A Better Life for You

A Better Life: Are You Willing To Do What It Takes To Achieve It?

What is genetic engineering?

It refers to all techniques that artificially move genes from one organism to another,
often from one species to another, to produce new or novel organisms.
Ex. At the Roslin Institute in Scotland, scientists successfully cloned an exact copy of a
sheep, named 'Dolly'. This was the first successful cloning of an animal and most likely
the first occurrence of two organisms being genetically identical.

Benefits of genetic engineering

1. Genetic engineering has helped with the production of vaccines and
other drugs in plants.
Example:

Genetic engineering processes can make human insulin

• Insulin is a hormone that regulates the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood
and is required for the body to function normally.

• First they put DNA coding for insulin into bacteria DNA, next they feed the
bacteria cells to make insulin from special DNA, and then they remove the insulin
and give it to a diabetic person.

Genetic engineers recently cloned Antihemophilic factor

Antihemophilic factor, a substance naturally produced in our body, which activates

substances in our blood to form clots and decrease bleeding episodes.

Natural Drugs that may be soon be genetically engineered are:

• Endorphin
✔ One of the body's own painkillers, it reduce our perception of pain.

• Interleukin
✔ stimulates growth of disease-fighting cells

• Human Serum Albumin

 ✔ It is used in many implantable biomaterials, surgical adhesives and
surgical sealants due to its ability to coagulate. Its conjugation seals
and binds in a way that few other biomaterials can.
• Streptokinase and Urokinase

✔ Work within our blood system in dissolving blood clots

At the University of California, Drs. Wesley Hartfield and Moyra Smith

✔ Discovered genes that mutate to prevent proper metabolism of

alcohol.

Genetic Engineering brings hope and relief to people that has disease.

• Fred Kostaras
✔ A diabetic patient
✔ Diabetic people don't have pancreas cells that make insulin for them, so
then they can get insulin from an animal or have someone make human
insulin by using human DNA.
✔ He injects a genetically engineered form of insulin that is the exact
molecular duplicate of human insulin.

• Tracy Moreno
✔ 10m woman who was growing too slowly
✔ Regularly injects growth hormone

• Marion Benneth
✔ Patient with melanoma
✔ Despite surgery, cancer cells spread throughout her body
✔ She is injecting a genetically engineered interferon, a natural defense in
our body that helps combating illness.

1. In humans, genetic engineering is used to treat genetic disorders and

cancer. It also helps in supplying new body parts.
What is cancer?

• Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by out-of-control cell growth. Cancer

harms the body when damaged cells divide uncontrollably to form lumps or
masses of tissue called tumors
• It can interfere with the digestive, nervous, and circulatory systems and they can
release hormones that alter body function.

Oncogene
 • A gene that contributes to the production of a cancer.
• These are abnormal cells normally undergo a programmed form of death.
But due to activated oncogenes it helps those cells to survive and
proliferate instead.

Dr. Robert Ellsworth of the Opthalmic Oncology Center at New York Hospital

• Identified a gene that controls the growth of cancer cells in the retina
• Causing the disease called Retinoblastoma

 Retinoblastoma is a tumor that occurs in the retina. This is the light-sensitive

lining of the eye.

1. Pregnant women who can choose to have their fetuses screened for genetic
defects. Fetus with a genetic defect could be treated with genetic therapy
even before it is born.
Disadvantages
Genetic engineering also have borderlines on many moral issues, particularly involving
religion, which questions whether man has the right to manipulate the laws and course
of nature.