Cells as Biofactories: Parallels Between Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing and Industrial Biotechnology

Industrial biotechnology and biopharmaceutical manufacturing leverage biology to enable cellular systems to serve as factories to produce molecules of value to humankind. These biotechnological processes utilize diverse host organisms and address applications from biofuel, polymer building blocks, antibiotics, and whole cell therapies. Industrial biotechnology can address environmental and sustainability goals in addition to chemical production. In a similar fashion, the field of biopharmaceutical manufacturing has and continues to produce life-saving medicines. Despite these diverse applications, these fields rely on common biological themes and require similar approaches for genetic and metabolic engineering as discussed in this review. Through advances in synthetic biology, targeted genetic engineering, DNA sequencing, adaptation and high-throughput screening, industrial biotechnology and biopharmaceutical manufacturing utilize the same framework for efficient biochemical production which can be leveraged in current and future collaborations to enable rapid innovation.