Most of us will remember Dolly, the first mammal ever cloned from an adult cell or the Flavr Savr tomato, the first genetically engineered food to be commercially sold for human consumption.

It is hard to believe that those milestones occurred over 20 years ago, but what if we told you that biotechnology could be traced all the way back to Paleolithic times (think: fermentation, and the production of bread, wine and beer using yeast)? 

More recently, people of the pre-1900s made world-changing advancements related to food preservation (e.g. drying, freezing or salting) and selective plant breeding, as well as serendipitous discoveries like penicillin and accidental cross-breeding.

Primarily used in agriculture, food science and medicine, biotech is the process of taking a living organism and manipulating or transforming it into a useful product.

Today’s dynamic (and often controversial) biotech ecosystem is buzzing with innovation. From platforms that accelerate drug discovery for the treatment of rare diseases to 3D printing of organs and tissues, and from pesticide-resistant crops to nutrient supplementation to combat malnutrition, the biotech scene is diverse and manifold. 

With Cloud laboratories, AI for disease diagnosis and the use of technology instead of highly addictive drugs to treat pain, it is certainly transforming healthcare as we know it.

On the sci-fi end of the spectrum, life extension technologies are being investigated so we can live to 120. But will there be enough food for this longer-living population? Sure. There will be hearty helpings of synthetic food on our plates: meat without the meat and cow’s milk without the uh…cow.

The Grand Duchy is well ahead of the game, specifically in the field of biohealth, aided by initiatives including Luxinnovation’s BioHealth Cluster. An increase in activity and RDI investments in biotechnology and health sciences has propelled the country forward as a leading center of excellence in molecular diagnostics.

The Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg, House of Biohealth, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, and the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Cancer Biology are just some of the health research institutes making groundbreaking progress in the field.  

Let’s take a look at some other pioneering players in the local biotech sphere.

Mitotech                        

Biopharma company that has developed technology to combat various age-related disorders, such as autoimmune conditions, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders and ophthalmic conditions.

Fast Track Diagnostics                

Fast Track Diagnostics specializes in the design, development and manufacturing of infectious disease detection kits for humans and animals.

SciPharm                   

SciPharm is working on the development of a platform that connects medical devices to the Cloud to enable remote monitoring and programming of the equipment.