The Use Of Biosynthetic Organisms

The improvement of medicine over the course of the human successes gave great convenience to the people of today. Science has cured and prevented many illnesses from occurring and is on its way to cure some of the most dreadful and harmful illnesses. As the world modernizes due to the industrialization, so does the ways of medicine. Some cures are approached by chance, some, through intense, scientific measures.

Herpes Simplex Virus(HSV) was identified as a highly attractive candidate for oncolytic virotherapy due to several reasons including the naturally cytolytic life cycle of HSV and the ability to infect a broad range cell type, a highly prevalent human pathogen which in vast majority of cases causes a self-limiting disease that can be treated with antivirals in life threatening cases and so on. The initial focus of oncolytic HSV (oHSV) virotherapy involved demonstrating the safety of oHSVs for the treatment of cancer.

Over a century ago, the practice of medicine was hardly a science. “[T]he most eminent doctors had not one bit better explanation for the causes of epidemics than the ignorant Russian villagers who hitched the town widows to their plows,” writes Paul de Kruif in Microbe Hunters. It wasn’t until the discoveries of Robert Koch, Louis Pasteur, and Paul Ehrlich, effective treatments were developed. Demons were no longer the cause of disease and incurable maladies were no longer incurable. These trail breakers developed medicine into what it is today. The research and inventions of Koch, Pasteur, and Ehrlich introduced the world to new scientific breakthroughs and knowledge.

The purpose of this lab is to use genetic engineering to transform E. coli bacteria by inserting the plasmid pGLO, and to then see if the bacteria was transformed by using the antibiotic, ampicillin.

The benefits of using virotherapy have multiple advantages for treating cancer. This treatment eliminates the potential lack of cross-resistance as well as being able to cause much more deterioration to tumors. Leaving minimal to no negative effects on normal cells within the body. Not only does it leave minimal effects it is less invasive and accommodate it for everyone’s liking.Furthermore, cancer gene therapy does not require long-term transgene expression, unlike gene therapy for many non-cancer diseases.

From the ancient times up to the present day, news about massive deaths caused by diseases and viruses still horrified nations from different part of the world. Even medical authorities are being shocked on how bacteria and other disease-carrying bodies react to newly formulated medicines and treatment. It is really alarming to know that these bacteria and viruses are capable on adapting to their environments through the process of evolution.

Genetic engineering is widely used today. Genetically altered bacteria are used to make human insulin, human growth hormone, and a vaccine for hepatitis B. Two vaccines against AIDS created with genetic engineering have begun clinical trials here in the United States ("The

Genetically modified (GM) pharmaceuticals are produced through inserting genes of a desired substance into an organism such as plants or animals, so they will express this trait to mass produce that substance in secretions or through their body cells. Many “pharmers”, people who make GM pharmaceuticals, use recombinant DNA techniques to achieve this desired result of having an animal or plant mass produce medicinal substances. Recombining DNA in creating pharmaceutical organisms involves the crossing of the DNA of an organism with a gene that creates the desired substance for a pharmaceutical.

In recent years, many types of research have been developed regarding cancer-fighting viruses. The possibility of creating an effective therapy for cancer using this kind of treatment is been explored and, so far the results are promising. Many Asian countries have already approved viro-therapy to treat some types of cancer and here, in the US, the FDA has approved in October 2015, the first oncolytic virus therapy, talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC, or Imlygic®) for the treatment of metastatic melanoma in some patients (Ledford, 2015). Other studies have been performed using different kinds of viruses, and the results are very similar to the ones obtained using this therapy.

The biolistic delivery mediated transformation as mentioned earlier, is one of the most commonly used techniques when integrating foreign genes into plant materials (Gao and Nielson, 2013). In this first study executed by Fadeev and

The human genome project is an international effort that serves as a possible solution to the many diseases that affect billions of people worldwide. This project is a great milestone in the field of genetics as it allows scientists to determine the sequence of genes in chromosomes which will show where disease causing mutations are occurring and what can be done to reverse it. Looking back in time, many of the diseases which could be cured were done by administering drugs and certain types of therapies. As the complexity of technology as well as advancements in the understanding of our bodies increased, more diseases became curable through these very drugs and therapies. However, many times individuals find it hard to deal with the side effects that these solutions create. The human genome project aims to make disease and illnesses curable more efficiently and to become readily available to individuals throughout the world. It is therefore necessary the that society begins to accept this project as the new frontier in medical treatment and prevention of diseases. By having a greater investment and understanding in the Human genome Project, the scientific community will determine more information about DNA to develop treatment plans, prevention methods, and develop cures to diseases that affect humans; thus yielding medically important information for society.

In 1973, a Stanford Medical School student presented the idea of making a synthetic DNA. The proposition sparked biological research to produce foods with a desired trait outcome by combining a plant’s DNA strand with a strand from an animal, a bacteria, or virus. It was proposed that the concept has the potential to end world hunger and provide poverty ridden countries with means to obtain needed essential nutrients (Saletan). However, the endorsed objective of the

Researchers have been trying to find new ways to cure disease for centuries. Gene Therapy

Our journey of moving from homogenous to heterogeneous, from bio-mimicry to synthetic biology, of rationally engineer microorganisms dates back to 1990s. Synthetic biology—unlike chemistry—is involved in the technical alteration of animate nature. Building on recent advances in genetic science and technology, synthetic biology aims to understand the molecular fundamentals of the metabolic and reproductive functions of simple single-cell organisms precisely. It thereby seeks to enable us thoroughly to manipulate and rearrange existing organisms in a standardised manner, and to equip them with characteristics that do not occur in nature.

Taken as a whole, the book is strangely but skillfully written. It covers the current challenges with delivering bioengineering/biotechnology solutions and what is being done to meet those challenges. It is a direct and straightforward analysis of synthetic biology with multiple arguments well supported by research.