Blockchain has become typically synonymous with bitcoins and cryptocurrencies. However, the truth is that Bitcoins and digital cryptocurrency are the two most popular application areas of Blockchain technology. There are several other application domains of Blockchain technology.
Though blockchain technology came into the headlines for being the underlying tech for crypto, many business giants like Amazon and Microsoft soon took over the technology to implement it in their business operations. There are several other fields where blockchain technology is being used, and no wonder it leads to some potentially excellent outcomes. One such field is Biotech or the Biotechnology Industry. Let us explore how Blockchain technology can revolutionize the Biotechnology sector.
Many leading blockchain technology analysts like Bill Fearnley have stated that apart from crypto, blockchain technology can be precious for retails, manufacturing, supply chain, healthcare, and government state operations.
Blockchain Technology in Biotech
Recent biotechnology closely relies on data analysis and management. Some of the core areas where blockchain has been used recently are:
- Enhancing food traceability
- Streamlining remittances
- Securing electronic health records
- Tackling climate change
- Ensuring genomic data privacy
- Training and using artificial intelligence for better healthcare management
- Supporting vast data analysis and management for clinical trials.
The best part about using blockchain technology in biotechnology is that blockchain is a decentralized concept. There is no one at the center to control the entity. So, multiple nodes can form a bind with each other and help for synchronized yet distributed data management. This decentralized model helps to safeguard the integrity of the blockchain ledger even if the individual data is lost. Blockchain technology is based on an append-only model, and this specific model guarantees a traceable yet tamper-proof virtual ledger.
Blockchain has been used in multiple industries. The production of biological products is one of those industries. However, there is no direct implantation of blockchain in life sciences. As of now, the prominent use of blockchain in biotechnology is for tracing supply chains, analysis-management-storage of vast data needed for clinical trials or genomic data storage. Mostly Blockchain technology in biotech or medicine is used for peripheral applications like storing and sequencing data. It has also helped to solve some of the most complex technology-dependent hurdles of biotechnology. Blockchain has yet to help in the exploitation of fundamental biological questions.
Block Chain Technology in Cancer Study
One of the significant areas of research interest involving blockchain technology and biotechnology is the Blockchain Model of Cancer Evolution.
Cancer has been a long-standing question in front of humans. Researchers have been trying day in and out to explore more about cancer to treat the disease. Blockchain technology is now being used for record-keeping cancer lineage tracing using probes. There is a striking resemblance between the clonal evolution in cancer cells and blockchain technology. Even the epigenetic mutations in cancer cells closely resemble the working model of blockchain technology.
Cancer cells follow the mechanism of survival of the fittest that was proposed centuries back by Charles Darwin to explain the fundamental theories of evolution. Blockchain technology also follows something similar, where each block can be considered a unit of evolution. Cancer evolution and blockchain technology have high-fidelity retrospective lineage tracing. Through various experimental manipulation of models, this similarity has been established. By exploiting this similar concept, humans can now use blockchain technology to study and understand more about cancer cell behavior.
Signaling Pathway and Boolean Logic of Bloc Chain Technology
If you have ever heard about smart contracts, you must know how they are based on the principles of conditionality. Boolean logic gates have several operators, such as conjunction, disjunction, and negotiation. They work on binary values of 0 and 21. The same principles are followed in the case of human cell signaling. Cell signaling is the fundamental principle for operating most physiological processes in the human body.
An excellent understanding of cell signaling can help understand physiology better and help to develop many drugs that will induce proactive signaling in the body. With the help of classically created Boolean logic gates, we can study cell signaling in a virtual environment. Declarative languages closely resemble cell signaling operations in humans. Boolean logic gates offer a robust approach to forming complex network models and extracting relevant biological information from the same. If we can compile the knowledge of molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways, humans can study more about signaling pathways in the body. Boolean logic, which is a substrate for the blockchain tech model, offers an integral synthetic biological system that helps in the following fields:
- Biosensing
- Pharmaceuticals
- Biofuels
Booleans logic and blockchain technology has widespread applications in genomic studies. The encoding pattern of Boolean-based blockchain technology and the central human genomic materials like DNA and RNA are astonishingly similar. Logic gates and their usage are relevant for studying genomics and, most importantly, developing new-age genome medicines. Binary toggling is extensively used in developing monoclonal antibodies and chimeric antigen receptors (CAR T Cells).
In a nutshell, blockchain technology helps conduct many biotech experiments virtually and predict the behavior of cells in the human body. Blockchain technology is still an untapped gem in the world of biotechnology. They help in the direct study of model biological organisms. The two usages described here are blockchain-based retrospective lineage tracing and monitoring the complex networks. In addition, there are several usages of blockchain technology in biotechnology, many of which still need to be explored. Biology is still an unchartered region for blockchain. In future, there may be more significant and broader applications of blockchain in biotechnology, and with its help, we will surely be able to develop many more opportunities in biotechnology.
Wrapping It Up
With the fourth industrial revolution waving its flags, Blockchain technology has predominantly impacted the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Blockchain technology is typically helping in improving, securing, and streamlining the traditional biotech industrial processes by creating a sustainable connection between social, economic, and environmental aspects, all of which are closely related to biotechnology.
