file · web viewthere are four main subfields of biotech, which most implementations fit under:...

Lecture (2) Biotechnology and Genetic engineering Dr.Abeer Fauzi Murad

Applications of Biotech

Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make

products, or "any technological application that uses biological systems, living

organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for

specific use

There are four main subfields of biotech, which most implementations fit under:

green, blue, white, and red. Green biotech has to do with plants and growing, blue

biotech has to do with aquatic uses of biological technology, white biotech is used

in industry, and red biotech is used for medical purposes. While all four subfields

have contributed a number of valuable processes, green biotech is probably the

most widely used, while blue biotech is still relatively rare. White biotech, which is

also sometimes referred to as grey biotech, primarily focuses on using biological

organisms to produce or manipulate things in a way that is beneficial for industry.

Some bacteria can be used to treat metals or plastics, for example, in a way that

may be more efficient or more cost-effective than more traditional methods. Others

may be used to actively produce a chemical or compound to be used in the

industrial process. One exciting use of white biotech is a way of cleaning a

contaminated environment by releasing bacteria that help break down or degrade

the unwanted chemical. Bacteria that consume oil from oil spills are one example

of this. Red biotech is used to create substances for medical use or to directly aid

the body in fighting a disease or illness. The practice of genetically modifying

yeasts and bacteria to produce drugs is one widespread use of red biotech, often

allowing for the creation of drugs that would otherwise be impossible to

manufacture. Manipulating a patient’s genome to cure a disease is another,

relatively new use of red biotech. Green biotech is easily the oldest use of

biotechnology by humans, dating back to the first uses of selective breeding in

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plants, and in the modern age, green biotech is also the most hotly contested area

of biotechnological growth. The genetic modification of plants to produce desired

effects – such as resistance to a certain chemical or pest, or increased crop yield –

is widely used throughout the world on a number of crops, particularly staple food

crops such as corn, rice, and soy. Many proponents believe that genetically

modified organisms (GMOs) have the potential to be much more environmentally

friendly and to help solve food crises throughout the world. Opponents believe

these transgenic food crops pose a threat to biodiversity, and may pose health risks

as well.

Applications Of Biotech

Biotechnology has application in four major industrial areas, including health care

(medical), crop production and agriculture, non food (industrial) uses of crops and

other products (e.g. biodegradable plastics, vegetable oil, biofuels), and

environmental uses.

Applications Of Biotech On Medicine

Biotechnology is a very huge field and its applications are used in a variety of

fields of science such as agriculture and medicine. The pasture of biotechnology,

genetic engineering, has introduced techniques like gene therapy,

recombinant DNA technology and polymerase chain retort which employ genes

and DNA molecules to make a diagnosis diseases and put in new and strong genes

in the body which put back the injured cells. There are some applications of

biotechnology, which are live, their part in the turf of medicine and giving good

results

1-Biopharmaceutical

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By means of the technique of biotechnology, the drugs biopharmaceuticals were

urbanized. There are no chemicals concerned in the combination of these drugs,

but microorganisms have completed it likely to expand them. Large molecules of

proteins are typically the source of biopharmaceuticals. They when under attack in

the body attack the hidden mechanisms of the disease and wipe out them. Now

scientists are annoying to expand such biopharmaceutical drugs which can be

treated against the diseases like hepatitis, cancer and heart diseases.

2-Gene therapy

Gene therapy is one more technique of biotechnologies which is used to delicacy

and diagnoses diseases like cancer and Parkinson's disease. The apparatus of this

technique is that the fit genes are under attack in the body which either obliterate

the injured cells or replace them. In some cases, the fit genes make corrections in

the genetic information and that is how the genes start performance in the favor of

the body.

So gene therapy : is in a way, genetic engineering of humans, which would allow a

personsuffering from a disabling genetic disorder to lead a normal life.

3-Immune technologies:

Such as monoclonal antibodies (MABs) for diagnosis and therapy.Antibodies,

special sets of proteins present in humans that enable them to fight incursion

oftheir bodies by harmful chemicals or micro-organisms. Monoclonal antibodies

are singlechemical species of antibodies produced in the laboratory by a special

technique. Nobel Prize was awarded for this in the 1980’s to Cesar Milstein and

Georges Koehler. Mouse MAB’s can be used for the diagnosis of human diseases.

As human MABs are difficult to produce in thelaboratory, genetically engineered

plants are likely to find wide application in the production ofhuman MABs.

