“[...] any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.” This statement is often used to describe the fundamental aim of biotechnology around the world. Karl Ereky, one of the foremost proponents of the term biotechnology foresaw that “merging biology and technology could be used to transform living substances into products that are more useful than in their natural state,” thus benefiting society by meeting human needs or demands to improve our quality life. Although the use of living systems to make a product has an established history, the modern definition of biotechnology is usually associated with recombinant DNA technology. The idea of recombinant DNA was first proposed by Peter Lobban but the founding principles were published in 1973 by Stanly Cohen and Hebert Boyer. “Recombinant DNA technology allows DNA to be produced via artificial means. This technology works by taking DNA from two different sources and combining it into a single molecule.” The ideas promoted by Karl Ereky illustrate a direct connection between biotechnology and recombinant DNA.
A widely debated application of this technology is in the production of genetically modified foods. This technology has the function of adjusting certain food needs of modern life, facilitating its production, allowing greater number of annual harvests, making it more resistant to pests or enriching the nutritional aspect. On genetically modified food, there is a great controversy, because on one side there are scientists changing a particular food in order to address the socioeconomic needs, while on the other side there are environmentalists who believe that th...
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...ility of using recombinant DNA technology to produce products with practical application.” Science heroes such as Ereky, Lobban, Cohen and Boyer provided a basis for the transformation of the biotechnology field, engaging popular audiences and the attention of the government. Across the globe biotechnology has been a defining and enduring feature of humanity. Biotechnology has transformed human civilization, economic activity, and transformed the lives of many human beings on the planet. Recombinant DNA technology is a fledging science that provides a prospect the humanity has to discover treatments and cures to the most deadly of diseases such as cancer and AIDS. Studies are needed to establish possible harm that its use may initiate around the world but it is fascinating how the use of this technology has changed the course of history within the last fifty years.
Modern biotechnology was born at the hands of American scientists Herb Boyer and Stain Cohen, when they developed “recombinant deoxyribonucleotide, (rDNA), [1] for medicinal purposes. Subsequently, biotechnologists started genetically engineering agricultural plants using this technology. A single gene responsible for a certain trait, from one organism (usually a bacterium) is selected altered and then ‘spliced” into the DNA of a plant to create an agricultural crop consisting of that...
Over 40 years ago, two men by the names of James Watson and Francis Crick discovered deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. DNA is hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms (What is DNA?). From this finding, gene therapy evolved. Today, researchers are able to isolate certain specific genes, repair them, and use them to help cure diseases such as cystic fibrosis and hemophilia. However, as great as this sounds, there are numerous ethical and scientific issues that will arise because of religion and safety.
In September 14, 1990, an operation, which is called gene therapy, was performed successfully at the National Institutes of Health in the United States. The operation was only a temporary success because many problems have emerged since then. Gene therapy is a remedy that introduces genes to target cells and replaces defective genes in order to cure the diseases which cannot be cured by traditional medicines. Although gene therapy gives someone who is born with a genetic disease or who suffers cancer a permanent chance of being cured, it is high-risk and sometimes unethical because the failure rate is extremely high and issues like how “good” and “bad” uses of gene therapy can be distinguished still haven’t been answered satisfactorily.
The age of genetic technology has arrived. Thanks to genetic technological advancements, medical practitioners, with the help of genetic profiling, will be able to better diagnose patients and design individual tailored treatments; doctors will be able to discern which medications and treatments will be most beneficial and produce the fewest adverse side effects. Rationally designed vaccines have been created to provide optimal protection against infections. Food scientists have hopes of genetically altering crops to increase food production, and therefore mitigate global hunger. Law enforcement officers find that their job is made easier through the advancement of forensics; forensics is yet another contribution of genetic technology. Doctors have the ability to identify “high-risk” babies before they are born, which enables them to be better prepared in the delivery room. Additionally, oncologists are able to improve survival rates of cancer patients by administering genetically engineered changes in malignant tumors; these changes result in an increased immune response by the individual. With more than fifty years of research, and billions of dollars, scientists have uncovered methods to improve and prolong human life and the possibilities offered by gene therapy and genetic technology are increasing daily.
Although humans have altered the genomes of species for thousands of years through artificial selection and other non-scientific means, the field of genetic engineering as we now know it did not begin until 1944 when DNA was first identified as the carrier of genetic information by Oswald Avery Colin McLeod and Maclyn McCarty (Stem Cell Research). In the following decades two more important discoveries occurred, first the 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, by Watson and Crick, and next the 1973 discovery by Cohen and Boyer of a recombinant DNA technique which allowed the successful transfer of DNA into another organism. A year later Rudolf Jaenisch created the world’s first transgenic animal by introducing foreign DNA into a mouse embryo, an experiment that would set the stage for modern genetic engineering (Stem Cell Research). The commercialization of genetic engineering began largely in 1976 wh...
Watson, J. D., Gilman, M., Witkowski, J., Zoller, M. (1992). Recombinant DNA. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.
