Extra Credit: Gene Therapy

Gene therapy is basically inserting a “good” gene where the one before was defective.

a common risk is when foreign “good” gene is inserted, it affects more cells than it is supposed to and could cause cancer. The gene could also be put in the wrong place or become over-expressed. 

There are 2 forms of gene therapy: somatic and germline.In somatic gene therapy some of the patient's genes may be altered to treat a disease, it doesn’t alter the chance that the disease will be passed on to the patient's children.

In germline gene therapy, genes are modified inside the egg or sperm by injecting DNA fragments. Although it might be able to prevent inherited disease, germline gene therapy is controversial and has not been researched very much due to ethical reasons.

Benefits: There are many benefits to people affected by genetic disorders or diseases today. Whether the diseases is widespread and common or rare and deadly, gene therapy can be the cure to many people's daily problems. An article in the New York Times stated that the developer of an eye treatment, Spark Therapeutics, said the treatment had allowed people with certain inherited retinal dystrophies to more easily maneuver in dimmer light than they could before. The company said it planned to apply to the Food and Drug Administration next year for approval to sell the product. 

Although eye treatments are not the biggest change in the world of biotechnology, gene therapy has the potential to cure other more prominent disorders. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that makes the mucus in the body thick and sticky, clogging airways. An improved gene therapy experiment worked by curing mice with cystic fibrosis and testing cells from the gut of CF patients. Both in mice with cystic fibrosis and in gut cell cultures, this approach yielded positive results. Professor Zeger Debyser from KU Leuven, Belgium said, "We administered the rAAV to the mice via their airways. Most of the CF mice recovered. In the patient-derived cell cultures, chloride and fluid transport were restored... Developing a treatment based on gene therapy will take years of work. For one thing, our study did not involve actual human beings, only mice and patient-derived cell cultures." 

Risks: The viruses that are used to deliver the good genes can affect more than the cells for which they're intended. If a gene is added to DNA, it could be put in the wrong place, which could potentially cause cancer. Genes also can be over-expressed, meaning they can ramp up the production of so much of a protein that they can be harmful by producing the wrong amount of proteins. 

I believe that the benefits do outweigh the risks because these risks can be fixed over time when more knowledge about DNA sequencing. To cure genetic diseases, scientists must first determine which gene or set of genes causes each disease. The Human Genome Project have completed the initial work of sequencing and mapping, but they are becoming more detailed and accurate. This research will provide new strategies to diagnose, treat, cure, and possibly prevent human diseases with gene therapy with fewer errors. Although the risks are dangerous, the idea that many genetic disorders could be cured and even prevented for generations to come is worth the odds of small mistakes. 

Work Cited: 

-Gene therapy: Promising candidate for cystic fibrosis treatment ( http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151116084010.htm )

-Eye Treatment Closes In on Being First Gene Therapy Approved in U.S.( http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/science/eye-treatment-closes-in-on-being-first-gene-therapy-approved-in-us.html?_r=0 ) 

Unit 6 Reflection

In Unit 6, we learned about biotechnology and how there were many different uses of it in the world. There is industrial biotech which is like mass production of GMOs, like food or fermented substances. Another biotech field is medical biotech, which is the production medicine and antibiotics. There is diagnostic biotech that is more related to DNA and comparing organisms. And there is Agricultural biotech, which deals with breeding of plants and animals and makes transgeneic organisms.When there are such advances in the field of biotechnonlogy, there will come many questions of morals. Things like cloning and changing genes are debated in the world today. My weaknesses were understanding gel electrophoresis and my strengths were remembering the types of fields in biotechnology. But after the experiment, I grasped the idea of gel electrophoresis a lot better.  

In class, we did a candy gel electrophoresis experiment (http://rachelbsciblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/candy-electrophoresis-lab.html?m=1) and a pGLO lab ( http://rachelbsciblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/pglo-lab.html?m=1) with bacteria. I learned about what the experiments really looked like rather than justbreading about them and how long they take with the different steps. 

