Biotechnology Web Site

Biotechnology Examples

Most Proteins are molecules that serve as the machinery and the catalysts that make cells function. Many useful Biotech products are also proteins or are made by proteins. Since DNA encodes for RNA that programs Protein synthesis, you can change a Protein by changing the DNA. Molecular Biology is advanced sufficiently so that making changes in DNA is very easy in many systems. However, Biotech is still in its infancy and we are still learning all the "rules" in the lab and in the real world.

EXAMPLE	OLD METHOD	NEW METHOD	AVOIDS PROBLEMS LIKE
Golden Rice	Take a supplement pill	Add a metabolic pathway for making Vitamin A to a rice plant	Blindness, expensive vitamin pills
Pesticide-Free Crops Potato	expensive - use poisons to kill pests	Add a gene encoding a "safe" insecticidal protein to crop plant	Crop losses / toxic residues & wildlife loss / wasting money
Insulin	pig pancreas extract	Put human insulin gene into bacteria	Diabetes, allergic response, new diseases
Growth Factor	cadaver brain extract	Put human growth factor gene into bacteria	Dwarfism / spread of brain diseases
Diagnosis of Disease (e.g. Phenylketonuria)	Wait until disease occurs & treat symptoms	Sensitive quick assays to avoid the disease	Progression of disease / unprepared parents
Super Laundry Soaps	Use bleach, hot water	Find & clone designer enzymes	Dirty or shrunken clothes / polluting with chlorine

Biological Systems	compare to	Computer Systems
DNA in nucleus		software, programs on a hard drive
RNA		random access memory (RAM)
ribosomes		central processing unit (CPU)
Proteins		hardware like printers, screens, CD-burners, speakers

If you have a computer (a cell), you can load a program (DNA encoding a gene product = a protein) onto the hard drive (nucleus). If you activate that program (gene), then an information-containing message via RAM (RNA) is sent to the CPU (ribosome). Now the various components of your computer system start performing various functions like: screen displays an image, speakers make sound, and the printer makes hard-copies (proteins can digest food, make your muscles move, or help you think a thought, plus much more!).

If you load a different program (gene), then you will be able to have other functions (proteins). A major emphasis, but not the only goal, of biotechnology is to re-program or alter the genetic material of plants, animals, and microorganisms.

Animated basics of DNA, genes, and heredity

Multimedia guide to some genetic diseases

Amgen - About Biotechnology