Chapter 8Biotechnology

What is Biotechnology?

• Biotechnology is the collection of technologies applied to living organisms or substances derived from living organisms in order to meet a need or a want.

• In other words: Biotechnology is using living things or stuff from living things to help us.

Traditional BiotechnologyAgriculture and Breeding

• Agriculture: developing better techniques for farming.

• Making better tools• Finding better planting and fertilizing methods

• Selective breeding: Choosing only the best crops or animals to produce the next generation.

• With each generation, the resulting crops and animals are closer to what we want. After many generations they may be very different from their wild ancestors.

Food Technology

Most of the technologies here have been used for thousands of

years

• Using living organisms to transform one type of food product into something different.

• Milk + enzymes cheese• Milk + bacteria yogurt• Cereal (barley) grain + yeast beer• Cereal (wheat) grain + yeast bread• Grape juice + yeast wine• Cabbage + bacteria sauerkraut

Modern BiotechnologyCell Cultures

• Cell culture is a laboratory technique used to grow living cells outside of their natural environment.

• This usually results in growing an increasing number of cells in an artificial medium.

• A culture medium is what we grow the cell culture in, usually a Petri dish that contains a gel with all the necessary elements to promote cell growth.

a Petri dish

a Petri dish with growing cell culture

• Cell culture can also be done in test tubes

Bacteria grown in a test tube

Phases of Cell Cultures

Name What cells are doing. What is happening.Lag phase Cells are adapting Little or no growthLog phase Cells are dividing

rapidly using resourcesRapid growth

Stationary phase

Cells are depleting resources

Growth rate matches death rate (level)

Death phase Resources are all used up

Cells are dying off rapidly

• Workbook pages 139 to 144

Modern BiotechnologyGenetic Transformations

• A gene is a bit of DNA that controls one feature of an organism.

• A genetic transformation is the modification of one creature’s DNA by removing a gene, changing a gene, or adding a gene from a different species.

• After the creature’s DNA has been modified, it is called a GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) or a transgenic organism.

Examples of a G.M.O.

• Spider DNA has been inserted into goat cells, resulting in a goat that produces spider-silk proteins in its milk.

• DNA from bacteria has been inserted into corn plants to make them resistant to a disease caused by the European Corn Borer larva.

• DNA from fireflies or other bioluminescent organisms has been inserted into mice and other animals to make them glow in the dark.

Spider DNA Silk protein in goat milk

firefly DNA Glow-in-the-dark mouse

See pictures on page 246 and 247 of your text book

Advantages of GMOs• Can improve plant oil quality (soy, canola)• Can produce more nutritious foods (rice)• Can reduce need for pesticides. (corn, tomatos)• Can reduce allergic effects (peanuts, soy, rice) • Increased growth rate (G.M. Salmon*)• Less harmful manure (G.M. Pigs*)• Produce lactose-free milk (G.M. Cows*)• Produce milk more like humans (G.M. Cows*)

*These animal products are not currently legal for sale in Quebec

Concerns about GMOs• Risk of creating a dangerous GMO• Risk of creating new allergies• Risk of reducing biodiversity• Risk that insect resistance could lead to

reduction of useful insects• Risk that GMO herbicide resistance could

transfer to weeds.• Legal questions regarding ownership of GMOs

spread by pollenation.

“Frankenfood”A nickname given to food or crops that contain GMOs

• Genetic modification can certainly improve crops, or help them resist disease,

• some people wonder if they will have other effects on us.

• Will they be as nutritious?• Will they have side effects?• What about diversity?• Who owns the rights to food?• What if we accidentally

develop a dangerous crop like “Day of the Triffids”?

Cloning• Cloning is the process of producing a

genetically identical copy of a living organism.• Cloning is done by replacing the nucleus of an

unfertilized egg with a nucleus from a cell of the organism to be cloned.

• Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, was created this way in 1997.

• Since humans are also mammals, it is theoretically possible to clone human beings—however, nearly every country has passed laws to stop human cloning!

R.I.P. Original StarbuckHappy Birthday, er, Cloneday

Starbuck II

Starbuck IIA bull cloned here in Quebec

• The original Starbuck was a championship bull. When he died in 1998 breeders decided to recreate him as a clone.

• Although the cloning was successful, they are not allowed to sell any products from Starbuck II, since it is illegal to sell cloned animal products in Canada.

Two Types of Cloning

• Reproductive cloning:– Creates an individual who is genetically identical

to the person cloned. Note that being genetically identical does not guarantee a similar personality and does not give similar memories or knowledge.

• Therapeutic Cloning:– Could grow tissue or organs for transplanting. An

embryo could be produced, and then “harvested” for parts.

Illegal in

Canada

Illegal in

Canada

Experimental Moratorium

• In fact, there are many types of genetic experimentation that are either illegal or highly restricted in Canada and even more in the United States.

• Stem Cell Research (allowed, but with restrictions)• Human Genetic Modification (mostly illegal)• Human Cloning (illegal)• Animal Cloning (restricted, and sale of products illegal)• Animal Genetic Modification (restricted, and sale of

products illegal)• Plant Cloning & Genetic modification (mostly allowed)

Restrict

ed

Modern BiotechnologyApplications in Agriculture and Food

Modern BiotechnologyApplications in Medicine and Health

• Immunity is the capacity to resist disease.• If we have been exposed before, we are

better able to fight off the infectious agent that causes the disease.

