Biotechnology
According to the definition issued by the European Federation of Biotechnology,
"biotechnology represents an integrated application of natural and engineering sciences, aimed at
using living organisms, cells and their parts in production and service-rendering" (the EFB,
1989). On the verge of centuries, biotechnology represents the most important highly-developed
technology and technological platform, which enable the development of new products, services
and industrial processes involved in a variety of social sectors, such as: healthcare and
pharmaceutical industry, processing of food, beverages, industrial raw-materials and fuels, and
environmental protection. Based on the latest scientific knowledge in physiology, molecular
biology and molecular genetics, and novel scientific fields founded on the grounds of those
aforementioned, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics, an
immeasurable potential of biotechnology and biotechnological processes, in terms of creating
new products, is being opened.
The development of contemporary biotechnology is associated with the important
scientific discoveries in the fields of natural and engineering sciences. The latter include, for
instance, the notion that each fermentation and decomposition (putrefaction) of an organic
material is caused by microorganisms (Pasteur, 1876), as well as the discovery and launch of
industrial penicillin production (Fleming, 1928, Florey and Chaine,1944), the foundation of
genetic engineering (Cohen and Boyer, 1973), and the hibridome technology (Milstein and
Koehler, 1975). The undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Biotechnology, carried out at the
Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology University of Zagreb, one of the oldest of its
kind in Europe and characterised by a multiyear tradition of academic excellence, enabled an
education of experts who have been successfully employing “the potential of microorganisms
and their enzymes” to serve the needs of the production of various biotechnological products
(Table 1).
Table 1. Economic branches and the most important biotechnological products
Economic activity
Type of product
Industrial chemicals and Ethanol, acetone, butanol, organic acids, amino acids,
enzymes
biopolymers,
industrial
enzymes
(amylases,
proteases,
antibodies,
vaccines,
pectinases)
Pharmaceutics
Therapeutic
proteins,
monoclonal
antibiotics, signal molecules, diagnostic agents, enzyme
inhibitors
Energetics
Biofuels: ethanol (gasohol), methane (biogas), hydrogen
Food
Fermented food and beverages, bacterial and fungal startercultures for fermented foodstuffs, human probiotics, microbial
proteins, bakery, beer and wine yeast, additives (emulgators,
antioxidants, dyes, odours, stabilisers), amino acids, sugars
Agriculture and cattle- Fodders, silage, compost, biological fertilizers (manures),
breeding
animal vaccines, animal probiotics, biological insecticides and
pesticides
Services
Biological purification of wastewaters, solid waste processing,
analytical agents (enzymes, microbial and enzymatic sensors),
tissue and organ engineering
Mining
Extraction and concentration of certain metals, secondary oil
processing
Without exception, all developed countries, but also many of those efficiently
judging their own development, have recognised biotechnology as an essential lever of
sustainable economic growth, and have chosen the strategy of concentrating their recourses in
its development. Numerous countries have adopted ambitious plans aimed at building-up and
upgrading their scientific basis and biotechnological infrastructure, which are to be realised in
the next 5 to 10 years. In the light of the aforementioned, the well-known examples are set by
Singapore, Taiwan, New Zeeland and Australia, as well as by Scandinavian countries, but also
the countries in the Eastern European region.
Drug, food and beverage productions are the most successful sectors of the
Croatian economy, taking a significant share in terms of profit, employment and export. Their
vitality and competitiveness are largely dependent on the dynamic biotechnological
development. Abundant reserves of high-quality potable water and the preserved environment
represent the most important wealth of natural resources that the Republic of Croatia holds in
possession. Optimal management of these resources will not be possible without a backup of
advanced biotechnology. Strategic significance of biotechnology as to the development of the
Republic of Croatia, has also been emphasised in the studies carried out within the frame of the
Developmental Strategy to be Applied in the Republic of Croatia, known as “Croatia in the 21 st
Century –Science” (Official Gazette 108/03), and the Strategy to be Applied to the Agriculture
and Fishery in the Republic of Croatia (Official Gazette 89/02). The realisation of these goals
imposes the need for adequately educated experts.
Bioprocess (biochemical) engineering covers all engineering aspects of
biotechnological production. It had been developed out of chemical engineering in the mid-20th
century, when the initiation of the first antibiotic production on the industrial scale, imposed
the need for a quick salvation of a number of engineering problems, until then completely
unknown to the engineering profession (sterility and sterile techniques of manipulating great
volumes, microbiological fluid filtration, kinetics of microbial processes, mixing and aeration).