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4-Tissue culture:

Tissue culture of both plant and animal cells. These are used for Micropropagation

of elite or exotic materials (Such as orchids), production of useful compounds

suchas taxol (the widely used anti-cancer drug) and vanillin, and preparation in the

laboratory of natural” tissues such as arteries for arterial graft or

skin for burn victims. (Modern tissueculture technologies allow the multiplication

in the laboratory of cells isolated from plants andanimals. In the case of plants, one

can grow in the lab a whole plant from a single cell.)

5-Stem cell techniques:

This would involve purification and isolation of stem cells from varioustissues and

develop into the desired tissue which could then be used, for example,

fortransplantation. Stem cells can be either totipotent (have the capability to

produce any desiredcell type or organ of the body under specific conditions) or

they could be pluripotent (able todevelop into several though not all cell types or

organs). As embryonic stem cells are morelikely to potency than stem cells from

adult tissues, the immediate emphasis in the area of stemcells is going to be first in

the direction of establishing cell lines derived from early humanembryos, from

which stem cells could be isolated.

6-Enzyme engineering and technology:

Involves immobilized or stabilized enzymes, new classesof enzymes (ribozymes)

or new enzymatic routes that produce important organic compounds.Enzymes are

biological catalysts (Generally proteins) poised to replace

inorganic catalysts,which are used in chemical industry. (Proteins are abundant

biological entities made up oftwenty amino acids strung together like pearls in a

necklace, by a special type of thread- achemical bond called the peptide bond. One

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protein differs from another in the total number ofamino acids and their sequence

in the chain.)

7-Pharmacogenomics

Pharmacogenomics is an additional genetically modified method which is used to

learn the genetic information of a personality. It analyzes the body's reply to sure

drugs. It is the mixture of pharmaceuticals and genomics. The aspire of this field is

to expand such drugs which are inserted in the person according to the genetic

information there in the individual.

8-Genetic testing

Genetic testing is a technique of heredity which is used to conclude the genetic

diseases in parents, sex and carrier screening. The technique of genetic testing is to

use DNA probes which have the sequence alike to the mutated sequences. This

technique is also used to recognize the criminals and to test the parenthood of the

child.

Applications Of Biotech On Agriculture

Biotechnology is frequently deliberated the similar with the biomedical investigate,

but there are a group of other industries which take advantage of biotech method

for studying, cloning and varying genes. We have turn out to be familiar to the

thought of enzymes in our everyday lives and a lot of people are recognizable with

the argument adjacent the use of GMOs in our foods. The agricultural industry is at

the middle of that debate, but since the days of George Washington Carver,

agricultural biotech has been producing innumerable new products that have the

possible to alter our lives for the improved.

1. Vaccines

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Oral vaccines have been in the works for much existence as a likely solution to the

increase of disease in immature countries, where costs are excessive to extensive

vaccination. Hereditarily engineered crops, frequently fruits or vegetables, planned

to carry antigenic proteins from transferable pathogens that will activate an

immune reply when injected.

An example of this is a patient-specific vaccine for treating cancer. An anti-

lymphoma vaccine has been made using tobacco plants carrying RNA from cloned

malignant B-cells. The resultant protein is then used to vaccinate the patient and

boost their immune system beside the cancer. Tailor-made vaccines for cancer

treatment have shown substantial promise in preliminary studies.

2. Antibiotics

Plants are used to create antibiotics for both human and animal use. An expressing

antibiotic protein in stock feed, fed straight to animals, is less expensive than

traditional antibiotic production, but this practice raise many bioethics issues,

because the result is widespread, possibly needless use of antibiotics which may

encourage expansion of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strain. Quite a few rewards to

using plants to create antibiotics for humans are condensed costs due to the larger

quantity of product that can be produced from plants versus a fermentation unit,

ease of purification, and condensed risk of contamination compared to that of using

mammalian cells and culture media..

3. Flowers

There is extra to agricultural biotechnology than just hostility disease or civilizing

food quality. There is some simply aesthetic application and an example of this is

the use of gene recognition and transfer techniques to improve the color, smell,

size and other features of flowers.

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Similarly, biotech has been used to make improvement to other common

ornamental plants, in particular, shrubs and trees. Some of these changes are

similar to those made to crops, such as enhancing cold confrontation of a breed of

tropical plant, so it can be grown in northern gardens.

4. Biofuels

The agricultural industry plays a big role in the biofuels industry, as long as the

feedstock's for fermentation and cleansing of bio-oil, bio-diesel and bio-ethanol.

Genetic engineering and enzyme optimization technique are being used to develop

improved quality feedstocks for more efficient change and higher BTU outputs of

the resulting fuel products. High-yielding, energy-dense crops can minimize

relative costs associated with harvesting and transportation (per unit of energy

derived), resulting in higher value fuel products.