I want to learn more about the different bioethical topics because I found it interesting to see what could benefit mankind. With such new technologies being made, there should be a lot of changes in the future. I wonder about what will be made in the next 20 years that will change our lives. 

My New Years goals are coming along pretty well. I have began studying Sunday for the test on Wednesday and prepared the study outline for the week. Also my goal of watching less TV has been working but mainly because I've been so busy that I don't even have time. Hopefully I can keep up this habit for the rest of the semester and read more books. 

pGLO Lab

1.

Plate Number of Colonies Color of colonies under room light Color of colonies under   UV light - pGLO LB carpet beige beige - pGLO LB/amp 0 none none + pGLO LB/amp 4 beige beige + pGLO LB/amp/ara 24 beige green

2. The new transformed bacteria has resistance to antibiotics and has the trait for glowing under UV light. 3. I estimate around 20-30 bacterium were in the 100 mircoliters because the +pGLO LB/AMP has only 4 colonies that were started but +pGLO LB/AMP/ARA ended with 24 colonies. 4. Arabinose turns on the pGLO gene to glow under UV light. 5. GFP can be used to identify certain bacteria to see if it is present or not in a certain solution, it can be used to make animals glow in the dark maybe as an adaptation, and it can show if an inserted gene has been taken in by glowing in the making of GMOs. 6. Genetic engineering has also been used for making pesticide and herbicide resistant plants for farmers to have a greater crop and produce the most food possible.

Candy Electrophoresis Lab

1. Absent.
2. The green is similar to Blue 1 because their bonds look alike. The color green is very similar to blue because green is made up of blue so they should be a similar length.
3. Manufacturers put dyes in dog food because it makes it visually appealing and that results in more people buying it.
4. Artificial colors would be preferred because they catch more attention in the eye of the consumer.
5. Length and weight of dye.
6. Electrical force helped move the dyes to the positive.
7. DNA is negatively charged so the small pieces crawl easier through the gel to get to the positive.
8. The 600 would be the closest to the positive, then 1000 and 2000, and then 5000 should be the one closest to the negative side.

Recombinant DNA Lab

Our antibiotic resistance was to ampicillan and we found the restriction enzyme Asp II once in the plasmid and twice in the human cell gene, above and below the insulin gene. The bacteria fit in with the other DNA and made a longer strand.
1. I would use ampicillan because the bacteria will resist the antibiotic if the bacteria was taken in. I would not use tetracycline or kanamycine because the plasmid does not have resistance to either antibiotic so those antibiotics would not show if the bacteria is accepted or not.
2. Restriction enzymes are enzymes that are used to recombine DNA by finding a specific nucleotide sequence and cutting it out making a sticky end. We used Asp II because we found it on the plasmid once and the strand twice.
3.  If the plasmid was cute twice then the plasmid would have too many sticky ends and the two places on the end of the plasmid don't fit in with the DNA strand. Sticky ends can only connect if both ends are from the same restriction enzyme.
4. This process is used in the genetically altered food that we eat and buy from grocery stores. This kind of technology changes the way plants grow in different seasons for farmers and consumers.
5. Recombinant DNA is used in insect-resistant and herbicide-resistant plants for farming and gardening. It is also used in Hepatitis B vaccine and the diagnosis of HIV which is very important in the medical world for everyone.

New Years Goals

-I will make sure to study more over the course of a week before a test. I want to reduce cramming and stress caused by not being on top of the unit. To complete this I will, make diagrams after a new lesson has a been taught and make a study guide through out the unit to recap what was learned and so I can quiz myself. I want to make sure that I know the topics as I watch the vodcasts instead of freaking out at before the test because I never understood it.

-I will watch less TV. I want to do this because I want more sleep and to manage my time better. Sometimes I feel like there is not enough time in the day to do the things I want and TV is wasting time. To do this, I will not start new shows and try to read more instead of watching stuff.