Where and When did this type of Biomanufacturing begin? This type of biomanufacturing goes all the way back into the ancient era. There are many records of the use of plants for medical reasons such as ancient records from Egypt, India, Rome, and Greece. All these records contain directions for plant use to treat various cancers. The ancient Egyptians wrote about their medical discoveries on papyrus, also known as the Ebers Papyrus. They wrote about the treatment of tumors and the use of herbs and plants. Indians also used plants to treat cancers by using plant extracts.  Why was this form of Cancer Treatment Invented? It was invented in the ancient era to treat diseases by using the limited resources around them. Ancient people used these resources and discovered many uses for plants in treating tumors. Because of their discoveries, today people can continue in reaserching to find a cure for cancer by new inventions and the unlimited resources that are coming into our world. |
What is Biomanufaturing? Biomanufacturing is a clean manufacturing process that uses living cells as miniature factories.Plant cells and living organisms are genetically engineered to produce vaccines, therapeutic drugs, and proteins. Research such as screening organisms and DNA technologies help improve this field.
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Modifications Many modifications have been done in this field such as new ways of screening.Screening is a type of examination for people who do not have any symptoms of cancer. Screening makes it possible to identify cancer at an early stage. In 1985, the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) developed new assays by using diverse panel of human tumor cell lines. They did preliminary screening with 3 cell lines and tested positive extracts on 60 human cell lines from nine cancer types such as leukimia, lung cancer, colon cancer, CNS, ovarian, melanoma, renal, breast cancer, and prostate.  Challenges The search for new ways of screening and plants that can cure cancer is still on because only a small percentage of plants have been screened. Major Research Institutes such as University of Chicago, Missouri Botanical Garden,and New York Botanical Garden are pushing for plants from tropical and subtropical regions all over the world. A great interest of supporting research for new, useful drugs from higher plants in various countries such as Japan, China, India, and Germany. Estimates of the number of higher plants have been described throughout the Earth that vary from about 250,000 to 150,000. The question most people ask is how many of these plants have been discovered as a new reliable drug, but it's impossible to answer because out of the 35,000 plants the NCI researched that showed anticancer effects, none of the new drugs have yet been found to be safe and effective. Another challenge is the lack of interest in new drug discovery programs from plants. There is a reluctance to initiate programs in researching drugs from plants in the US. Many of the reasons of this is because of the costs, continue supply of raw material from other countries, and the lack of agencies that have full knowledge of this area of research. These challenges still play a major part in biomanufacturing, but people are trying to overcome them. This area of research is still continuing to grow. |