Until then, biochemical engineering had already been implemented at a number of universities
worldwide in a form of separate studies. From its foundation until nowadays, the Department
of Biochemical Engineering (developed from the Biotechnology Chair) has been the principal
and major factor of the Croatian biochemical engineering, in terms of both scientific and
expert, and educational excellence. Within the frame of technical terminology, the term
‘biochemical engineering’ has been more and more frequently replaced by a more intelligible
and more specific term ‘bioprocess engineering’, which was incorporated into the title of the
PhD studies in Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering, carried out at the Faculty of
Food Technology and Biotechnology (FFTB) as early as in 1995.
The proposed postgraduate PhD studies in “Biotechnology and Bioprocess
Engineering” represent a direct continuation of the undergraduate studies in Biotechnology, i.e.
the undergraduate studies in Molecular Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering, and aim at
providing education for experts capable of performing highly complex professional duties in the
field of designing and managing biotechnological processes, research area, and development of
modern biotechnological processes and products, as well as those required for managing
biotechnological companies.
Even though organised and named in different manners, starting from its
foundation in 1956 the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology has been recognised as
an institution providing education not only for future experts of a Bachelor Engineer profile,
but also to future scientists allocated the MSc or the PhD degree. In Zagreb, Biotechnology
was first mentioned as an independent study in 1956, on the occasion of founding the
Faculty of Chemistry, Food Technology and Mining on the grounds of the former Technical
Faculty. The Faculty of Chemistry, Food Technology and Mining comprised the Food and
Technology Division, conducting tuition in three major tracks: Food Technology,
Biotechnology, and Technology and Analysis. Four years later, in 1960, the Food and
Technology Division evolved to the Biotechnological Department of the Technical Faculty,
and in 1979, following the separation of the Biotechnological Department, the independent
institution named the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology (FFTB) was founded.
Within the organisational frame of the newly-founded Faculty, there exist also the Department
of Biochemical Engineering (founded on the grounds of the Biotechnology Chair), which has
been providing tuition in virtually all biotechnological subjects. In 1984, the studies in
Biotechnology organised by the FFTB, change their name into the Biochemical Engineering,
and since 1996 the tuition has been provided in two major tracks: Biochemical Engineering
and Biochemistry-Microbiology. In accordance with the Bologna process, starting from 2005
the students have been given the opportunity to choose one out of three 3 year-lasting
undergraduate studies (Food Technology, Biotechnology and Nutrition). Following the
completion of each of these studies, there exist the opportunity of taking a job, or continuing
the attendance of one out of five 2-year lasting undergraduate studies (Molecular
Biotechnology, Bioprocess Engineering, Food Engineering, Nutrition and Food Safety
Management).
In the last 50 years, generations of biotechnologists, later employed in fermentative,
food and pharmaceutical industry, as well as those allocated to various posts in the public sector,
have completed these studies. Many of them continued to build-up their academic and scientific
careers, both in Croatia and abroad, and made these studies and this Faculty recognisable on the
international scale. In particular, it should be pointed out that the first Croatian
postgraduate studies in Biotechnology, and one of the first in this category in Europe, were
founded as early as in 1960 and were named “Chemistry and Antibiotics Technology”. The
later were carried out in collaboration with the PLIVA factory Zagreb. These postgraduate
studies provided education for the group of engineers, later affiliated with the PLIVA factory
Zagreb, who subsequently developed the technological procedure and set in motion the
industrial production of antibiotic oxytetracycline. At that time, this technology was considered
to be a top-level one, and was set in motion solely due to the expert knowledge and professional
development those engineers managed to acquire and achieve. Since then, postgraduate studies
carried out at the Faculty, have been conducted on annual basis. Throughout years, the name of
the postgraduate studies has changed from “Biotechnology”, "Process Engineering and
Designing", "Biochemical Engineering” to "Biotechnology – Bioprocess Engineering", the
later being carried out also as PhD studies, from 1995 on.
A high-quality curriculum of the studies in reference succeeds in meeting the needs
of drug bio-processing, functional nutrition supplements’ production and biotechnological
processes employed with the industrial production and processing of chemicals, materials and
energy sources that make use of renewable raw materials and benefit from an enormous potential
of microorganisms falling within a variety of taxonomic groups, as well as from plant-and
animal-based starter-cultures.
Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering study covers various fields of
Biotechnology, listed hereinafter in line with the European nomenclature: Industrial
Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Agricultural Biotechnology, and Environmental
Biotechnology. Developed countries, but also countries striving to efficiently tailor their
developmental and prosperity paths, have focused their strategies and resources on
biotechnological development. Drug, food and beverage industries represent the most successful
sectors of the Croatian economy and markedly contribute not only to the total State revenue, but
also to the employment and export potentials, the vitality and competitiveness of these industries
thereby being conditioned by the state of biotechnological expert knowledge and the dynamics
of its advancement. A plenitude of high-quality potable water resources and a well-preserved
environment represent the most important natural potentials the Republic of Croatia has to offer.
