We consume them daily. In fact, they make up about 80% of processed foods that Americans eat today (). But what are they? They are Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs as it is commonly known. This is one of many applications of Biotechnology. Although it is meant for a many beneficial applications, there is a stigma with the acronym GMO. The first appearance of GMOs made the public a little eerie. With the help of media painting GMOs as a negative entity, the public instantly feared the evolutionally technology out of ignorance. The media claimed the modified organism caused health complications, GMOs are unethical, and the process was unregulated. In contrary many research has proven GMOs has many positive applications. Beneficiary applications
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Penicillin is used as an antibiotic drug to treat many bacterial infections including Streptococcus pneumonia, H. influenza, E. coli, and more (). Penicillin is naturally grown from a mold, but making the antibiotic can be tedious naturally. To enhance production of penicillin, scientist has genetically modified a strand bacterium that can produce penicillin more efficiently. What they do is introduce a gene that produces the antibiotic into the DNA of a bacterium that grows quite rapidly (). Innovation like that treats, and in some cases saves millions of lives battling with bacterial infections. Overall the uses of GMOs for medicine can be endless. In addition, scientist also created a strand of corn to help prevent kids from going blind. In many regions of the world, children lack essential nutrients for normal growth. Children with insufficient vitamin B in their diets causes 500,000 kids go blind every year (). To help fight this epidemic, a synthesized strand of corn was created using biotechnology. To create the genetically modified corn, scientist used a similar method that is used to make penicillin. First they placed a gene that makes beta-carotene into the DNA of the host. Once consumed beta-carotene in the body, digestion breaks beta-carotene into vitamin B. Then the offspring with the desired trait is selective chosen to produce more (). Both of applications help improve millions of lives. Further research is needed to someday cure more people or treat life treating
Penicillin is used as an antibiotic drug to treat many bacterial infections including Streptococcus pneumonia, H. influenza, E. coli, and more (). Penicillin is naturally grown from a mold, but making the antibiotic can be tedious naturally. To enhance production of penicillin, scientist has genetically modified a strand bacterium that can produce penicillin more efficiently. What they do is introduce a gene that produces the antibiotic into the DNA of a bacterium that grows quite rapidly (). Innovation like that treats, and in some cases saves millions of lives battling with bacterial infections. Overall the uses of GMOs for medicine can be endless. In addition, scientist also created a strand of corn to help prevent kids from going blind. In many regions of the world, children lack essential nutrients for normal growth. Children with insufficient vitamin B in their diets causes 500,000 kids go blind every year (). To help fight this epidemic, a synthesized strand of corn was created using biotechnology. To create the genetically modified corn, scientist used a similar method that is used to make penicillin. First they placed a gene that makes beta-carotene into the DNA of the host. Once consumed beta-carotene in the body, digestion breaks beta-carotene into vitamin B. Then the offspring with the desired trait is selective chosen to produce more (). Both of applications help improve millions of lives. Further research is needed to someday cure more people or treat life treating