Bioeconomy

Bioeconomy refers to all economic activity derived from scientific and research activity focused on understanding mechanisms and processes at the genetic and molecular levels and its application to industrial process. It is often use interchangeably with biotechonomy.

The term is widely used by regional development agencies, international organizations, biotechnology companies. It is closely linked to the evolution of the biotechnology industry. The ability to study, understand and manipulate genetic material has been possible due to scientific breakthroughs and technological progress.

The evolution of the biotechnology industry and its application to agriculture, health, chemical or energy industries is a classic example of bioeconomic activity.Fact|date=July 2008

History

The term was first defined by Juan Enriquez and Rodrigo Martinez [ [http://fromatcgtobioeconomy20.blogspot.com "From ATCG to bioeconomy 2.0"] ] at the Genomics Seminar in the 1997 AAAS meeting. An excerpt of this paper was published in "Science Magazine"." [Enriquez-Cabot, Juan. "Genomics and the World's Economy." Science Magazine 281 (14 August 1998): 925-926.]

Enriquez and Martinez' 2002 Harvard Business School working paper, "Biotechonomy 1.0: A Rough Map of Biodata Flow", showed the global flow of genetic material into and out of the three largest public genetic databases: GenBank, EMBL and DDBJ. The authors then hypothesized about the economic impact that such data flows might have on patent creation, evolution of biotech startups and licensing fees. [Juan Enriquez, Rodrigo Martinez. “Biotechonomy 1.0: A Rough Map of Biodata Flow,” Harvard Business School working paper # 03-028, August 2002.] An adaptation of this paper was published in "Wired" magazine in 2003. [Rodrigo Martinez, Juan Enriquez, Jonathan West. “DNA Space. The Geography of the Genome,” "Wired", June, 2003. p. 160.]

See also

* Biofuel
* Bioplastic

References