A novel approach to biotechnology

Providing adequate nourishment to the growing world population is one of the greatest challenges of this century. As a result, more research is being dedicated to achieving global food security through common and new tools and technologies.

This brings co-benefits to address challenges in climate change and food safety issues. The development of biotechnological tools on the knowledge of genome, its sequencing and modification, opens the possibility of new applications and implementations.

SPECIFIC R&I BREAKTHROUGH TOPICS

Current agricultural practices cannot cope with the increasing demand for food production. Innovative solutions are required to increase productivity and nutritional quality, while ensuring sustainability and environmentally friendly methods. Advancements in food biotechnology, such as genetic engineering and sequencing, and microbiome research and application, have allowed big steps forward. The multidisciplinary field of synthetic biology has the potential to deliver novel agri-food applications. The EU defines synthetic biology as the application of science, technology, and engineering to facilitate and accelerate the design, manufacture and/or modification of genetic materials in living organisms (European Commission, 2014). Synthetic biology uses all available technologies for genetic modification, in combination with mathematical modelling and simulation, but in particular aims at faster and easier processes. Both microbiome and synthetic biology research have emerged and become successful from the convergence of multiple disciplines.

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