5. Plant and Animal Reproduction

Enhancing plant and animal behavior by traditional methods like cross-pollination,

grafting, and cross-breeding is time-consuming. Biotech advance let for specific

changes to be made rapidly, on a molecular level through over-expression or

removal of genes, or the introduction of foreign genes.

The last is possible using gene expression control mechanism such as specific gene

promoters and transcription factors. Methods like marker-assisted selection

improve the efficiency of "directed" animal breeding, without the controversy

normally associated with GMOs. Gene cloning methods must also address species

differences in the genetic code, the presence or absence of introns and post-

translational modifications such as methylation.

6. Pesticide-Resistant Crops

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Not to be mystified with pest-resistance, these plants are broadminded of

pesticides, allow farmers to selectively kill nearby weeds with no harming their

crop. The most well-known example of this is the Roundup-Ready technology,

urbanized by Monsanto.

First introduced in 1998 as GM soybeans, Roundup-Ready plants are unaffected by

the herbicide glyph sate, which can be applied in copious quantity to get rid of any

other plants in the field. The profit to this is savings in time and costs associated

with conservative tillage to reduce weeds, or multiple applications of different

types of herbicides to selectively eliminate exact species of weeds. The probable

drawbacks include all the controversial arguments against GMOs.

7. Nutrient Supplementation

In an attempt to get better human health, mainly in immature countries, scientists

are creating hereditarily distorted foods that hold nutrients known to help fight

disease or starvation. An example of this is Golden Rice, which contain beta-

carotene, the forerunner for Vitamin A manufacture in our bodies. People who eat

the rice create more Vitamin A, and necessary nutrient lacking in the diets of the

poor in Asian countries.

Three genes, two from daffodils and one from a bacterium, proficient of catalyzing

four biochemical reactions, were cloned into rice to make it "golden". The name

comes from the color of the transgenic grain due to over expression of beta-

carotene, which gives carrots their orange color.

8. A biotic strain confrontation

A lesser quantity of than 20% of the earth is arable land but some crops have been

hereditarily altered to make them more liberal of conditions like salinity, cold and

drought. The detection of genes in plants in charge for sodium uptake has lead to

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growth of knock-out plants able to grow in high salt environments. Up- or down-

regulation of record is usually the method used to alter drought-tolerance in plants.

Corn and rapeseed plants, capable to thrive under lack conditions, are in their

fourth year of field trials in California and Colorado, and it is predictable that

they'll reach the marketplace in 4-5 years.

9. Manufacturing power Fibers

Spider silk is the strongest fiber known to man, stronger than kevlar (used to make

bullet-proof vests), with an advanced tensile power than steel. In August 2000,

Canadian company Nexia announces growth of transgenic goats that formed spider

silk proteins in their milk. While this solved the trouble of mass-producing the

proteins, the agenda was shelve when scientists could not figure out how to spin

them into fibers like spiders do.

By 2005, the goats be up for sale to anyone who would take them. While it seem

the spider silk design has been put on the shelf for the time being, it is a technology

that is sure to appear again in the future, once more information is gather on how

the silks are woven.

Environmental Biotechnology

What is Environmental Biotechnology?

The application of Biotechnology to solve the environmental problems in the

environment and in the ecosystems is called Environmental Biotechnology. It is

applied and it is used to study the natural environment. According to the

international Society for environmental Biotechnology the environmental

Biotechnology is defined as an environment that helps to develop, efficiently use

and regulate the biological systems and prevent the environment from pollution or

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from contamination of land, air and water have work efficiently to sustain an

environment " friendly Society"

Application and benefits of Environmental Biotechnology:

There are five major different types of Applications of Environmental

Biotechnology. They are as follows:

a) Biomarker:

This type of Application of environmental Biotechnology gives response to a

chemical that helps to measure the level of damage caused or the exposure of the

toxic or the pollution effect caused. In other word, Biomarker can also be called as

the Biological markers the major use of this applications helps to relate the

connection between the oils and its sources.

b) Bioenergy:

The collective purport of Biogas, biomass, fuels, and hydrogen are called the

Bioenergy. The use of this application of Environment Biotechnology is in the

industrial, domestic and space sectors. As per the recent need it is concluded that

the need of clean energy out of these fuels and alternative ways of finding clean

energy is the need of the hour. One of the pioneer examples of green energy are the

wastes collected from the organic and biomass wastes; these wastes help use to

over the pollution issues caused in the environment. The Biomass energy supply

has become a prominent importance in every country.

c) Bioremediation:

The process of cleaning up the hazardous substances into non-toxic compounds is

called the Bioremediation process. This process is majorly used for any kind of

technology clean up that uses the natural microorganisms.

