Contents:
We dissect crucial discoveries. We examine controversies and puncture hype. We hold individuals and institutions accountable. We introduce you to the power brokers and personalities who are driving a revolution in human health.
The threat from biotechnology is spoken about both in the Pentagon and in Silicon Valley. Sign Up. Buy with confidence, excellent customer service!. The researcher is confident that a breakthrough in biotechnology will be possible if states more often support such projects and provide companies with tax breaks. Optimists sleep longer and stronger Scientists already know that good sleep protects against obesity, heart problems, and cognitive impairment. As a result, current stocks of functional antivenom will soon expire. Prakash, co-founders of the AgBioWorld Foundation.
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On a more hopeful note, scientific advances may allow researchers to find solutions to biotechnology threats as quickly as they arise. Recombinant DNA and biotechnology tools have enabled the rapid invention of new vaccines which could protect against new outbreaks , natural or man-made. For example, less than 5 months after the World Health Organization declared Zika virus a public health emergency , researchers got approval to enroll patients in trials for a DNA vaccine.
While humans have been altering genes of plants and animals for millennia — first through selective breeding and more recently with molecular tools and chimeras — we are only just beginning to make changes to our own genomes amid great controversy. For instance, if gene therapy in humans is acceptable to cure disease, where do you draw the line? Many others lie somewhere in between. How do we determine a hard limit for which gene surgery to undertake, and under what circumstances, especially given that the surgery itself comes with the risk of causing genetic damage?
And what about ways that biotechnology may contribute to inequality in society? Advances in biotechnology are escalating the debate, from questions about altering life to creating it from scratch. For example, a recently announced initiative called GP-Write has the goal of synthesizing an entire human genome from chemical building blocks within the next 10 years.
The project organizers have many applications in mind, from bringing back wooly mammoths to growing human organs in pigs. But, as critics pointed out, the technology could make it possible to produce children with no biological parents , or to recreate the genome of another human, like making cellular replicas of Einstein. In response, the organizers of GP-Write insist that they welcome a vigorous ethical debate, and have no intention of turning synthetic cells into living humans.
Since virtually all of biology centers around the instructions contained in DNA, biotechnologists who hope to modify the properties of cells, plants, and animals must speak the same molecular language. Since the publication of the complete human genome in , the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped dramatically , making it a simple and widespread research tool. Benefits: Sonia Vallabh had just graduated from law school when her mother died from a rare and fatal genetic disease. DNA sequencing showed that Sonia carried the fatal mutation as well.
But far from resigning to her fate, Sonia and her husband Eric decided to fight back, and today they are graduate students at Harvard, racing to find a cure. For example, researchers were able to track the Ebola epidemic in real time using DNA sequencing. And pharmaceutical companies are designing new anti-cancer drugs targeted to people with a specific DNA mutation. Entire new fields, such as personalized medicine , owe their existence to DNA sequencing technology.
Risks : Simply reading DNA is not harmful, but it is foundational for all of modern biotechnology. As the saying goes, knowledge is power, and the misuse of DNA information could have dire consequences. Finally, DNA testing opens the door to sticky ethical questions, such as whether to carry to term a pregnancy after the fetus is found to have a genetic mutation.
Recombinant DNA tools allow researchers to choose a protein they think may be important for health or industry, and then remove that protein from its original context. Modern biomedical research, many best-selling drugs , most of the clothes you wear , and many of the foods you eat rely on rDNA biotechnology. Benefits: Simply put, our world has been reshaped by rDNA. An increasing number of vaccines and drugs are the direct products of rDNA. For example, nearly all insulin used in treating diabetes today is produced recombinantly. Additionally, cheese lovers may be interested to know that rDNA provides ingredients for a majority of hard cheeses produced in the West.
Many important crops have been genetically modified to produce higher yields, withstand environmental stress, or grow without pesticides. Risks : The inventors of rDNA themselves warned the public and their colleagues about the dangers of this technology. For example, they feared that rDNA derived from drug-resistant bacteria could escape from the lab, threatening the public with infectious superbugs. And recombinant viruses, useful for introducing genes into cells in a petri dish, might instead infect the human researchers. Still, there are concerns that rogue scientists or bioterrorists could produce weapons with rDNA.
For instance, it took researchers just 3 years to make poliovirus from scratch in , and today the same could be accomplished in a matter of weeks.
Recent flu epidemics have killed over , , and the malicious release of an engineered virus could be much deadlier — especially if preventative measures, such as vaccine stockpiles, are not in place. Synthesizing DNA has the advantage of offering total researcher control over the final product. With many of the mysteries of DNA still unsolved, some scientists believe the only way to truly understand the genome is to make one from its basic building blocks. Building DNA from scratch has traditionally been too expensive and inefficient to be very practical, but in , researchers did just that , completely synthesizing the genome of a bacteria and injecting it into a living cell.
Since then, scientists have made bigger and bigger genomes, and recently, the GP-Write project launched with the intention of tackling perhaps the ultimate goal: chemically fabricating an entire human genome. Meeting this goal — and within a 10 year timeline — will require new technology and an explosion in manufacturing capacity.
Benefits: Plummeting costs and technical advances have made the goal of total genome synthesis seem much more immediate. Scientists hope these advances, and the insights they enable, will ultimately make it easier to make custom cells to serve as medicines or even bomb-sniffing plants.
Fantastical applications of DNA synthesis include human cells that are immune to all viruses or DNA-based data storage.
One company hopes to edit pig cells using DNA synthesis technology so that their organs can be transplanted into humans. Language: English. Brand new Book. Can biotechnologies be specifically designed and deliberately released to alleviate rural poverty, or will they accentuate existing inequalities?. Seller Inventory SPR Book Description Palgrave Macmillan, New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since Seller Inventory S Condition: Brand New. In Stock. Items related to Biotechnology: A Hope or a Threat? International Labour Biotechnology: A Hope or a Threat?