The Industry-University Cooperative Chemistry Program has sponsored
seven previous international symposia covering a wide variety of topics
of interest to industrial and academic chemists. The eighth IUCCP
symposium, held March 19-22, 1990, at Texas A&M University, represents a
deviation from the former symposia, in that it is the first of a
two-symposium series dedicated to the rapidly moving new field of
industrial biochemistry that has beco e known as biotechnology.
Biotechnology is really not a new discipline, but rather is a term
coined to describe the new and exciting commercial applications of
biochemistry. The development of the field of biotechnology is a direct
result of recombinant DNA technology, which began in earnest about 15
years ago. Today, we can routinely do experiments that were
inconceivable in the early 1970's. Only comparatively simple technology
available even in small laboratories is required to synthesize a gene
and from it, to produce vast amounts of biological materials of enormous
commercial value. These technical developments and others have
stimulated increased activities in the field of enzyme biotechnology,
using enzymes to catalyze "unnatural" reactions to produce complex
molecules with stereochemical precision. It is true today, we can
readily produce DNA fragments that will encode any amino acid sequence
that we might desire, but at this point, our foundation of basic
knowledge falls short. The dream of "designer enzymes" is still a
fantasy, but the current wave of research activity and exciting new
developments suggest that in the future the dream may become a reality.
