Part 3

Diseases/Biotechnology

BIOTECHNOLOGY
What is biotechnology?
 The industrial use of living organisms, or parts of
living organisms, to produce foods, drugs or
other products
 It is used to aid science in:
 sample collection and treatment
 Measurement
 data collection and storage
 Computation
 communication of information.
Traditional vs. New

 Traditional biotechnology uses living organisms

to solve problems and make useful products.
 Domesticating crop plants and farm animals through
selective breeding
 Using yeast to make bread rise and produce wine
 New biotechnology uses living cells and their
molecules to solve problems and make useful
products.
 Stem cells are used to help paralyzed patients recover
or to cure various diseases.
I still don’t understand

 Biotechnology is not one type of technology, but

several.
 There are millions of different types of plants,
animals, and microorganisms in the world. Each
have cells and molecules with unique
characteristics that can be used in different
ways.
 There are three different kinds of biotech tools:
 Working with cells
 Working with proteins
 Working with genes
What are some uses?
 The health care industry is developing better
ways to diagnose, treat and prevent diseases.
 The food and agriculture industries are rapidly
adopting the tools of biotechnology to enhance
food production.
 Biotechnology is even making an impact on the
energy and environmental areas, where living
cells and their molecules can help us develop
new methods to:
 clean up our environment
 detect environmental contamination (pollution)
 reduce our dependence on petroleum (oil, fossil fuel)
Is it ethical?

 Through the discoveries and advancements

being made in biotechnology, we have new
careers in medicine, agriculture, genetics and
food science. It has benefited humans in
many ways, but is it ethical?
 Ethics are the moral principles of a person,
what a person believes is right and wrong.
 The threat of microbial hazards will be
reduced as we increase our knowledge and
make advancements in this area of science.
So what does this have to do
with me?
 Biotech affects us in every area of our lives:
 food
 water
 Medicine
 Shelter
 Modern biotechnology:
 Can make medicine in large quantities
 Make human insulin to treat diabetes
 Fight crime through DNA testing and forensics
 Remove pollution from soil and water (bioremediation)
 Improve the quality of agricultural crops and livestock
products
Controversial areas in
Biotech
 Cloning
 Genetic modification (genetic engineering)
uses biotechnology to change the genetic
makeup of an organism.

 What do you think? Should we clone animals

for our own benefit or pleasure? Should we
modify crops to make them resistant to
diseases or stronger in varying weather
conditions?