式上，菲律賓科技部長埃斯特拉利亞·阿拉瓦斯特羅對生物技術作了如下描述：

“如果為生物技術編一面旗幟，它會有三種顏色。紅色代表醫療，綠色代表農業，白色代表工業應用。”

阿拉瓦斯特羅還說生物技術會增添新的顏色，而這確實已經發生。

3 生物技術主要有四種：醫學生物技術（紅色）、工業生物技術（白色）、環境生物技術（綠色）和海洋生物技術（藍色）。

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

醫學：“紅色”生物技術

4 醫學生物技術應用于人類健康和醫療事業。因此，醫學生物技術涉及生產新的藥物、抗體、疫苗等。

5 紅色生物技術可以測算適合病人的最佳藥物劑量，從而根據遺傳密碼使藥物和治療更具針對性。

6 紅色生物技術利用生物材料為健康相關問題尋找解決方案。基因表達、抗體和蛋白質常被作為研究對象，設法用其制成轉基因細胞或有機體，幫助治療各種疾病。

例如，通過修改蛋白質促進倉鼠細胞產生酶，這些酶可用于治療人類心臟疾病。

工業：“白色”生物技術

7 工業生物技術對紡織、食品和能源等許多領域都有影響。

工業生物技術利用取自植物、細菌和酵母等的活細胞，制成的產品不僅在生產過程中耗費資源（如能源）較少，產生的廢物也更少。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 工業生物技術已取得重大進展。例如，細菌酶被用于制造食品和洗衣粉，以減少人造成分。

環境和農業：“綠色”生物技術

9 環境和農業生物技術都屬于“綠色”類別。

10 綠色生物技術主要涉及農業相關技術，例如，設法培養生命力更強的農作物；研發新的生物殺蟲劑，從而讓農民減少化學制品用量。

11 農業生物技術專家還將參與以下項目：

·利用細菌促進植物生長，提高作物產量。

·利用植物清除環境中對環境和人類健康有害的重金屬。

·利用基因操作幫助植物抵御霜凍等災害性天氣。

● 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

·在動物育種中使用人工授精等技術，據說這是應用最廣泛的動物生物技術。

12 環境生物技術的主要目標則是把生物學與工程學結合起來，由此設計各種工藝，清理受污染的場所。

13 真菌、細菌和微生物常用于消除環境中的污染物，這是一種有機方式。環境生物技術專家將致力于以下工作：

·將植物轉化為生物燃料。

·發明對環境更友好、產生更少廢物的植物性生物塑料。

·培育特定微生物或植物，用于處理及消除環境中的毒素和污染物。

·使用地理信息系統，尋找受污染場所，了解污染物傳播方式，并繪制地圖。

·將廢物轉化為生物氣或其他自然能源。

·探究更清潔的工業流程，如用生物酶代替化學物質。

海洋：“藍色”生物技術

14 藍色生物技術是指海洋生物研究，重點是利用海洋生物滿足人類各種需求，如研制新的藥物或食品補充劑以提升人類健康水平。

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 藍色生物技術利用各種海洋生物和資源（如貝類、藻類和其他物質）實現不同用途。例如，芋螺的毒液提取物“齊考諾肽”據說可是有效的人體止痛劑。

16 有一種令人振奮的設想是用海洋生物技術創造替代能源。例如，生物燃料可以由微藻制成。這樣做的好處是，可以人工培育藻類生物量，不與其他植物形成競爭。

17 “藍色”生物技術對工業大有裨益。海洋生態系統可以大量產出多樣的蛋白質、生物聚合物、生物材料和酶。

18 此類生物技術產品包括源自水母的綠色熒光蛋白，人們根據它對紫外線的反應制造能量。

其他顏色的生物技術

19 盡管生物技術以上述四種類型為主，但新的研究領域也已經建立，擁有各自的色彩。

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. ■

· 黃色生物技術：利用生物工程優化食品；也指應用昆蟲學，包括將昆蟲用于藥物研發。

· 棕色生物技術：沙地的使用和管理。

· 金色生物技術：利用計算技術快速組織和分析生物數據。有時也稱為“生物信息學”。

· 灰色生物技術：包含自然環境和生物多樣性、環境保護、維護生物多樣性和清除污染物。

· 紫色生物技術：專指生物技術相關的法律、倫理和準則。

· 黑暗生物技術：可想而知，這是技術的陰暗面，即生物恐怖主義和生物戰。 □