What Biotechnologists Knew All Along...?

“Nothing is more difficult to undertake, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its outcome than to take the lead in introducing a new order of things, for the innovator has for its enemies all those who have done well under the old, and lukewarm defenders who may do well under the new” velli, “The Prince” ative, trial-and-error methods designed to increase the flux to desirable biotechnological products have led to new technologies and vast improvements in existing ones. However, these methods now appear in many cases to have approached their limit. In addition, there is a strong feeling in industry that much of the recent boom in academic knowledge of biochemistry and molecular biology passes biotechnology by, simply because one cannot evaluate the implications of molecular kinetics for the functioning of the producer organisms as a whole. New methods, or more rational methods, are called for.