★ Biotechnology is not a modern invention born in the lab—it is an ancient companion of human civilization. This book takes you on a journey across millennia to rediscover the everyday miracles we have long forgotten.
★ A history of biotechnology for everyone, written by a paleopathologist with the eye of an archaeologist. This is a cross-disciplinary work that bridges biology and anthropology, offering a unique perspective on how we became who we are today.

Forget laboratories full of test tubes. Biotechnology was not born in the 20th century, but thousands of years earlier, when humanity first learned to exploit biological processes it could not yet explain.

This book tells, with narrative flow and scientific precision, how over the centuries we domesticated microbes, plants, and cells, all the way to rewriting the genome. The journey begins with Egyptian beer—the first archaeologically studied intentional fermentation—and continues with Sumerian bread, the most ancient form of domestic microbial engineering. It then moves through the chemistry of mummies and silk from silkworms (the first biopolymer used in surgery) to Asian variolation, the earliest documented immunotherapy.

With Pasteur and Fleming, the modern age begins: microbes are recognized as "biological operators," penicillin changes the history of medicine and warfare, transfusions become viable, and genetic engineering turns bacteria into producers of human insulin. Finally, with the deciphering of DNA, we arrive at the frontiers of the present: cloning, stem cells, RNA vaccines, and new strategies in regenerative medicine and anti-aging.

Francesco Maria Galassi
A physician, anthropologist, paleopathologist, physicist, and forensic scientist, he is an Associate Professor of Physical Anthropology at the University of Łódź, Poland. He studies diseases in the past and their evolution, with a particular focus on paleopathology, mummies, and historical cold cases. He is actively involved in science communication and regularly contributes to magazines and newspapers. Author of approximately 300 scientific publications, in 2017 he was included by Forbes magazine in its list of the 30 most influential European scientists under 30.