Knockout Experiment Essay

As the growing world develops, so does the scientific knowledge and the discoveries that occur. However, only until recently in the world’s history has the innovation and advancement of genetics and biotechnology really taken off in an exponential manner. The history of genetics was established in 1866 with Gregor Mendel’s work and “rediscovered” in 1900. Even more recently was the coining of the term biotechnology science as known today in 1919 as well as its continual expansion in the 20th and 21st centuries. Despite the beliefs and scientific evidence that support the advocations of scientists saying that biotechnology has been around for hundreds of years, the level of biotechnology that rapidly continues to expand today is like no other

The experiment that led to a ground breaking start in this interest is referred to as The Knockout Experiment. Three scientists, Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans, and Oliver Smithies, conducted the experiments and were awarded The Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2007 (STANDFORD). The experiment involved homologous recombination which is DNA segment exchange based on sequence similarity between two different molecules where the similar sequences align and cross over. This allows for a single gene to be “knocked out” or permanently inactivated. Since the experiment in the 1990s, there are been many other replicas of the experiment especially in the area of studying human genetic diseases. Two diseases that the method has been applied to include cystic fibrosis and Parkinson’s disease. Cystic fibrosis is genetic condition where a person’s lungs and digestive system become clogged with a thick sticky mucus. The condition is mostly caused from a mutation that leads to a protein called F508 being misprocessed and degraded instead of following instructions to travel to its rightful location-the apical membrane. In the mouse experiment, this misprocess was mocked resulting in the same conditions and abnormalities seen in humans on the genetic level and overall symptoms. This observation leads to more doors for investigating genetic diseases as well as hopeful therapies and genetic treatments in correcting the F508 protein