11/27/2014
Bioanalysis - techniques for the characterization of biological material
Stefanie Heyl , © BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH
Everybody who studies natural organisms can be called a bioanalyst. Bioanalysis is therefore as old as mankind. Our biological knowledge is increasing rapidly and, along with it, the range of methods that have become available over the last decades to analyze complex biological samples. Science constantly provides researchers with new challenges biologists and bioanalysts have to deal with, and which come from sources as varied as the ever increasing number of resistant pathogenic bacterial strains or the famine conditions in Third-World countries. In the search for scientific truths, bioanalysis is the development, optimization and application of the entire range of analytical methods available. However, we need to keep in mind that, although this leads to an expansion of knowledge, the truth is only temporary
The analysis of biological macromolecules such as proteins, DNA, RNA, carbohydrates and lipids in cells, tissues and blood using state-of-the-art technologies is at the centre of biochemical and molecular research. Science has dealt with the analysis of the structure and function of proteins for more than 200 years now, long before the molecules were actually called proteins.