By Melanie
What is Genetic Engineering?
Genetic engineering is a process that involves the modification of the DNA makeup of an organism through changing, deleting or adding a segment of DNA. While still being researched and experimented with in the science industry, genetic engineering has been used to mass-produce drugs and vaccines, produce certain desired traits in organisms, and genetically modify plants to help reduce starvation in developing countries.
A bit of history:
The first accomplished use of biotechnology for genetic modification through transgenesis was achieved by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen in 1973. The biochemists were among the first to fragment and rejoin different DNA to modify the sequences in E. Coli bacteria. The evolving techniques of genetic engineering have led to the development of very medically important products that we use in the modern day and have helped us gain a better understanding of new biomedical capabilities.
How is it carried out?
Scientists isolate and extract the gene responsible for the desired trait from an organism
The gene is inserted into a ‘vector’, which could either be a virus or a bacterial plasmid
The vector is then introduced to the organism that we want to genetically modify
The vector is taken up by the cells of that organism and will start to produce the protein that the gene codes for
How is it being used in the modern day?
Production of drugs and vaccines
Bacteria are genetically modified to produce insulin, a human hormone, which can be used to treat diabetes
Follistim as a drug used to treat infertility in women
Helping plants develop certain nutrients and resistance to diseases, insects and herbicides to increase yield, size and quality of crops for food security in developing countries
“Golden rice” containing beta carotene to protect people from going blind
Gene therapy (in development) to fix severe genetic disorders
Changing the physical traits of newborn babies
What does the future of genetic engineering look like?
In recent decades, scientists have been developing ways to use genetic engineering as a way to treat inherited disorders (faulty genes). This idea is known as ‘gene therapy’ and is based on giving the patient the healthy version of a gene to fix the problem. However, this method has been shown to be extremely difficult as the faulty genes would be present in all cells in the body, making it hard for doctors to treat and replace. To overcome this, scientists have found that a potential solution would be to transfer the gene at a very early stage of development (the egg/embryo stage).
Sources:
https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Genetic-Engineering#:~:text=Genetic%20engineering%20(also%20called%20genetic,a%20new%20segment%20of%20DNA
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