Question

What is downstream processing in respect of biotechnology?

Answer 1

It is a critically important step in the development of drug products such as antibiotics, hormones), antibodies and vaccines; diagnostic antibodies and enzymes; industrial enzymes; and natural fragrance and flavoring compounds.

Complete answer:
Downstream processing is a bio process in which the upstream cell mass is processed in accordance with the criteria on pureness and efficiency. Isolation and purification into a form suitable for its purpose, called DSP, of a biotechnological product.
Downstream processing refers to the recovery and purification by naturally-occurring sources such as animal, tissue, plant or fermentation broth of biosynthetic products, especially drugs, including the recovery and recycling of resilient components and adequate treatment and disposal of waste. Downstream manufacturing generally is considered a specialized field of biochemistry, a specialist in chemical engineering, even though several primary technologies for the laboratory-scale separation of biochemical products have been developed by chemists and biologists.
Downstream processing and analysis for bio separation apply both to biological product separation or purification, but at different operating scales for various purposes. Backstream processing means the production of a purified product for a particular use, usually in marketable amounts, and analytical bio separation refers to purification for the sole purpose of measuring a component or mixture component and can cover sample dimensions as tiny as a single cell.

Note:
A commonly accepted heuristic for classifying downstream processing operations divides them into four classes, each of which is used to bring a product from its natural state as a part of a tissue, cell, or fermentation broth to a more pure and concentrated state.