Optimal management of these resources shall not be possible without the involvement of an
advanced Biotechnology.
Undergraduate
studies
in
Biotechnology/graduate
studies
in
Molecular
Biotechnology/ graduate studies in Bioprocess Engineering, train, shape and ultimately produce
experts capable of dealing with the most complex tasks in terms of design and management of
biotechnological processes, research and development of the latter processes and products
coming as an output of modern Biotechnology, and biotechnological companies’ management.
The acquired competencies shall enable a PhD student to continue his/her research in adequate
research institutions of either foreign or domestic establishment.
Students are already employed as experts in the field, for instance with
pharmaceutical companies Belupo, Hospira Zagreb, Pliva Croatia, Genera Medicinal Products,
GlaxoSmithKline, Jadran Galen Laboratory, etc.), food companies (Agrokor, Atlantic,
Podravka, Kraš, Zagreb Brewery, Karlovac Brewery, etc.), start-up companies Genos Ltd,
Gentius Ltd, Biozyne Ltd, SemiGen Ltd, and various scientific research institutions („Ruđer
Bošković“ Institute; Croatian Veterinary Institute – Food Residues Department; Institute of
Public Health „Andrija Štampar“; CSI, Research & Expert Adjudication Centre „Ivan Vučetić“
operating under the wing of the Ministry of Interior Republic of Croatia; Institute for Medical
Research; Institute of Immunology, etc.).
Knowledge acquisition starting from Physiology and Metabolic Regulation of
Industrial Microorganisms, and followed by Microbial Genetics and Genetic Engineering of
each and every taxonomic group (bacteria, yeasts, moulds, etc.) employed into the production
of novel biotechnological products. As an alternative, the curriculum may be shaped so as to
focus more on Bioprocess Engineering through modules dealing with Biochemical Engineering
and Bioprocess techniques, mathematical methods and modelling of use for Bioprocess
Engineering, enabling the students to apprehend the kinetics of biotechnological processes and
manage the processes going on within bio-reactors, with the ultimate goal of producing any
given primary or secondary microbial metabolite or recombinant protein (therapeutic or
enzymatic in its nature) using an „expression system“, for instance Escherichia coli, or to the
effect of applying modern biotechnological procedures within the frame of wastewater
processing, industrial production and processing of chemicals, materials and energy sources
that make use of renewable raw materials in an environment-friendly manner.
Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering study is shaped as interdisciplinary
study that offers knowledge on application of natural and engineering sciences to the effect of
producing modern biotechnological products based on Genetic Engineering and hybridoma
technologies (monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic proteins, vaccines, diagnostic agents,
enzymes, antibiotics, probiotics as live medicinal products, hormones, enzyme inhibitors,
signalling molecules, etc.), as well as knowledge on application of the above scientific notions
within the frame of production of traditional biotechnological products (fermented food,
alcoholic beverages, vinegar, baking-, feed-, brewing- and food-yeast, starter-cultures, ethanol,
organic acids, amino acids, enzymes, steroid hormones, vitamins, etc.) and the production of
bio-fuels and bio-energy sources. In light of the foregoing, elective modules employ numerous
lecturers so as to ensure the coverage of each and every field of classical and modern
Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering in response to the degree of interest declared by the
attendants. Junior faculty members, who are the successors of the retired staff members,
develop their expertise in line with the most recent trends in various fields of (Molecular)
Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering. Upon the cessation of business operations of the
formerly largest Croatian pharmaceutical company PLIVA, a number of novel and start-up
companies (small and medium enterprises) have emerged; on top of that, the “Life Sciences
and Biotechnology” BIO-Centre shall be established at the University Campus Borongaj,
North-Central Croatia. All of the above companies employ Masters of Bioprocess Engineering
and Masters of Molecular Biotechnology, who graduated from the Faculty of Food Technology
and Biotechnology University of Zagreb.
Literature:
1. The proposal of the postgraduate PhD study program in Biotechnology and Bioprocess
Engineering, Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology University of Zagreb 20052013. (Head of the doctoral study programme: Prof. Jagoda Šušković, PhD)
2. Report of periodical internal evaluation of doctoral study programmes Faculty of Food
Technology and Biotechnology University of Zagreb 2013. (Head of the doctoral study
programme: Prof. Jagoda Šušković, PhD)