• The first time we are exposed, it takes our bodies over a week to find out how to fight the disease

• The second time, it takes only 12 to 24 hours for our body to start fighting the disease– and it does it better the second time around.

Vaccination

• A vaccination deliberately infects you with an attenuated (weakened) version of the disease.

• The weakened infectious agent is strong enough to “teach” our immune system how to fight the disease.

• It is not strong enough to actually trigger the disease.

• A vaccine is a prepared substance that is able to immunize a person against one or several diseases.

• Live vaccines contain weakened, living infectious agents.• Inactive vaccines contain chemicals (antigens) from

infectious agents.

Interesting Facts about Vaccination• The first successful documented vaccinations

were performed by Dr. Edward Jenner in 1796

• He used a weak cowpox vaccine to immunize people against more serious smallpox.

• Vaccination comes from the Latin word “Vacca”, meaning “cow”. That’s because the first vaccine came from a cow disease.

• Smallpox is now thought to be extinct. In just 200 years vaccinations got rid of a formerly deadly disease.

Recommended Vaccinations(most are recommended and covered by RAMQ)

Disease vaccine Type Age at 1st dose Booster dose(s)

DTaPDiptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis

inactive 2 months 4, 6, and 18 monthsThen every 10 years

Polio- Hib (usually with DTaP) Inactive 2 months 4, 6, and 18 months

Pneumococcus Inactive 2 months 4, 12 months and age 65

Influenza (flu) Inactive 6 to 23 months noneAnnually if needed*

Chickenpox Live 12 months none

MMRMeasles, mumps, rubella

Live 12 months 18 months

Meningococcus Inactive 12 months None

Hepatitis B Inactive 9 years none

*each year a seasonal flu vaccine is developed in the autumn, and is recommended only for people who are at high risk for catching the flu, and may not be covered by the RAMQ.

Modern BiotechnologyApplications in Medicine and Health

• Infertility treatments:• Used to allow a childless couple to conceive children

– 1. Ovarian Stimulation• Medication is used to stimulate the ovaries into

developing more follicles and eggs than normal. Used if a woman is not ovulating normally.

– 2. Artificial Insemination• Sperm are injected directly into the uterus on the day

of ovulation. Used if sperm are having difficulty getting through the cervix.

– 3. In vitro fertilization • (see next slide)

In vitro fertilization(Test tube babies)

• Procedure:– Use ovarian stimulation so the woman will

produce more eggs.– Retrieve eggs and sperm.– The egg and sperm are mixed in a glass

dish (in vitro is Latin for “in glass”) were fertilization occurs.

– The embryo created is transferred to the uterus, where a (hopefully) normal pregnancy occurs.

Louise Brown, the world’s first test tubebaby was born in 1978

Modern BiotechnologyApplications in Medicine and Health

• Tissue and Organ Engineering– Some of our body tissues, like our bones and skin, are very

good at repairing themselves.– Others, like our nerves, do not repair themselves.

• Wouldn’t it be neat if we could make replacement parts?– Tissue engineering makes artificial replacement parts.

Rat, genetically altered to produce a human ear part

• Wouldn’t it be neat if all of our tissues could repair themselves?

Some animals, like salamanders, can re-grow complete limbs. Cut off a salamander’s foot, and it will grow back!Why can’t we do that?

Specialized Cells

• Most human cells are highly specialized.• Specialized cells play a specific role in the human

body. When a specialized cell divides, it produces cells that have the same function as it does.– Muscle cells produce only muscle cells– Liver cells produce only liver cells– Etc.

• Our cells cannot go back to the simpler forms they had when we were embryos. This means that we cannot rebuild lost organs.

Stem Cells

• There is another type of human cell, the Stem Cell

• Stem Cells do not play any particular role in the human organism, but they can divide many times, and can transform into a variety of specialized cells– Stem cells are rare in adults (mainly in bone marrow)

– Stem cells are common in embryos (that’s how embryos grow, change and repair themselves)

Stem Cell Research

• Scientists are researching the uses of stem cells in repairing tissues and curing diseases.

• Some conditions stem cell research might help:

• Nerve damage from diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s or multiple sclerosis.

• Paralysis from spinal injury or strokes.• Certain types of blood and lymph node cancer.• Improved skin grafts for burn victims.• Organ repair or replacement.• Reversing the aging process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stem_cell_treatments.svg

Ethical Standards and Stem Cells• Stem cell research is promising, but it is controversial

as well. Since most stem cells come from embryos, rules have to be used to prevent people from destroying embryos just for the sake of getting stem cells.

• Embryos should not be sold or nor stem cells obtained through commercial transactions.

• Donations of embryonic tissue must be done of a woman’s own free will.

• Donors must be informed, and consent given.• Umbilical and placental stem cells can be used only

with both parents’ consent.

Modern Biotechnology Assignments

• Textbook Reading: pages 239 to 263• Workbook pages 150 to 154

Biotechnology Videos• What is Biotechnology?• Biotechnology Propaganda• Pro embryonic Stem Cell video• Anti embryonic Stem Cell video