Novel Techniques and Their Wide Applications to Health Foods, Medical and Agricultural Biotechnology in Relation to Policy Making on Genetically Modified Crops and Foods

Selected applications of novel techniques in Agricultural Biotechnology, Health Food formulations and Medical Biotechnology are being reviewed with the aim of unraveling future developments and policy changes that are likely to open new markets for Biotechnology and prevent the shrinking or closing of existing ones. Amongst the selected novel techniques with applications in both Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology are: immobilized bacterial cells and enzymes, microencapsulation and liposome production, genetic manipulation of microorganisms, development of novel vaccines from plants, epigenomics of mammalian cells and organisms, and biocomputational tools for molecular modeling related to disease and Bioinformatics. Both fundamental and applied aspects of the emerging new techniques are being discussed in relation to their anticipated, marked impact on future markets and present policy changes that are needed for success in either Agricultural or Medical Biotechnology. The novel techniques are illustrated with applications that attempt to convey-- albeit in a simplified manner-- the most important features of representative and powerful tools that are currently being developed for both immediate, and long, term applications in Agriculture, Health Food formulation and production, pharmaceuticals and Medicine. The research aspects are naturally emphasized in our review as they are key to further developments in Biotechnology. On the other hand, the course adopted for the implementation of biotechnological applications, and the policies associated with biotechnological applications in medicine,new drug development and genetically-modified crop growing are clearly the determining factors for future Biotechnology successes in the world markets, be they pharmaceutical, medical or agricultural. KEY WORDS: Applications in Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology; immobilized bacterial cells and enzymes; microencapsulation and liposome production; genetic manipulation of microorganisms;genetically modified crops; genetic therapy in medicine; development of Novel Vaccines from Plants; epigenomics of mammalian cells and organisms; biocomputational tools for molecular modeling related to disease; Bioinformatics; Suggested policy changes for future and immediate successes of Biotechnology in the world markets; Health Food Applications;Medical Applications of Lectins for diagnostics and treatments; High-Resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), MRI/ MRM and FT-NIR Hyperspectral Imaging in Medicine, Biology, Foods and Agriculture; Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy(FCS/FCCS) and applications to Single Molecule Detection, Single Virus Particle Detection by FCCS; Single virus particle, HIV, HPV, Hepatitis B and C, detection for early, successful treatments; Novel, Ultra-sensitive, Selective Detection Methods for Early and Relaible Diagnostics of Cancers.