Biotechnology, put simply, is biology based on technology (was that too obvious?) Biotechnology takes cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies that help improve our lives and planet. A simple example of this is brewing or baking; these processes fall under the biotechnology concept due to the use of yeast (a living organism) to produce a desired product. 

The world of biotechnology is vast and ever changing; there are always new advances and innovations being made in the field so it can be easy to fall behind or feel overwhelmed. Today, as 2021 is coming to an end, we delve into the top 6 future trends in biotechnology to keep an eye on for 2022. We’ll consider what makes a new trend so popular, the societal need for these new aspects of the subject, and how you can easily understand what’s coming next. 

Learning biotechnology can begin as early as GCSE level, as some syllabi’ cover the subject in Biology lessons. This can then be carried on to A-Level or college level when you can delve deeper into the world of biotechnology if you choose to study Biology at the higher level. Then when you get to the undergraduate stage and are considering going to university, you can choose to study a biotechnology course! This enables you to learn more about the world of engineering and life sciences from experts. 

6 Future Trends in Biotechnology to Look Out for in 2022

These are some of the top trends that we think are going to be big in the world of biotechnology in 2022. A lot of these have carried on from research done this year and will be finessed and developed in the coming months and years, as a lot of new products and practices in science take a while to perfect - Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) was formally founded in 1965 (do you see what I mean about it taking time?) This was when the term was officially coined at a conference at Dartmouth College, USA. However, after this initial enthusiasm in the subject, interest and findings in AI development dropped off until the year 1997, when a major breakthrough meant that a computer was able to beat a chess champion in an online game. 

Since then, the field has progressed in leaps and bounds, machines have been coming up against the Turing Test, however none have been successful (yet). The Turing Test was created by Alan Turing in 1950 and, put simply, is a test to see if a machine can be indistinguishable from a human. While many have gotten close to passing the test, no AI machine has quite got there yet. Perhaps this is what 2022 will bring?

According to Forbes, artificial intelligence in 2022 will continue along the path to become the most transformative technology humanity has ever developed. Top developments in the field that are predicted to grow in 2022 include:

• Cybersecurity

This year the World Economic Forum identified cybercrime as potentially posing a more significant risk to society than terrorism; as machines take over more of our lives, hacking and cybercrime inevitably become more of a problem. AI can help prevent this though, by analysing network traffic and learning to recognize patterns that suggest security breaches, smart algorithms are increasingly playing a role in keeping us safe from 21st-century crime. Some of the most significant applications of AI that we will see develop in 2022 are likely to be in this area.

• Autonomous Vehicles

There has been huge advancement in the field of self driving cars, boats and aircraft; designed to make travel easier and safer. On average, there are over 300 car accidents a day in the UK. Thanks to this development in biotechnology, this number should become a lot lower when AI becomes the ‘brains’ of the machines. 

Tesla says its cars will demonstrate full self-driving capability by 2022 - although it’s unlikely they will be ready for general use - and the year will hopefully also see the first autonomous ship crossing the Atlantic. 

• Creative AI

Artificial intelligence is progressive enough to create music, art and poetry, so why not use it for more mundane creative tasks? 2022 will see AI being applied to routine creative tasks, such as writing headlines for articles and newsletters, designing logos and infographics. 

Creativity is seen as a very human skill but AI machines are now becoming able to complete these tasks. This demonstrates their ability to get closer to passing the Turing test, as there is evidence of them becoming more and more ‘human’ in their behaviours and actions. 

Gene Editing 

Gene Editing is another future trend in biotechnology that you will be hearing about in 2022. Gene editing can be defined as the group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA. 

Recently, CRISPR has been an innovative aspect of the field. This editing technology has opened up various applications in the world of gene therapy for the treatment of genetic disorders that consist of complex editing techniques which are adding, replacing, or silencing particular genes.

More specifically, CRISPR is a way of finding a specific bit of DNA inside a cell. After that, the next step in CRISPR gene editing is usually to alter that piece of DNA. However, CRISPR has also been adapted to do other things too, such as turning genes on or off without altering their sequence. 

CRISPR technology also has the potential to transform medicine, enabling us to not only treat but also prevent many diseases. This technology will not only demonstrate an exciting new trend in biotechnology, but it will help save lives and improve people's quality of life. Imagine a world where technology is able to prevent diseases? Amazing. 

Plant Biotechnology

A big trend in plant biotechnology is agricultural biotech -  a science that allows plant breeders to make genetic changes to enhance benefits in the plants – such as pest resistance, disease resistance or herbicide tolerance. Farmers use this technology to grow more fruitful crops and keep them pest resistant for commercial purposes, which not only increases their profits, but also brings more plants to the supermarkets for us to consume. 

A significant emerging trend in biotechnology to keep an eye on is how this science can contribute to sustainable agriculture. Agricultural biotechnology can help farmers feed the world's growing population, while minimizing impacts on the global environment. Subsequently, biotechnology is reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint by reducing fossil fuel use, soil tillage and run-off from farmer’s fields. This is crucial for 2022 as pressure on environmentally friendly farming continues to rise. 

