Course: SAT 170 Introductory Biotechnology

Unit 11 Reading and Multimedia Assignment

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“Biotechnology and pharmaceuticals” by Boundless, CC BY SA 3.0

https://www.boundless.com/biology/biotechnology/biotechnology-and-everyday-life/biotechnology-and-pharmaceuticals/

Reading Assignment: Biotechnology and pharmaceuticals
New DNA technologies aid in the development of drugs to treat diseases as as treating diseases directly.

In addition to the direct applications of gene therapy, new DNA technologies are also assisting in the development of new drugs that treat diseases..

Proteins that are used to treat diseases can be made in large quantities in cell culture. Some of these proteins include human growth hormone (HGH), which before 1985 could be obtained only in limited quantities from cadaveric pituitary glands. It now can be produced using recombinant DNA technology. When its supply was more limited, HGH was prescribed for children with short stature caused by classical growth hormone deficiency. However, with the advent of recombinant DNA manufacturing, some physicians have begun recommending use of HGH for nonhormone-deficient children who are below normal height. The same technique is used to produce insulin, which is needed by people with diabetes. More than two million people in the U.S. take insulin as part of a treatment plan for diabetes, which can be produced by bacteria or yeast and is genetically compatible with the patient.

Much as a bacteria can be engineered to produce a particular protein product, whole animals can also be created to produce a product. Transgenic organisms are organisms that have inserted DNA that originated in a different species. A transgenic animal is formed by cloning a desired gene that is then injected directly into the nucleus of a fertilized egg. This new gene is called a transgene. Some of the fertilized eggs will insert and express this gene in their genome, thus producing a transgenic animal.

By altering the DNA or transferring DNA to an animal, we can develop certain proteins that may be used in medical treatment. Stable expressions of human proteins have been developed in many animals, including sheep, pigs, and rats. Transgenic animals are also becoming useful commercially. The drug ATryn is an anticoagulant that reduces the probability of blood clots during surgery or childbirth. It is extracted from goat's milk. Goats were chosen for this research because they have a shorter generation time than cattle, allowing more transgenic goats to be produced in a short time, while also producing more milk than typical laboratory animals such as mice and rabbits (see above figure

GMOs are used in biological and medical research, production of pharmaceutical drugs, experimental medicine (e.g., gene therapy), and agriculture (e.g., golden rice). The term "genetically modified organism" does not always imply but can include targeted insertions of genes from one species into another. For example, a gene from a jellyfish, encoding a fluorescent protein called GFP, can be physically linked and thus co-expressed with mammalian genes to identify the location of the protein encoded by the GFP-tagged gene in the mammalian cell. Such methods are useful tools for biologists in many areas of research, including those who study the mechanisms of human and other diseases or fundamental biological processes in eukaryotic or prokaryotic cells.