Genomics

A scientist is hard at work in his lab, working with a single hair of the extinct woolly mammoth. The well preserved DNA was a success in itself for the scientist, making his mission possible. He plans to make another copy of the woolly mammoth with the help of its DNA and its close relative, the elephant. The possibilities with the perfection of his work are endless. The world will not be ready for his great feat. This is the very near future. This is the cloning of extinct animals. This is…

It is generally accepted that a virophage is a viral agent that infects other larger viruses. It is a dsDNA virus which utilizes the replication factories of other viruses to reproduce itself. Virophages are essentially parasitic in nature, much in the same way as traditional satellite viruses. It is not without controversy that distinctions between satellite viruses and virophages are described. The difference between the two often seem more semantic than factual and more supported by…

Let me start off by saying that I’ve never thought about the concept of what exactly race is, but with the material that we have gone over in class and the comments made by other students I've realize there are many different idea of what races mean to each individual, but for me I view race through the lens of biological genetics. I’ll start off with philosophical and biological definition of race. The concept of race has historically signified the division of humanity into a small number of…

A disease outbreak is the occurrence of cases of a disease in excess of what would normally be expected in a defined community or geographical area. The Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976 during the outbreaks in Sudan. Since then there have been an additional ten outbreaks of the virus worldwide. As of 2014, The West African Ebola outbreak was the largest and deadliest recorded in history, killing over 11,000 people. The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) is responsible for the global…

The Extraordinary Science of Microbiology There are a wide variety of microorganisms in this world. The major groups of microorganisms include bacteria and fungi. These microorganisms are found all over the earth. The study of microorganisms started in the mid-1600’s. Most people believed that microorganisms only spread deadly diseases, but scientists proved that microorganisms can also be beneficial to human life. The wide variety of microorganisms that are found everywhere are most well…

whose persistence exemplifies the Red Queen’s dilemma as described by evolutionary biologists. To better understand this crucial dynamic is to understand the molecular basis for the evolution of Foc in relation to its host plant, to identify the genomic elements of the two as they interact, and to consider how methods involving genetic reengineering and artificial selection can help pioneer…

The study of the influence of society in individual’s health is not recent. To demonstrate the sociology utility, Durkheim (1897) examined the suicide rates in population and suggested that the strong social control among Catholics resulted in low rates of suicide. Nowadays, the data collected by Durkheim will not reflect the same reality. However, the mental health is likely to be related not only to genetics factor, but also to the social reality that the individual is inserted. The…

Are the benefits of synthetic biology significant? Pros: Synthetic biology holds major benefits for humanity and promises much. It promises better drugs, less thirsty crops, greener fuels and even a rejuvenated chemical industry. Synthetic biology can help fight climate change and pollution. It has the potential to reduce the dependence on oil and to address climate change. Developed microbes would produce oil, giving a renewable fuel that could be used interchangeably with gasoline without…

Alongside CRISPR-Cas9 in site specific genome editing are ZFNs and TALENs. ZFNs are a DNA-binding motif assembled as ββα that utilizes a roughly thirty amino acid protein with DNA recognizing amino acids at the alpha helix (Gaj, Gersbach, & Barbas, 2013). These groups of amino acids usually recognize DNA in segments of three. This does not present much specificity in a genome. Therefore multiple DNA-binding motifs need to be combined to create specificity and result in highly specific…

Bibliography: Merchant, G. (n.d.). SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES: TEN LESSONS FROM THE HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY REGULATION. Widner Law Journal, Vol. 18(3), p831–858. In-line Citation: (merchant, n.d.), retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy3.lhl.uab.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=4090b5f0-7ad9-4764-942b-653defd97698%40sessionmgr120&hid=107 Overview Technological innovation is what drives the economy. Innovation brings to the world many of the products and services society…