The most wonderful activity a human being can experience is new flavors and foods. For example, the first time a person tastes a delicious juicy piece of prime rib or a delightful hamburger with cheese and ham, his world is never the same. However, since the beginning of the twentieth century, the production of food has been supplemented by science. This has triggered an angry dispute between the people who support the advances of biotechnology and people who love nature. In order to understand the controversy, we have to know the meaning of genetically modified foods. With new technological advances, scientists can modify seeds from a conventional seed to a high tech seed with shorter maturation times and resistance to dryness, cold and heat. This is possible with the implementation of new genes into the DNA of the conventional seed. Once these "transgenes" are transferred, they can create plants with better characteristics (Harris 164-165). The farmers love it not only because it guarantees a good production, but the cost is also reduced. On the other hand, organizations such as Greenpeace and Friends of Earth have campaigned against GMO (“Riesgos”) because they think that they are negatively affecting the earth (Gerdes 26). Both the advocates and the opponents of genetically modified foods have excellent arguments.
Genetically modified food’s, or GMOs, goal is to feed the world's malnourished and undernourished population. Exploring the positive side to GMOs paints a wondrous picture for our planet’s future, although careful steps must be taken to ensure that destruction of our ecosystems do not occur. When GMOs were first introduced into the consumer market they claimed that they would help eliminate the world’s food crisis by providing plants that produced more and were resistant to elemental impacts like droughts and bacterial contaminants, however, production isn’t the only cause for the world’s food crisis. Which is a cause for concern because the population on the earth is growing and our land and ways of agriculture will not be enough to feed everyone sufficiently. No simple solutions can be found or applied when there are so many lives involved. Those who are hungry and those who are over fed, alike, have to consider the consequences of Genetically Modified Organisms. Food should not be treated like a commodity it is a human necessity on the most basic of levels. When egos, hidden agendas, and personal gains are folded into people's food sources no one wins. As in many things of life, there is no true right way or wrong way to handle either of the arguments and so many factors are involved that a ‘simple’ solution is simply not an option.
The concepts of human enhancement and biotechnology are fairly new terms in the world of ethics and medicine. These words, although far from being unfamiliar, are not often heard in the medical field except in special cases. However, in the past few years, the research and use of biotechnology is on the rise and becoming more prevalent under certain situations. This week’s reading focuses on the issues of biotechnology in a historical and modern context, yet also addresses the pros and cons of such developments.
The reconstruction of DNA has brought many cures against genetic diseases that before were undetectable. Although it is not a treatme...
The controversy of these issues stems from the immense potential in genetic sciences for both positive use and harmful misuse. Though the questions and fears of critics reflect the wisdom of caution, the potentially unlimited benefits mandate that we pursue these technologies.
Synthetic biology, also known as synbio, is a new form of research that began in the year 2000. The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group) says that synthetic biology is bringing together “engineering and the life sciences in order to design and construct new biological parts, devices and systems that do not currently exist in the natural world’ (Synthetic Biology). Synthetic biology is aiming to create safer medicines, clean energy, and help the environment through synthetically engineered medicines, biofuels, and food. Because synthetic biology has only existed for fourteen years, there is controversy involving its engineering ethics. In this literature review, I am going to summarize and correlate the International Association for Synthetic Biology (IASB) Code of Conduct for Gene Synthesis, the impact of synthetic biology on people and the environment, and the philosophical debates.
Discoveries in DNA, cell biology, evolution, and biotechnology have been among the major achievements in biology over the past 200 years, with accelerated discoveries and insight’s over the last 50 years. Consider the progress we have made in these areas of human knowledge. Present at least three of the discoveries you find to be the most important and describe their significance to society, health, and the culture of modern life. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a self-replicating molecule or material present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent in chromosomes. It encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and many viruses.
The study of replication, transcription and translation of genetic material is known as molecular biology. Molecular biology is a bottom-up approach to understanding human life. Though the exploration of molecular biology began in the 1930s, it really took off in the 1960s after the uncovering of the structure of DNA. (Coriell Institute for Medical Research, n.d.) Today, molecular biology is shaping our understanding of diseases. Through this reflection journal, I seek to explore preventative and curative phenomena in medical biotechnology, and determine their impact on the political, social and economic spheres.
Biotechnology is a group of technologies that work together with living cells and their molecules to prolong life (Keener and Hoban et al., 2014). Today biotechnology can be used in a variety of ways such as in an industrial setting where they use it to create enzymes to synthesize chemicals, in an environmental setting where they use it for waste and pollution prevention and lastly it can be used in medical applications such as in pharmaceuticals, genetic engineering, DNA fingerprinting and lastly it can be used in stem cell therapy (Keener and Hoban et al., 2014). Everyone in today’s society depends on and uses biotechnology in one form or another, biotechnology is essential for our health and wellbeing. Vaccines are also manufactured using biotechnology which consist of three main ways, it aids scientists to separate pure antigen using specific monoclonal antibody, aids in synthesis of an antigen with the help of a cloned gene and lastly it also aids in the synthesis of peptides to be used as vaccines (Alam 2014). A vaccine can protect you from specific diseases that can make you sick or even kill you.