Upcoming trends in 2022 will see crops designed to tolerate environmental stresses, such as salty or toxic soils, droughts, and freezing temperatures. This will make agriculture more efficient and sustainable by producing more food, fuel and fibre on less land. This would be an incredible breakthrough in the field as people in desert environments or freezing land will be able to worry less about growing fresh crops. If this technology is able to be distributed worldwide, this would subsequently reduce world hunger in a big way. 

Telemedicine 

Telemedicine technology allows medical personnel to treat, evaluate, and diagnose diseases by keeping their distance from the patients. This technology would be revolutionary in situations where it’s unsafe for doctors to be in direct contact with patients; for example, where patients are highly contagious or the doctor is not in reachable physical distance from their patient. Think of this as the medical equivalent of ‘working from home.’

Examples of telemedicine in day to day life includes video calls, online messaging services which enables patients to send images to their doctor when necessary and conference calls with specialists to diagnose and evaluate patients. 

This new technology will allow healthcare professionals to:

• Spend less time travelling to patients

• Spend less time interacting with elderly patients and children

• Maintain more privacy

• Keep safe when treating infectious patients. 

There has been a big demand for this technology in 2020/21, with the COVID-19 pandemic. It has ensured that patients are still able to be seen by their doctor while both parties can remain safe. As this trend in biotechnology continues into the new year, this will continue to help both healthcare professionals and patients in need. However a potential issue with this aspect of biotechnology is that (at the moment) it requires internet access. If this technology becomes available worldwide, when considering elderly patients or those in developing countries, this issue will need to be addressed as not everyone will have access to the internet or to a computer. 

Drug Research 

Again, the drug research that will be developed in 2022 has been heavily influenced by the events this year. Developments in vaccines and booster jabs have been at the top of the news cycle for a long time, especially as Oxford University were the first in the world to create a vaccine for COVID-19. 

Traditionally, drug research faced challenges with getting enough participants for trials, and long production timelines that can run into years. With recent machine learning technology, scientists are able to improve and assess diagnosis and treatment with medications. This was something that had a big progression in 2020/21; with the need for a vaccine, more scientists had to move quickly and work together to produce a vaccine that worked efficiently. 

The drug discovery process begins with recognizing a disease or clinical condition in which there is a lack of adequate medical treatment. Once a potential drug has been identified, pre-clinical research can begin. This process includes several stages; the first of which involves identifying and validating the prospective drug’s target, high throughput screening, hit identification, and finally, lead optimisation. Once the pre-clinical process is complete, the newly synthesised drug candidate is selected for future clinical development which involves clinical trials and then mainstream release of the drug. 

2022 is predicted to bring new research into drug research surrounding the pandemic, including the production of more vaccines and creating the most effective booster jabs. 

Food Engineering

A big future trend in biotechnology is food engineering. The more recent developments in this field are to replace meat and dairy industries by creating food using cutting edge technologies to reduce the environmental damages such as factory farming, carbon emission, excessive water consumption and pollution. 

Some examples of these new ways to reduce meat and dairy environmental damages include the creation of ‘petri dish meat’ (it doesn’t sound very appetising does it?) A team in the University of Tokyo are creating steak meat that could be the most realistic tasting and biosynthetic ‘meat’ available. This will not only help reduce the amount of emissions caused from the meat industry but also will be a healthier substitute for eating red meat. 

Biotechnology has been adopted in the production of soybeans (remember when we talked about plant biotechnology earlier?) There are now various improvements on soybeans on the market, including a greater number of peas per pod and protecting them against disease. This means there can be a greater amount of meat and dairy alternatives in the supermarkets for people to consume instead of milk and some meat. 

2022 will see this field being developed further, with more ‘meat’ being trailed and produced in labs that’s fit for consumption and is a better alternative to real meat. This will help the environment in steps towards reducing climate change and carbon emissions. People could see this as a downside to the agriculture industry, as meat and dairy farmers will subsequently get reduced business, but on the other hand, the positive impact these developments will have on the environment are what the scientists will be focussing on in the upcoming years. 

Summary

You may have noticed that a lot of these future trends in biotechnology have a lot in common - they are all things that the world needs. Telemedicine, drug research and food biotechnology are all things that will help the world in different ways. The scientific researchers behind these innovations are all experts in their fields and have all worked incredibly hard to get to where they are today, to be in a place where they can help the world. 

Does this sound like something you want to do? At Melio, we offer a biotechnology and genetics online course for students aged 13-24, meaning you can study these specific areas without having to wait until GCSE or A-Level. Or perhaps you want to get a bit of extra support on the subject during your undergraduate degree?

Melio’s Academic Online Courses enable you to work with like minded students from around the world (in groups no larger than 8), and an expert academic tutor to give you a deeper insight and understanding of the subject. This particular course runs for two weeks and is a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning, with help from your tutor and teaching assistant.

During the 2 week course you’ll learn four topics, which might include stem cell research or genetically modified plants. There will also be 2 live webinars where you’ll discuss with your classmates what you’ve learned, and 2 live tutorials where you’ll be taught by your expert tutor in the Oxford style of learning. You will complete independent work and receive feedback from your tutor on your work and advice on your future, as well as getting a certificate of completion at the end of the course. 

For more information on our Academic Online Courses, visit our website or contact our admissions team.