Biotechnology is not a single area of study itself, but is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the practical application of biological organisms and their subcellular components to industrial or service manufacturing and to environmental management. It is, in essence, a series of enabling technologies drawn from the fields of microbiology, cellular biology, molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, immunology, fermentation technology, environmental science and engineering which allow one to synthesize, breakdown or transform materials to suit human needs.

Biotechnology has been defined as the safe study and manipulation of biological molecules for development of products or techniques for medical and industrial application. Although biotechnology in the broadest sense is not new, the current ability and demand for manipulating living organisms or their subcellular components to provide useful products, processes or services has reached new heights. While biotechnology has its roots in age-old processes such as baking, brewing, winemaking, cheese making, and even sewage treatment, all of which take advantage of properties of microorganisms, modern biotechnology has resulted from scientific scrutiny of familiar processes and from new advances in molecular biology, genetic engineering and fermentation technologies.

Information and life sciences have merged into a single scientific discipline, known as bioinformatics, thus creating a technological and commercial revolution. In just the last decade computer technology, molecular biology, chemical engineering and agriculture have come together to foster a profound revolution in pharmaceuticals, chemical and energy industries, agriculture and the environment. Several thousand companies in the world, with the majority in the U.S., are using recombinant DNA techniques, gene transfer within and between microbes, plants and animals, animal embryo manipulation and transfer, plant regeneration, cell culturing, monoclonal antibody production and bioprocess engineering. Many in the traditional chemical process industries are looking to developments in biotechnology to improve products and productivity. The resulting increase in the job market for individuals trained in biotechnology will produce a high demand for trained graduates with advanced studies in molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, bioengineering and plant and animal sciences.