Biotechnology

1. Biotechnology What is it?

2. I. Biotechnology • A branch of science that uses living organisms to manufacture food, medicines, or other products to improve our lives.

3. II. History of Biotechnology • Biotechnology began when we domesticated plants and animals, made bread, fermented food (yogurt, cheese, etc..), and developed vaccines to protect us from disease. • Concentration - food, medicine and solving environmental problems. • Modern Biotechnology concentrates on DNA and recombinant organisms to serve in the production of food, medicine and solving env. problems. http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Biotech-Industry-Overview---History-of-Industry

4. Biotechnology has been used for hundreds of year • Selective breeding – Also called artificial selection Humans breed animals or plants for a particular trait. • Humans – Choose to mate with specific humans based on traits • Farmers – Using this method for a long time to create better crops, milk, and meat products

5. III. Human Genome Project • Originally established by Department of Energy to research how radioactive materials could be used for medicinal purposes. • 13 yr long international collaborative research project completed in 2003 where scientist from around the world tried to identify the 20,000-25,000 genes in the human DNA and find the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs. • Directors of the HGP hoped that the information gained would help make advances in biotechnology fields. • At least 350 biotechnology-based products resulting from the Human Genome Project are currently in clinical trials. • http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/timeline.shtml

6. IV. 3 industries in Biotechnology 1. Agriculture industries 2. Medicinal industries 3. Environmental industries • Goal of biotechnology is to provide products and technologies that fight diseases, reduce our environmental footprint, feed the hungry and use cleaner and more efficient industries.

7. Biotechnology and food/Agriculture Genetic Engineering The process of altering the genetic material of cells or organisms to allow them to make new Substances.

8. AGRICULTURE • Corn, soybeans, cotton, canola, crop seeds • USA accounts for more than 50% of all biotech crops in the world. POTENTIAL BENEFITS: • Higher crop yields, lower use of agricultural chemicals (decreasing runoff pollution), developing crops with better nutritional value, producing foods free of allergens and toxins, faster growing plants, medicinal foods that could be used as vaccines or other medications

9. POTENTIAL RISKS: • Genetic changes that are unexpected and harmful • Modified organisms ma interbreed with natural organisms and may lead to extinction of original organism or other unpredictable environmental effects • Plants may be less resistant to some pests and more susceptible to others. • Some genes from one food (like peanuts) may cause allergic reactions to other foods. (if peanut gene goes into tomatoes, will they be allergic to tomatoes too?)

10. 2. MEDICAL BIOTECHNOLOGY • Largest biotech industry • Biological drugs, vaccines, DNA fingerprinting • Targets: cancer treatments, infectious diseases, autoimmune conditions, HIV and other diseases • Goal: reduce infectious diseases, save lives, tailoring treatments of individuals to reduce side effects, create better tools for disease detection • Jobs in this area increases by 24% (87,000 new jobs)

11. Medical Forensics • Use of DNA fingerprinting to identify suspects in a criminal case. • Used for paternity cases • Based on fact that no two people have same DNA (except identical twins – they still have differences too) • Can be used to identify unknown person • Can also be used to identify different species to study bi0diversity.

12. 3. INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY • Nanotechnology, enzymes, biofuels • Demand for biofuels in US big interest • Uses biological processes (fermentation, biocatalysts/enzymes and other microbes to make life better. • Ex. Lowering temp. for cleaning clothes (saves 4.1 billion dollars/year) • Using biofuels to cut green gas emissions, decreasing water usage and waste generation and tapping into/ using biomass waste products. (used as low carbon fuel)

13. V. How Genetic Engineering Works: • Recombinant DNA technology • When DNA from two different organisms is joined • 1) Isolate the desired DNA and plasmid • Plasmid small rings of DNA • 2 ) A restriction Enzyme is used o cut the DNA into fragments • 3) Sticky ends hold the plasmid and DNA together until enzyme DNA ligase joins them

14. Recombinant DNA technology cont. • 4) The recombinant bacterium is inserted into a host bacterium • 5) The bacterium then reproduces, the desired DNA is identified using a probe • Probe – a strand of RNA labeled with a radioactive element or fluorescent dye • Gene Splicing  The process in which fragments of DNA from one or more different organisms are combined to form recombinant DNA

16. Lets watch it in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjqaPSWAYY8 What gets produced for agriculture purposes: • Healthier farm animals • Biopestisides • Crops containing life saving vaccines • Engineering of pests or drought resistant crops

17. VI. GMO • Genetically Modified Organisms • Genetically engineered with DNA from bacteria, viruses or other plants and animals. • The combination of genes can not happen naturally • Designed to withstand application of herbicides or to produce insecticides.

18. Examples: • Transgenic plants – genetically modified to create new colors, or different crops. Examples: • Florigene company created a blue rose • Goats engineered to produce milk with strong spiderweb like silk proteins in their milk • China – dairy cows geneticlaly engineered to produce human breast milk. • Fish modified to overproduce GH to increase speed of development to replenish wild stocks

19. VII. ARE GMO’S SAFE??? • About 70% of food sold in US supermarkets are GMO’s • FDA regulates genetically modified foods, but testing is left up to the very industry that makes them. • FDA states that all GMO’s must meet same standard as traditional foods • 2 states in US require labels for GMO’s • Connecticut and Maine

20. CLONING • Process of producing genetically identical copies of biological entity • Cloning does occur in nature • Bacteria – asexual reproduction (binary fission) is an example of natural cloning • 3 types of cloning • Gene cloning • Reproductive cloning • Therapeutic cloning

21. 1. GENE CLONING • Copies of genes or segments of DNA • Used to make copies of genes for research purposes Process • insert a gene from one organism “foreign DNA” into the genetic material of a carrier (vector) which could be bacteria, yeast, virus, or plasmids (small DNA circles carried by bacteria) • After gene inserted, the vector is placed in lab conditions that allow it to grow • Gene multiplied each time it is copied (undergoes mitosis)

22. 2. REPRODUCTIVE CLONING • Copies entire animal • Reproductive and therapeutic cloning are done same way, just used for different purposes

23. 3. Gene Therapy • Currently being used to cure genetic disorders • Specific DNA sequences are inserted to try to replace fully or absent genes so that gene expression can occur • The most effective way to is to using viruses to insert the gene sequences into cells. Why viruses? Any ideas? • All viruses naturally insert their genetic material into their host cell as part of the replication cycle • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imL1Zmi3mWk

24. Reproductive vs. Therapeutic • Reproductive – egg placed into a surrogate mother • Therapeutic – egg allowed to develop into early stage embryo in the test tube and then stem cells used in experiments to help understand diseases and develop new treatments for disease. • Issue – stem cells of embryo started to develop, then the cells are harvested from clone embryo which destroys the embryo.