Economics. The promise of biotechnology and development of the sector to date.  Market sectors and characteristics.  Project analysis.  Case studies of large and medium size companies.  Possible keys to success.

Ethics and Regulation.  Definition. Perspectives of different interest groups, including government, entrepreneurs, ethicists, ''the public''. Philosophy of moral behaviour. Patenting of biological entities. Regulation of GM work. The public attitude to biotechnology and its significance.

Microbial Genomics.  Limitation of conventional approach to development of new therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines. The use of genomics and associated technologies (proteomics, transcriptomics, structural genomics) as an alternative. Limitations of the new approaches.

The Human Microbiome Project. Where Next? Recent reports suggest that modulating the human gut microbiome may affect aspects of h uman pathology as diverse as obesity and mental illness. In this workshop session student groups will role-play stakeholders (entrepreneurs, regulators, etc) in exploring possible commercial and ethical dimensions to future developments in this area.

Gene cloning in Streptomyces.  The molecular biology of Streptomycetes – genetics and genomics. On e of the largest bacterial genomes, encoding secondary metabolism responsible for differentiation and a diversity of biochemical pathways that are the foundation of the antibiotic industry. The development of protoplast transformation and plasmid/phage cloning vectors.

Strain improvement for antibiotic production.  Antibiotic synthesis pathways are usually the re sult of coordinated expression of a large number of genes. Consequently, traditional strain improvement programmes have relied on random mutation and selection coupled with control of culture conditions to produce antibiotic yields that are commercially viable.

Recombinant DNA technology and antibiotic production.  Antibiotic synthesis, resistance and associated r egulatory genes occur in clusters, and this can be exploited in the genetic manipulation of antibiotic production.  The strategies range from simple shotgun cloning approaches through mutational cloning and the modification of multienzyme complexes to synthesize entirely novel compounds.

Biotechnology and energy.  The potential role of biomass conversion and prosp ects for economic viability as part of the global strategy to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

Substrates and hydrolysis.  From waste to energy crops and the importance of complete conversion (biomass refining).  Comparisons between bioconversion and chemical and physical approaches, including pretreatments.

Processes.  Whole cell processes – SCP, upgrading animal fodder, biopulping and solid state fermentation. Cell free processes – the use of extracellular hydrolytic and oxidative enzymes to generate sugars and high value chemicals from plant biomass. From traditional processes – the production of dextrose and fructose syrups from starch, to more innovative applications in the paper and textile industries focussed on modification and/or degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose.

Fuels.  Principally bioethanol production as currently practised in Brazil and the U.S. Microbiological and recombinant DNA technology developments that could lead to more widespread adoption of this alternative to petroleum fuels.

Bioremediation. Catastrophic pollution events or industrial contamination causes environmental damage that can be reversed by harnessing the metabolic capabilities of microorganisms.