How are microorganisms used to make antibiotics and insulin?

Microorganisms serve as essential "chemical factories" in industrial microbiology, where they are utilized to produce valuable substances through controlled metabolic processes.1

Antibiotics

Many antibiotics are derived from fungi and bacteria through industrial fermentation. This process involves cultivating specific microorganisms in large tanks under optimized conditions, such as carefully adjusted nutrient concentrations. For instance, the discovery of penicillin demonstrated that certain molds, such as Penicillium notatum, naturally produce substances that inhibit bacterial growth. Once the desired antibiotic is produced by the microbial metabolism, it is recovered and purified from the heterogeneous mixture of cells and medium.123

Insulin

Unlike traditional fermentation, the production of human insulin relies on recombinant DNA technology. Biotechnologists insert the human gene responsible for coding insulin into the cells of a genetically altered strain of the bacterium E. coli. This modification enables the bacteria to synthesize the human hormone on an industrial scale, providing a reliable method for manufacturing proteins for medical use.14