Biotechnology

Vocabulary:

• Genetic engineering: The alteration of an organism’s genome using recombinant DNA technology to add or remove genes

• Genetically modified organisms: An organism that has undergone genetic engineering

• Biotechnology: The use of living organisms to create a product or process that helps improve life for other organisms

• Biopharming: The production of proteins in GMOs

• Biopharmaceutical products: Includes recombinant proteins and therapeutic proteins to treat diseases, not always made naturally by the animal, results of biopharming

• Insulin production: First human gene product manufactured by recombinant DNA technology, helps treat diabetes, a fusion protein is cleaved and purified

• Humulin: Made in 1982, synthetic human insulin licensed by the FDA

• Insulin: Internal signaling molecule that tells cells to import sugar, produced by the pancreas, binds to receptors on cells to let in glucose

• Diabetes: A condition where insulin is low or inefficient, blood sugar is high

• Fusion protein: A hybrid protein, joins a target coding sequence with a native gene that an organism will naturally express

• Bioreactors: A living factory like goats/cows used to produce complex biopharmaceuticals

• Baculovirus: A gene delivery system in which a virus is used to infect insect cells

• Vaccine: Used to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies against a disease-causing organism

• Inactivated vaccine: A vaccine with killed samples or infectious virus/bacteria

• Attenuated vaccine: A vaccine that uses live viruses/bacteria that cannot reproduce, only cause milder forms of a disease

• Subunit vaccine: A vaccine with one or more surface proteins from a virus, not the whole virus. Surface proteins act as an antigen to stimulate immune systems to make antibodies

• Hepatitis B: A virus that can cause liver damage, surface protein is cloned into yeast expression vectors, purified, and packaged for use

• Gardasil: A vaccine that prevents HPV, targets 4/9 strains, only effective if given prior to infection

• Transgenic plants: Experimental with biotechnology, easily grown and source of recombinant proteins, cost less that bacteria/yeast/mammals

• Edible vaccine: In clinical trials, produced in food plants with decreased costs

• DNA vaccine: A vaccine with DNA that encodes proteins from the pathogen inside a vector that is injected, an immune response is triggered if there is exposure in the future

• RNA vaccine: Vaccines with modified mRNA, like that of the COVID vaccine, may encode a spike glycoprotein (S), mRNA has lipid coat to facilitate entry into the cell and prevent degradation

• Selective breeding: Selection of specific organisms due to traits or ability for mutation, breeding of these produces organisms with desired traits

• Agricultural biotechnology: Introduces insect resistance, herbicide resistance, or nutritional characteristics into farm plants and animals

• Genetically modified technology (GMO): Organisms that have been changed by biotechnology, including things like transgenic crops

• Transgenic crops: Plants that are GMOs, have a higher yield, better nutritional value, resistance against herbicides/drought/pests

• Mastitis: An infection of the mammary gland, led to the production of transgenic cows. Blocks milk ducts and reduces output, caused by staphylococcus aureus. Transgenic cows express a protein from S. simulana in their milk that kills the bacteria’s cell wall

• GloFish: A transgenic kind of zebrafish, used as pets

• Zika: A kind of mosquito that can carry many viruses, undergoing biotechnology modifications to create sterile males, attempt to make there be more sterile males in the population that fertile ones, killing them all off (gene drive)

• Self-limiting gene: Prevents female mosquito offspring from surviving to adulthood

• Gene testing: Application of recombinant DNA technology, uses results of the HGP. Can perform prenatal diagnosis, identify carriers, and predict development

• Diagnostic: A test for a genetic condition that identifies a particular mutation of change that causes the disease/condition, confirms presence/absence

• Prognostic: A test that predicts a person’s likelihood of developing a particular genetic disorder, estimates future risk

• Amniocentesis: A fetal diagnostic test, a needle removes amniotic fluid that has fetal cells in it, can undergo karyotyping, biochemical analysis, and genetic testing via recombinant DNA technoloy

• Chorionic villus sampling (CVS): A fetal diagnostic test, takes a sample of tissue from the placental wall, sampled cells go through a vaccuum