Essay about The Human Genome Project

Gene therapy is a very controversial topic that has been discussed in the last five years and is being heavily studied to help cure cancer. Gene therapy is a technique aimed at treating genetic disorders by introducing the correct form of the defective gene into the patient’s genome (Dunlop et al., 2010).

Imagine the possibility of eliminating serious genetic diseases from the world. Imagine the idea of treating, preventing or even curing diseases that are yet to be cured. Imagine the feeling of being given improved health and a prolonged lifespan. This can all be accomplished with the aide of genetic engineering. Human genetic engineering refers to the process of directly manipulating human DNA to produce wanted results. DNA is a simple but very complex chemical that has the power to change the world and has begun to do so already. Many opponents to gene therapy fail to realize that genetic engineering has great potential to become very important in the biomedical industry. Though controversy exists regarding the ethics of human genetic engineering, it can produce numerous benefits, which outweigh its disadvantages and side effects; therefore, scientists should be able to manipulate the human genome for the purpose of helping people with serious medical conditions.

Today’s society has an ever growing thirst for knowledge as we have for many hundreds of years now. Scientists work around the clock studying the affects of nearly everything they can think of to conduct experiments on. This quest for knowledge is the supposed start to a better life for man kind and ultimately a world without disease or hunger. The human genome project is one that has been going on for about 20 years. This project set out to map, down to the last detail, every part of the human DNA structure (“Human”). The project has recently been completed and the scientists are now starting another project with their newly found information, to cure mankind of its ailments.

Gene therapy is an experimental medical procedure that uses the genes in our bodies to either treat or prevent disease by introducing new genetic material into human cells (ie. cancer cells) to create the necessary proteins that allows the cell become healthy (SOURCE). Gene therapy can also be used as an alternative to other medical disorders rather than having a surgical procedure done or using drugs such as chemotherapy. For example, Joseph Panno, research

Genetic engineering has become a rising controversial issue in the world today because of its possible positive uses but further more its likely serious consequences and downsides. To understand the controversy we must first understand exactly what human genetic engineering is. Genetic engineering is the manipulation of the human genome to alter or get rid of undesirable genes; these include negative physical traits along with health related genetic problems such as disease and disability. Potentially, it could allow us to decide and design exactly which traits a newborn would inherit before birth.

In the past thirty years, humans are witnessing a huge revolution in the genetic engineering industry. Having identified most of the Human Genome, gene sequencing has become programmed and extremely fast, and laboratory techniques in molecular biology allow for in-vitro fertilization and transfer of genetic material. Gene therapy and repair based on stem cells research allows for replacement of a defected allele in the DNA, and even a whole damaged tissue in the patient. In general, it is accurate to say that genetic engineering is a controversial topic about which people tend to have strong opinions. The genetic engineering issues that mainly catch the attention of the moral community involve the

Gene therapy is deemed to be the ‘use of genes as medicine’. “Gene therapy is a form of therapy that involves inserting one or more corrective genes that have been designed in the laboratory, into the genetic material of a patient's cells to cure a genetic disease by replacing the missing or malfunctioning genes” (Mandal). There are two types of gene therapy, which are in vitro gene therapy, which takes place outside the body and in vivo therapy, which takes place inside the body. Both types are very time-consuming processes containing many detailed steps that can easily go wrong. First is in vitro or ex vivo gene therapy, which again is outside the body. In this technique, cells are surgically taken out from the tissue area that is impacted. The next step is that the corrective DNA or genes that will be used to treat the disease are spliced or injected into the cells, and then the cells are left to be cultured. The final step is that the new tissues are put back into the body in the area, which was affected. The use of bone marrow cells as recipients of the gene is very common due to the fact that they create the blood that will eventually be circulated throughout the body (Oracle ThinkQuest).

The Human Genome Initiative is a worldwide research effort that has the goal of analyzing the sequence of human DNA and determining the location of all human genes. Begun in 1990, the U.S. Human Genome project was originally planned to last 15 years but now is projected to be complete in 13 years. This project was started to find the 80,000 - 100,000 human genes and to determine the sequence of the 3 - billion chemical bases that make up human DNA. The information generated by the human genome project is expected to be the source book for biomedical fields, including those such as developmental biology and neurobiology, where scientists are just beginning to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms. The

Throughout history humans have been able to manipulate various objects and situations in order to further advance society towards an ideal vision. One particular procedure that has gained a significant role towards the importance of the medical society applies to gene therapy and how it has certainly produced an extensive amount of beneficial accomplishments. Gene therapy generally consists of regular genes being switched into a cell in order to replace its defective genes. Introducing a variety of distinct genes into cells of a body can highly raise the risks of them actually remaining functional due to rejection from the body. Due to this process, gene therapy contains a very critical position in the challenges of modern medicine ().

Human curiosity is one of the most powerful engines that drive new knowledge, development, advancements and life improvements today. Some 100,000 or 200,000 years ago Homo sapiens emerged, and up to today humans are still searching for answers such as what we are and where we came from.

The Human Genome Project (HGP) began in 1990 with funding from the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health with the goal of decoding the human genome. Researchers from across the world are working in conjunction to understand the sequence of amino acid base pairs and how they interact with one another to elicit specific genetic reactions. Once the decoding of the genome takes place, scientists will be able to develop individual treatment plans and understand a number of diseases. Research has found that there are over 3 billion amino acid base pairs which make-up 20,000 genes. Of these 20,000 genes, the human genetic code is defined by forty-six tightly packed bunches called chromosomes. Due to the vast array of amino acid base pairs, the project has taken over ten years to complete the sequencing of the specific parts, but the task of understanding how the parts interact one another and the influence they have on diseases has yet to be accomplished.

Today I will be defining the Human Genome project. This is a project to study, research, implement, and produce a DNA sequence of the Human Genome System. The human genome project is working to try and find a way to see what every gene in the human body actually does. They have already done a DNA sequence of human genes. They discovered the human body has more proteins than they first thought; now they have to see what each protein does. When they discover this it might be feasible to actually re-grow human body parts.

In an ever-expanding world of technological and scientific innovations in science and medicine, Genetic Engineering is a black sheep among its peers. Genetic Engineering is a highly debatable science with some countries outlawing its research in some of its three major subcategories of plants, organisms and humans. As a member of society it’s a critical responsibility that one understands what effects Genetic Engineering in the three subcategories could have on society, the laws that restrict and permit Genetic Engineering in the subcategories around the world, the moral and ethical responsibilities as a human being, the rights of the people that, Genetic Engineering in the subcategories ,could help enhance their way of life and our right to choose.

Gene therapy is a technique used in attempts to cure or prevent genetic diseases at the molecular level (basically at the source) by correcting what is wrong with defective genes, a good version of the defective gene is introduced into the existing cells. This technique is still considered experimental, only being done through clinical trials. This idea was first suggested during the 1950’s. The basic idea was “if the basses can be arranged incorrectly then why can’t they be rearranged in the correct way?”

Gene therapy is a medical procedure that delivers new genes into the recipient, in order to prevent or treat disease (Robillard, Roskams-Edris, Kuzeljevic, & Illes, 2014). Genes contain information that is used by the body to produce proteins, which form the tissues in our body and regulate the reactions in and between cells. Genetic defects result in improper formation of tissues or imbalances in cell reactions, resulting in disease. Medicines only address the symptoms of genetic diseases in a temporary manner. Gene therapy has further-reaching effects, rectifying the genetic defects by repairing the patient’s genes directly.