Automated System for Microbial Screening/Breeding

Abstract

New areas in biotechnology have progressed remarkably and are expected to produce new industries. Its methods have already been applied to a wide range of fields, such as agriculture, the chemical, food, energy and pharmaceutical industries. The key factors in biotechnology are gene manipulation, cell fusion, large-scale cell culture, and technology for bioreactors; pertinent industrial processes will require highly developed and precise equipment. The actual market scale of biotechnology has enlarged to more than 100 billion yen ($0.7 billion) in 1989 according to Nikkei Biotech (1989). Although an investigation by BIDEC (Bioindustry Development Center in the Japanese Association of Fermentation and Industry) reports that the industrial scale of biotechnology will grow up to 15,000 billion yen ($100 billion) per year by the twenty-first Century, most of the technology is now in the research and development stage. Rapid development is expected.