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’s villi, sampled cells go through a vacuum tube, can be subject to PCR, DNA sequencing, or ASO testing

• Cell-free DNA screening (cfDNA): A prenatal prognostic test, looks for small pieces of DNA from other and baby released from dying cells and cut by maternal enzymes, non-invasive to fetus. DNA can be used to determine baby’s karyotype by proportions of DNA found from each chromosome

• Haplotype: A contiguous segment of DNA that doesn’t undergo recombination

• Fetal haplotype: Diagnostic of prognostic, used to determine which segments are maternal or paternal, each gene may be M1/P1 or M2/P2 etc, can be detected via whole genome sequencing

• Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP): Polymorphisms recognized by restriction enzymes, used to identify certain disorders like sickle-cell anemia that are point mutations

• Allele-specific oligonucleotides (ASOs): Short single stranded DNA, used as a probe to identify alleles that are SNPs

• Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD): The genetic analysis of single cells from embryos created in vitro, utilizes ASO and PCR

• DNA Microarray: Used to detect expression of thousands of genes at once, qualitatively which are expressed and quantitatively how much expression of said genes

• DNA Chip: A microscope slide with thousands of tiny spots or positions, used in DNA microarrays, each position is a probe for a different gene that will attach is a gene is present when exposed to a transcriptome

• Transcriptome: The set of mRNA transcripts expressed by a set of genes

• Heat map: Created by using DNA microarrays with healthy and diseased tissue, may create a pattern that can correlate with things like cancer stage or treatment response

• In vitro expression microarray: Used to analyze gene expression and host responses to pathogens

• Individual genome sequencing (IGS/WGS): Maps an individual’s entire genetic sequence, provides insight into diseases like Alzheimers and anorexia

• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD): Developmental disorder with over 100 involved genes, has a broad range of phenotypes and IGS could lead to personalized treatment for de novo mutations

• Whole Exome Sequencing (WES): Only the protein coding genes of the entire genome, ~2%, involves mutations involved in diseases and with IGS is used for personalized treatment

• Undiagnosed Diseases Network: Created by the NIH to use IGS and WES to diagnose rare disease conditions with unknown bases

• Single cell sequencing (SCS): Sequences the genome from a single cell, isolates DNA with whole genome amplification (uses PCR), which makes enough DNA to be sufficiently sampled, used in cancer research and in vitro fertilization

• RNA sequencing (RNA-seq): Analyzes RNA expression, allows for transcriptome wide analysis, can differentiate between tissues. Compares levels of RNA with levels of transcripts

• Single-cell RNA Sequencing (scRNA-seq): Compares RNA transcript in a single cell to RNA levels in the same cell

• Immunotherapy: A treatment approach that tries to maximize immune response

• Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS): Used to identify genes that influence a disease, compares affected genomes with nonaffected genomes, forms associations to confer risk of developing a disease based on certain mutations

• Synthetic genome: An artificially constructed genome for artificial cells or designer organisms

• Minimum genome: The minimum genes needed to sustain life, can be compared to that of mycoplasma genitalium which is a self-replicating parasite with a tiny genome

• Genome transplantation: A test of a synthetic genome’s functionality, involves exchanging genomes with a simple life form and seeing if with the synthetic DNA it will live

• Synthetic biology: A field that applies engineering design principles to biological systems

• Synthetic gene circuit: A series of 3 genes in E. Coli that cut, flip, and reinsert DNA into the genome, acting as an on/off switch

• ELSI Program: Established with the HGP, addresses issues such as confidentiality of genetic information and medical practice implications, genetic counseling, and reproductive decision making

• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act: Passed in 2008, prohibits improper use of genetic information to health insurance and employment (not life insurance)

• Direct To Consumer (DTC) tests: Can test for 2000+ diseases, uses a saliva/cheek sample that is mailed to a company, not FDA regulated leading to questions about accuracy but higher confidentiality from the government

• Intellectual property (IP) rights: When put onto genetic applications have ethical and scientific issues, examples include isolated genes, gene constructs, recombinant cell types, and GMOs. Its decided that genes in their natural state cannot be patented

• Bioterrorism: The explicit use of synthetic biology and biotechnology for harm (things like eugenics)