APPLICATIONS

• Biotechnology: is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts.

• The concept encompasses a wide range of procedures for modifying living organisms according to human purposes.

• Cloning• Gene Therapy• Pharmaceutical • Crop improvement• Bioremediation• Fermentation• Nanobiotechnolgoy

1. CLONING

• It is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature.

• Therapeutic cloning : involves cloning cells from an adult for use in medicine and transplants.

• Reproductive cloning: would involve making cloned organisms.

Reproductive cloning

• Dolly, was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell.

• Dolly was formed by taking a cell from the udder of her biological mother.

• Her embryo was created by taking the cell and inserting it into a sheep ovum.

• The embryo was then placed inside a female sheep that went through a normal pregnancy.

Dolly was significant

• because the effort showed that genetic material from a specific adult cell, can be reprogrammed to grow an entirely new organism

Therapeutic cloning

Therapeutic cloning is the procedure in which cells from the skin of the patient and are inserted into the fertilized egg, the nucleus of which has already been removed.

The resulting cell is allowed to divide repeatedly so that a blastocyst is formed.

Stem cells are then extracted from this blastocyst and can be used for various purposes like growing tissues that match the patient’s own genetic makeup.

Many diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease can be treated with therapeutic cloning.

Therapeutic cloninig

ADVANTAGE OF THERAPEUTIC CLONING

The major advantage provided by therapeutic cloning is that the embryonic stem cells derived by this procedure would be genetically identical to the recipient of the transplant, who was the donor of the adult somatic cell nucleus.

This bypasses the barrier of the immune system in rejectingthe transplanted tissue

2. Gene Therapy• Gene therapy is the insertion of genes/ Segments of DNA into

an individual's cells and tissues to treat a disease.• Gene therapy has been explored as a potential cure for cystic

fibrosis. • Cystic Fibrosis: is a genetic disorder that effects respiratory

system caused by defective CFTR gene.• Gene therapy places a normal copy of the CFTR gene into

affected cells. • Transferring the normal CFTR gene into the affected

epithelium cells would result in the production of functional proteins.

3. Pharmaceutical: Recombinant DNA

• Recombinant DNA (rDNA) molecules are DNA sequences that result from the use of laboratory methods to bring together genetic material from multiple sources, creating  sequences that would not otherwise be found in biological organisms.

• Eg: Production of Insulin

• Human insulin gene was isolated from humans and expressed inside the E.coli.

• The insulin formed from bacteria was isolated and purified.

4.Crop ImprovementNew Genes are introduced in crops to improve their:

• Higher yields• Improved nutrition• Resistance to environmental stress: Draught, Cold, Salinity etc.

• Eg: Golden Rice- Rice capable of producing Carotenes

• The rice plant lack in the enzymes which is responsible for the synthesis of B- carotene, which is required for the synthesis of Vitamin A.

• By the use of Genetic engineering, Daffodil gene from Daffodil flower, responsible for the production of B-carotene were introduced in rice plants.

• These modified Rice plants could produce Carotene

Insect Resistance: Bt Cotton• The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)

naturally produces a chemical harmful only to insects feeding on cotton plants.

• The gene coding for Bt toxin has been inserted into cotton, causing cotton to produce this natural insecticide in

its tissues.

5.BIOREMEDIATION

• Bioremediation is the use of micro-organism metabolism to remove pollutants such as contaminated soil or groundwater.

• E.g.: Bacteria Pseudomonas is used clean the oil spills.

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6.Fermentation technology.• Fermentation typically refers to the conversion of

sugar to acids, gases and/or alcohol using yeast or bacteria.

• E.g.: Production of alcohols(Beer, Wines)

• Production of wine from grapes using yeast.

Fermentation technology

• Production of beer from cereals using yeast

• In the absence of oxygen yeast convert the sugars of grapes into alcohol and carbon dioxide through the process of fermentation

7. NANOBIOTECHNOLOGY

• Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular scale.

• Nanobiotechnology refers to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology.

• This discipline helps to indicate the merger of biological research with various fields of nanotechnology. Concepts that are enhanced through nanobiology include: nanodevices, nanoparticles.

• This technical approach to biology allows scientists to create systems that can be used for biological research.

Targeted-Drug Delivery• Is a method of delivering medication to a

patient in a manner that increases the concentration of the medication in some parts of the body relative to others.

• Carbon Nanotubes are used as drug carriers for drug delivery.

• Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure providing a very large surface area.

CNT’s for drug delivery

• CNT is used effectively as a vehicle to deliver drugs to the targeted sick cell (such as a cancer cell) with unprecedented accuracy and efficiency.

CNT’s: Cancer Therapy

• Rapidly dividing cancer cells have an unusually high number of receptors for folate and IgG.

• Nanostructures coated in folate can pass with relative ease into cancerous cells.

• Antibodies promise even greater selectivity; for example, a nanostructure can be coated with antibodies that bind to proteins found only on the surface of cancerous cells.

CNTS’ and Cancer Therapy• Once the nanotubes are stuck to the cancerous

targets, they are poised to kill in one of two ways.• Their hollow interiors can carry anticancer drugs,• or they can be acitvated with infrared. • Bathed in infrared light, which passes easily

through body tissue, the carbon nanotubes heat up dramatically and destroy the attached cancerous cells.

Advantages of CNT’s

• Carbon nanotubes present the opportunity to work with effective structures that have high drug loading capacities and good cell penetration qualities.

• These nanotubes function with a larger inner volume to be used as the drug container, large aspect ratios for numerous functionalization attachments, and the ability to be readily taken up by the cell