The term “biotechnology” was coined in 1917 by Hungarian engineer Karl Ereky to describe an integrated process for the large scale production of pigs by using sugar beets as a fodder; until the early 1970s the term was used primarily in the food industry and agriculture. Today, “biotechnology” is generally understood to refer to the use of methods of microbiology, biochemistry, gene engineering and other biological sciences in the commercial production of various goods and services. One of the major goals of modern biotechnology is the development and production of new generation drugs and diagnosticums. Such production often uses nanobiotechnological approaches involving nanoparticles and biological nano-objects (DNA, viruses, antibodies, etc.) based on recombinant DNA technology (see recombinant structure), hybridoma (fusion of two types of cells) and trioma (successive fusion of three types of cells) techniques, etc. See also nanobiotechnology.