Biotechnology: Understanding The Human Body

Improved Essays
In every single learning aspect we learn more and more as time progresses. If it may be the slight change in weather or possibly even a new discovery we continue to learn and gain a better understanding of the world we are living in, and how we live in it. We have broadened our capabilities to understanding the human body and the certain processes that we need to be completed in order for us to keep surviving in this world, and we just keep going up from there. Since we have come to the realization and understanding of the processes in our bodies we have had a very drastic upturn from that point on, and we just gain more information from the parts we already know. There are so many discoveries that we have found leading to current day understanding …show more content…
The very first step for biotechnology was by Charles Darwin. He establish the Theory of Evolution and its mechanism, natural selection, and challenging both the accepted scientific and religious views of Western culture that had been being taught for centuries before. The book he wrote On the Origin of Species was sold out the first day it was published. The age of genetics begins in 1865, when Gregory Mendel, studying inherited traits of pea plants, outlines the basic laws of heredity that still hold true today for all organisms. Mendel 's discoveries about genes are not recognized by other scientists for over thirty five years. In 1910 the Chromosomal theory of inheritance was proposed and Thomas Hunt Morgan established that genes are found on chromosomes by physically finding an exact gene to an exact chromosome. In 1941 George Beadle and Edward Tatum establish that one gene creates one enzyme or protein, and shared the 1958 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Then in 1952 Martha Chase and Alfred Hershey used a common kitchen appliance to separate the protein coats of viruses from their DNA to show that DNA is the material that transfers inherited characteristics from one generation to the following. In 1990 they used a four year old girl Ashanti DiSilva with an ADA deficiency for gene therapy. This was conducted with William French Anderson and his colleagues at NIH. They inserted a normal ADA gene into DiSilva’s T-cells and every two months about twenty five percent of her immune system function was restored so she can lead a normal life. The most interesting even that happen was in 1996 that the first mammal was cloned from adult cells. It was Dolly the sheep, and she died at the age of six because of a lung infection. Soon following that they

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    What if you had the choice to save an embryo would you do it if that meant you could have more than one child? Imagine you have a genetic disease and the only option to have children is using the in-vitro fertilization method. This means taking your viable embryos testing and choosing the one that is "healthy" without the disease to have a child while the others get disposed. But, what if you could save them by genetically modifying the DNA sequences using gene technology within the embryos to make it so that they no longer had the disease? Ronald M. Green the author of "Building Baby from the Genes Up” uses his experiences in biomedical ethics to tell his readers that the main reason as to why people are against genetic modifications is because…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bio 1010 Assignment 1

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages

    BIOL 1010 ASSIGNMENT 1 OCT 6 BY JORDAN KAPITANY ST 100883963 Among the many scientific achievements of the twentieth century in the field of bio-technology scientists Paul Berg, Herbert W Boyer, Stanley N Cohen and team for their research that lead the party to discover a technique of taking genes from one organism and inserting them into another organism, also more formally known as Deoxyribonucleic Acid or DNA recombinant technology. In 1971 Berg and team successfully isolated DNA of virus found in monkey's known as lambda then placed the genetic material into DNA sequence of a different simian virus called SV4O. This was done by first using a DNA enzyme, a naturally occurring molecule that has the unique chemicals properties to sever the bonds in the DNA sequence, from a very specific kind of…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Playing God?” by John Evans, technology is dashing at an erratic speed, and nowhere more so than in the field of genetic engineering where the possibility of changing the genes of one’s children isn’t just myth; but quickly becoming a reality. John H. Evans is professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego. He has been a visiting member of the School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, a post-doctoral fellow at the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Program at Yale University and has held a Visiting Professorial Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. Evans primary area of expertise is the sociology of religion.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Contrary to what one would expect based on the title of her book, The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It, Ricki Lewis pens a narrative science focused on the milestones in the history of gene therapy, not just one success story (Lewis, 2012). Corey Haas, the boy who regained his vision after being sentenced to a life of blindness, is only one of the medical miracles mentioned; the book also devotes itself to presenting the theory and procedures behind gene therapy. As a supplement to the curriculum of the AP Biology course, the major biological concept of gene therapy in The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It relates specifically to the third big idea in the AP Biology curriculum framework’s four major points.…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Should We Allow Genetic Engineering of Humans? Genetic engineering is a burgeoning technology that has been surging in development and popularity within the last few years. Genetic engineering is the altercation of genes in an organism. Humans have been doing this for millennia through process of selective breeding since the dawn of agriculture. In modern times, we have made a lot of headway on the development of technologies that make the process easier.…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, provides insight to scientific development issues in the mid 1900’s through the eyes of the Lacks family, the scientists involved, and the author herself. Three key issues discussed in this book are the ethics of informed consent for research, the ethics of genetic engineering, and how scientists relay information to people who are not experts in their areas of practice. The foundation of this book revolves around the ethical issue of consent in research and when it is necessary. In the mid 1950’s there were very few laws about doctors and scientists obtaining informed consent from patients before treating them, experimenting on them, or taking tissues or sample cells from them…

