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Subject: Medical Biotechnology
Date: 1-Oct-2008
Question: What is medical biotechnology?
Answer: Medical Biotech is field that deals with the health care and pharmacy sectors. Any discovery in this field pertaining to drugs, vaccines, diagnostics etc can take the entire industry on another platform altogether. The significant features of this field of Biotechnology are: Medical biotechnology is a very rare discipline. Trained manpower in medical biotechnology is in short supply.

The development of immunology and molecular biology has been integrated with modern virology, microbiology and fermentation technology to yield rich dividends in the form of medical products such as insulin, as well as sensitive and specific diagnostic procedures for infectious diseases and inherited disorders.

This discipline of Biotech has the tremendous humanitarian implications, because a small discovery can save millions of lives on the earth.

The opening up of global economy and the growth of pharmaceutical industry has led to the surprising improvement in the job market. It is estimated that more than 50,000 jobs will be created by 2010 and 10,000 candidates will be required per year.

In addition to the masters programs and Ph.D, there is a tremendous scope for the post-doctoral research in this discipline of Bio Technology. With global players focusing much on this Medical biotechnology, the requirement of skilled medical researchers will be high in the years to come. On the Engineering field, aspirants can opt for degree in Bio-medical Engineering in the Institutes like IIT-Kharaghpur etc. Bio medical Engineering graduates can find employment with pharmacy companies, hospitals and hi-tech diagnostic centers that require technological knowledge and expertise in handling the equipments.

The areas such as Gene therapy and gene intervention, cell and tissue engineering, the use of stem cells for curative purposes, use of Bio-sensors for diagnosis purposes, development of non-invasive imaging are the thrust areas in the future and the main opportunities in Medical Biotechnology will lie in these areas only.

Hope this helps
CareerAge Counselor