i want to know about recent advances in biotechnology?

Answer 1

The whole area of Biological Engineering.
A new guy driving it is Drew Endy at M.I.T.
See the sources below for an interview and
his home page.
The 3rd source is a "Molecular Systems Biology"
research paper about a naturally occuring gene
which Endy "re-engineered" to be more
efficient. This is engineering right in the middle
of life science.

Answer 2

I am a biotechnologist, and even i can lose track of whats going on. try reading new scientist magazine, its very informative on all topic areas.

That i know of: Real time PCR is amazing, new antibiotics are a big area of development, stem cells, food technololgy, all cancers now have a biomarker identified, gene expression and function (since mapping genome), developing new treatments for diseases like cystic fibrosis, asthma, alzeimers.

Answer 3

As do I...

as far as I know,

They've found ways to read brain impulses-and translate those impulses into movement.

When a test chimp was restrained and hooked up to a computer, which in turn was linked to a mechanical arm, the chimp was able to control the arm using only its brain waves. (and it was able to get its banana =P)

anyways- They only reason they haven't deployed the use of this tech in modern prosthesis, is the simple fact of "This damn this is too bulky and requires too much power".

and thats about as modern as is right now...

(oh and they tested the thing on a quadriplegic, and it worked...)