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The Debated Applications of Recombinant DNA Technology Essay

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“[...] any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.” This statement is often used to describe the fundamental aim of biotechnology around the world. Karl Ereky, one of the foremost proponents of the term biotechnology foresaw that “merging biology and technology could be used to transform living substances into products that are more useful than in their natural state,” thus benefiting society by meeting human needs or demands to improve our quality life. Although the use of living systems to make a product has an established history, the modern definition of biotechnology is usually associated with recombinant DNA…show more content…
Currently thousands of patients have received gene therapy, while many clinical trials are ongoing. Gene therapy is the direct transfer of genes into humans to treat a disease, constituting one of the most recent applications of recombinant DNA technique. Rather than altering the disease by using chemical agents, gene therapy can theoretically modify the targeted gene and resulting the disease to be cured. Different methods to transfer genes into human cells are currently under development. One of the methods of gene therapy is to remove cells such as white blood cells in the body of a patient, add a virus containing recombinant genes and then reintroduce the cells back into the patient's body.
As much as life has evolved, the relationship between animals and humans has remained almost identical to each other. Dideoxynucleotide sequencing commonly called Sanger sequencing illustrates the way in which DNA sequencing has revolutionized molecular biology. In order to perform the sequencing, the first step it to convert double stranded DNA into single stranded DNA by applying a technique called annealing where the samples are heated to temperatures above 90°C, then the temperature is lowered, allowing the strands to separate and primers to join together. A Sanger reaction consists in a single stranded DNA, DNA polymerase, DNA primers and a mixture of ddNTP along with dCTP, dGTP, and dTTP.
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