Chapter 6: Biotechnology

§ Biotechnology- genetic tech to biological systems to create products and services § Makes human proteins for medical uses (human growth hormone) § Proteins used to treat disease collected from animals, human cadavers, human blood § Combo of technology + genetics produces unlimited amts of growth hormone with no possibility of contamination with disease causing agents o HGH is available in a safe form and FDA expanded # conditions that can be treated

§ Recombinant DNA technology is used to transfer hGH gene from human cell to bacterial cell, creating a transgenic organism (an organism that carriers a gene from another species) § Genes for medically important human proteins are being transferred into animals or plants where they are synthesized in large quantities and for use in treating diseases

§ Recombinant DNA is the combination of DNA from two or more different organisms 1) Restriction enzymes cut specific base sequences where they occur in human chromosomes 2) The same restriction enzymes cut the same base sequences in plasmid DNA 3) The plasmid DNA (vectors) and human DNA fragments are mixed in a solution & link 4) The result is recombinant DNA molecules with human and plasmid DNA 5) Recombinant DNA inserted into host cells where they copy each time the host cells divide § To produce hGH, DNA from human cells is isolated, cut with a restriction enzyme, combined with a vector, & inserted into bacterial cell which is indentified, isolated, used to synthesize hGh § used to produce many medically important proteins (insulin, clotting factors)

§ Genes transferred to crop plant can originate in another plant, animal, fungi or bacteria § One or more new genes gives transgenic plant a unique trait (resistance to herbicides, insects) § Transferred genes can increase nutritional value of crops to eliminate dietary deficiencies

§ Most food produced from transgenic crops contains 1+ proteins encoded by a transferred gene § Transgenic crops are safe if proteins produced by the transgenes are not poisonous and do not cause allergies any more than plants crossbred in the normal breeding method § Several environmental risks related to transgenic crops have been identified: o Transfer of transgenes to wild plants by cross breeding àreduce biodiversity § Safeguards are need in developing and using transgenic organisms to produce food and drugs

§ Human Genome Project (sequenced all human genes) combined with plant and other animal genomes show that many genes found in the human genome are present in other species § Animal models (mice) are used to explore mechanisms of human disease & test drugs developed o Produce an animal with symptoms that mirror those in humans o Be used to study development and progress of a disease o Be used to develop & test drugs that will cure & treat animal model of human disease

§ Patenting transgenic organisms and the genes that are identified o US Patent and Trademark Office states anything patentable must be novel, not obvious, and useful à anything naturally occurring cannot be patented o A gene can be patented when it is isolated and removed from an organism o Genes found in the human DNA can be patented when removed from the cell o Methods or processes can be patented if useful and unique