Descriptions of Industry Terms

The life sciences industry can be organized into categories based on product markets. We’ve included those below and also added a few commonly used terms:

Agricultural: products related to crop and livestock production, including genetic engineering, veterinary activities, plant-based fuels, and food processing.

Bioindustry suppliers: specialized materials, equipment or services provided to other bioindustry firms. Such products include reagents (substances used in chemical reactions), specialized software, and technical instruments for gene splicing.

Bioinformatics: bioinformatics is an information science using products
and services associated with advanced computer based tools including
analytical software used to mine biological databases containing genomic and
proteomic information. One goal of this field is to elucidate genetic interactions and define protein pathways within organisms.

Bioremediation: products using biotechnology-designed bioremediation organisms to clean up oil or other spills.

Biotechnology: biotechnology refers to the application of scientific advances in the life sciences to create commercial products and services. The biotechnology industry cluster includes all of the support services and manufacturers of various instruments, reagents and other products that support the research, testing, and manufacturing of biotechnology products.

Diagnostics: products that test for the presence of various health or disease states.

Energy: products that use bacteria and other biological processes to create new sources of energy. (Converges with agricultural fuels at times.)

Genomics: Genomics “Coined in 1986 by Tom Roderick, by combining gene and "-omics" (from the Greek word for "all"), this term refers to the scientific study of all the genes and their roles in an organism's structure, growth, health, disease (and/or resistance to disease, etc.). For example, how the (approximately) 3,000 genes in a given strain of bacteria, or the (approximately) 6,000 genes in a given strain of yeast, contribute to the shape, function, and the development of those whole organisms.” (http://www.biotechterms.org)

Materials: products that incorporate the use of new materials, including chemicals that are created by the blending of biological, nanotechnology and other emerging technological processes.

Medical Device: medical device products can be inserted into the human body or used externally. As an example, heart defibrillators that are now on every airplane and can even be purchased for home use in cases of emergency are medical devices that were invented by engineers and scientists in Washington. Medical devices are used for either diagnosing patients (e.g., a CAT scan) or used for therapeutic purposes (e.g. dialysis machine for diabetic patients). Medical devices are usually designed with rigorous safety standards.

Proteomics: “The scientific study of an organism's proteins and their role in an organism's structure, growth, health, disease (and/or the organism's resistance to disease, etc.). Those roles are predominantly due to each protein molecule's tertiary structure/conformation.”
(Nov. 2006. <http://www.biotechterms.org)

Therapeutics: products such as pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices that cure or reduce the incidence of disease.