    • 1826 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The cell is the building block of life. The earliest form of these organisms are called stem cells, which can give rise to potentially any kind of cell. The possibilities of these revolutionary cells are vast, and are currently being applied in many scientific fields, one being the medical field. Stem cell scientists study a four to five day old organism, a ball of one hundred and twenty cells, which has the potential to give rise to a human being. Many think that the protection of human life should be extended to these cells.…

    • 1762 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The issue of patenting genes are discussed In “Patenting Life, “ by Michael Crichton and “Decoding the Use of Gene Patents” by John E. Calfee. Although the authors agree that gene testing can be overpriced, the authors have different views about whether or not gene patenting should’ve been granted. Crichton believes that gene patenting should have never been granted, since he believes they can be used to block innovation, and hurt patient care. He argues that gene patents are used to halt research and prevent medical testing.…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    A Home for Maisie 212417193 1 A Home for Maisie 212417193 A Home for Maisie 212417193 2 THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH Maisie's behavior can be interpreted in many different ways, for example using the multidimensional approach we find that there are some similarities between Hutchison's definition of Personal dimensions and Maisie. The psychological person consists of cognition, emotion, and self identity (Hutchison 2013). Maisie is very emotionally unstable, and has little sense of identity.…

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Scientists started to suggest that DNA had genetic material during the 1920’s. Molecular biologists and Neurobiologists together added on research for the next five decades. The first rewarding experiment in manipulating DNA happened in 1973. Fabricated human insulin was the first product by Genentech, the first biotechnology company. The vector that has the gene for insulin can copy and put into a bacterial cell.…

    • 128 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Super Babies What are designer babies? Francis Fukuyama states, "That is, geneticists will identify the gene for a characteristic like intelligence, height, hair color, aggression, or self-esteem and use this knowledge to create a better version of the child" (674). The question is whether designer babies is natural or not, while they may some advantages like reducing the risk of certain diseases and changing favorable traits; they also have some disadvantages that come along the way. When genetically modifying the babies there are two ways that can be achieved by somatic gene therapy and germ-line engineering.…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Martha Cowles Chase was an American geneticist. She was half of a scientist team that uses a kitchen blender in 1952 to help prove that DNA is the genetic material of life. Martha Chase met Alfred Hershey at Cold Spring Laboratory from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, where the Hershey-Chase experiment was performed. For their experiment, they chose to use the T2 bacteriophage as the vehicle for delivering genetic material. The T2 is comprised of only a protein-based outer wall and a DNA core.…

    • 223 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Corn Vs Corn

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In 1935 DNA was discovered and observed for the first time and in 1972 it was spliced and cut. From food to finding cures for sickness humans have been modifying DNA for decades. Modifying DNA has had benefits for years including creating insulin and making bacteria that cleans up oil spills. We have been consuming it since 1994 when Flavr Savr tomatoes, were approved to be sold in grocery stores. Genetically Modified Organisms have been around for a while now, which is why buyers should have the right to know what is in their food.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Reproductive Cloning With constant new developments in science, society is forced to react and adapt. Along with these new developments, citizens are left questioning the ethics behind the experiment. Almost one hundred thirty years ago, society was introduced to the idea of cloning. It was not until the year nineteen ninety-six when the idea became reality and the first cloned mammal was born, Dolly the sheep. She set the grounds for the next cloned mammals to come.…

    • 1416 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Genetic Engineering Throughout history, humans experience many changes whether it is good or bad. Some of these changes can bring issues into the world. One of these “issues” that humans know today is genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is one of the well known creations known to man kind.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics