Biological systems engineering: An overview

Biological systems have been used for thousands of years to produce a wide variety of products. These historical processes primarily involved microbial fermentation, and were used to produce food and alcohol. In the last 50 years, scientific advances have allowed the use of a wide rage of biological systems, that include not only microbial fermentation, but culture of animal and insect cells, use of enzymatic systems, and combinatorial biochemistry. These approaches have been employed to produce a broad range of products that span the spectrum from high value pharmaceuticals to commodity chemicals. This chapter gives an overview of some of biological systems currently used, the engineering of these systems, and the products they are used to produce.