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d) Biotransformation:

The changes that take place in the biology of the environment which are changes

of the complex compound to simple non-toxic to toxic or the other way round is

called the biotransformation process. It is used in the Manufacturing sector where

toxic substances are converted to Bi-products.

Benefits:

The major benefits of environmental biotechnology are it helps to keep our

environment safe and clean for the use of the future generations. It helps the

organisms and the engineers to find useful ways of getting adapted to the changes

in the environment and keep the environment clean and green. The benefit of

environmental biotechnology helps us to avoid the use of hazardous pollutants and

wastes that affect the natural resources and the environment. The development of

the society should be done in such a way that it helps to protect our environment

and also helps us to development it.

The environmental biotechnology has a role to play in the removal of the

pollutants. It is becoming an advantage for the scientists and the environmentalists

to find ways to convert the waste to re-useable products. The applications of

environmental biotechnology are becoming a benefiting factor for the

environment; the applications includes â€" genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics,

sequencing and imaging processes are providing large amounts of information and

new ways to improvise the environment and protect the environment.

Bioremediation:

The branch of Biotechnology is called Bioremediation and it deals with the

problems related to the environment. The use of different types of contaminants

and fungi are used to the clean the environment and it plays a very vital role to

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keep the pollutants away from the environment. The bacteria are considered as one

of the vital microbes since they break the dead organisms or the materials into

useful organic matter and nutrients. As per the research not all the contaminants

can be affecting the environment can be destroyed using the process of

bioremediation e.g., Lead and cadmium are not the contaminants that can be

decomposed by the microorganisms.

The process of Bioremediation takes place in 2 conditions â€" aerobic and

anaerobic conditions. When the microbes need oxygen to perform its process is in

the case of aerobic condition; if they can ample amount of oxygen they can be able

to give maximum amount of water and carbon through the conversion of

contaminants and toxins. In case of anaerobic conditions the microbes perform

their work without the presence of oxygen the chemical compounds present in the

soil helps the anaerobic to perform its duties efficiently.

Types of Bioremediation:

a) Mycoremediation:

This is a type of Bioremediation; fungi are used for the process of

decontamination. The use of fungal mycelia in bioremediation is called

Mycoremediation. The role of the fungus in the ecosystem is to perform the work

of braking down the organic substances into much smaller and simpler materials.

The mycelium helps in braking down the substances and they secrete extracellur

enzymes and acids that brakes lignin and cellulose; these are building blocks of

plant fiber. The key function of Mycoremediation is to target the right fungal

species for a specific pollutant.

b) Phytoremediation:

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The direct use of the green plants and their microorganisms used to balance or

decrease the contaminated soils, sludges, sediments, surface water or ground water

is called Phytoremediation. As per the Ancient Greek term phyto means plant and

remedian means restoring balance. This type of bioremediation explains a way of

treating the environmental problems with the help of plants. The element of

Phytoremediation consists of contaminated soil, water, and air which are polluted

and the plants are able to contain and eliminate the metals, pesticides, solvents,

explosives, crude oil.

C) Microbial Remediation:

The use of microorganisms to degrade organic contaminants and to bind the use of

metals in less bioavailable form is called Microbial Remediation. Aerobic and

Anaerobic conditions. When the microbes need oxygen to perform its process is in

the case of aerobic condition; if they can ample amount of oxygen they can be able

to give maximum amount of water and carbon through the conversion of

contaminants and toxins. In case of anaerobic conditions the microbes perform

their work without the presence of oxygen the chemical compounds present in the

soil helps the anaerobic to perform its duties efficiently.

Molecular Biotechnology

What is Molecular Biotechnology?

The study of nucleic acids and proteins using the lab techniques is called

Molecular Biotechnology. It involves a greater scope for various kinds of research

and analysis. The various kinds of research involved are immunology,

microbiology, genetics, cell Biology and molecular biology. The importance of

Molecular Biotechnology is becoming an imminent process in the field of

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Agriculture. The main goal of Molecular Biotechnology is to understand the

different biological processes involved and creation of sensible products.

Benefits of Molecular Biotechnology:

There are certain reasons with regards to the benefits of molecular biotechnology;

the benefits are related to the environment. It helps in inspecting the environment

and it helps in monitoring the needs through Molecular biotechnology, it makes the

experts to understand the environmental, management needs and the risk involved

and evaluates the risk factor efficiently. Any damages to soil or water it helps to

provide treatment. With the help of introduction of Molecular Nanotechnology and

Green Technology the inspection is done more promptly and efficiently. In case of

any environmental disputes the process of Molecular Biotechnology plays an

important role to examine the kind of dispute and helps to provide a suitable

solution to the dispute.

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