Essays on Recombinant DNA

The rediscovery of Mendel's works on heredity in 1900 became the foundation to investigate more on genetics. However, the acceleration of the study of genetics was slow, taking more than half a century later for Watson and Crick to crack the chemical basis of heredity. In fact, their proposal, the double helical structure of DNA, became the beginning of modern biology. Over the next 30 years, the advent of recombinant DNA technology allowed us to sequence specific DNA segments (Collins & McKusick, 2001). Note that mapping specific regions of a particular DNA offers explanations to many traits, including behaviors, disorders, ...

Major Achievements in Biology

Researchers and scientists are always intrigued by biological processes and activities, and strive to utilize them for benefit of mankind. Antibiotics, monoclonal antibodies, vaccines and several therapeutic agents, high yielding as well as disease tolerant plants and animals are all results of extensive research in the fields of cell and molecular biology, immunology, biotechnology and genetic engineering. Treatment to several diseases, even genetic disorders are available today only due to breakthrough discoveries in biology. Three such important discoveries are revelation of structure of ribosomes through X-ray crystallography, identification of tumor specific antigens (TSA) expressed on the surface of cancer ...

We see these days restaurants like Chipotle and grocery stores claiming to serve non-genetically modified foods. Are we eating artificial food? Is that good for our bodies? Is that good for the food that is being modified? These questions raise awareness for people who are oblivious of what GMOs are and how they are affecting our daily lives. GMOs may be more common in our diets than we know. GMO stands for Genetically modified organism and is a term that stems from biotechnology. It is the alteration of the genetic code of an organism to either enhance its properties, ...

Bioethical Issues behind Gene Therapy Trials

Gene therapy is a prospective therapy for curing many genetic defects by correcting the mistakes happening at gene level. It can be somatic or germline targeting either blood or bone marrow in former and eggs or sperms in latter. Ethical issues prevail with the germline gene therapy and it has not been approved yet. Similarly, the gene therapy trials need to be regulated and is governed by many bioethical issues. In US, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) regulates the gene therapy clinical trials. This organization has further sub-divisions that regulate the human subjects under trials through ...