Deck 1: The Biotechnology Century and Its Workforce

Question 1

Provide two examples of historical and current applications of biotechnology.

Answer 1

The two historical examples of the applications of biotechnology are:
1) Fermentation: It is a process, which involves the use of microorganisms to make cheeses, yogurts, breads, and alcoholic beverages such as wine and beer. In the process of fermentation, the sugar is decomposed by some strains of yeast to derive energy, and in this process the ethanol or alcohol is produced by them as a waste product.
2) Selective breeding: Selective breeding has been used by humans for thousands of years as a biotechnology application to advance production of livestock and crops used for food purposes. In the selective breeding process, the organisms with necessary features are wittingly mated to produce offspring with the same desired characteristics. For example, cross-breeding plants that produce the sweetest, largest, and most tender ears of corn are developed. Similar breeding methods are used with farm animals including cows, turkeys, chickens, and pigs.
Two current examples of application of biotechnology are:
1) Gene cloning: It is a technique, which provides the ability to identify and reproduce a gene of interest.
2) Genetic engineering: This technique provides the ability to manipulate the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) of an organism. Through this technique, scientists and researchers are able to combine the DNA from different sources.

Question 2

Pick an example of a biotechnology application and describe how it has affected your everyday life.

Answer 2

Biotechnology will have a noteworthy impact on all our lives and that of upcoming generations. Biotechnology, like any tool, is being used to resolve some of our problems and deliver benefits to various sectors.
The recombinant DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) technology (RDT) has significantly affected our everyday life. This technique is used to make many proteins of medical importance, including human growth hormone, insulin, and blood clotting factors. Many important areas of the biotechnology are dominated by the recombinant DNA technology. This RDT has generated hundreds of applications, including the development of food crops that produce greater yields of vegetables and fruits, disease resistant plants, and genetically engineered bacteria skilled of degrading environment pollutants.
The recombinant DNA technology (RDT) is used for the production of the insulin for the treatment of diabetic patient. The diabetic patients have elevated blood sugar level due to impaired function or production of the insulin hormone. The diabetic patients are treated with the insulin synthesized in bacteria with the use of recombinant DNA technology. The only animal protein, which can be synthesized in bacteria, is the human insulin. With the use of RDT the insulin synthesized is absolutely identical to that of natural insulin molecule. This decrease the chances of complications arise as a result of antibody production against the insulin administration.

Question 3

Which area of biotechnology involves using living organisms to clean up the environment

Answer 3

The area of biotechnology that involves using living microorganisms to clean up the environment is bioremediation. It is used to process and degrade a variety of manmade and natural substances, specifically those that add to environmental pollution. To clean up many environmental hazards that have been caused by industrial progress, bioremediation is used. Significant bioremediation processes rely on applications of microbial biotechnology.

Question 4

Describe how pharmacogenomics will influence the treatment of human diseases.

Question 5

Distinguish between QC and QA, and explain why both are important for biotechnology companies.

Question 6

Access the library of the National Center for Biological Information (www.ncbinlm.nih.org) and search for new information on adult-derived stem cells. This free source will provide abstracts and titles for full-text articles that can be obtained at other libraries.

Question 7

Visit the "About Biotech" section of the Access Excellence website at ww.accessexcellence.org/AB. This section provides an outstanding overview of historical and current applications of biotechnology. Survey the different topics presented at this site. Many interesting aspects and examples of biotechnology are described in student-friendly terms. Find a biotechnology topic that fascinates you, print out the information you are interested in, and share your newly discovered knowledge with a friend or family member who is unfamiliar with biotechnology.

Question 8

Interacting with others in a group setting is an essential skill in most areas of science. As you learned in this chapter, biotechnology involves groups of scientists, mathematicians, and computing experts with different backgrounds collaborating to solve a problem or achieve a common goal. Discussing biology with other people is fun and beneficial to everyone working on the same problem in a company, and working with other students is an excellent way to help you learn and enjoy your studies in biotechnology. Teaching someone else is a great way to test your knowledge. Analyze your ability to work in a group by forming a study group for the next test. Assign a group leader who will be responsible for organizing meetings and keeping the study group focused on helping each person to learn. Make sure that everyone has a topic to present to the group and that all of you offer constructive criticism to their suggestions. If you cannot get together with your classmates in one room, share your thoughts via e-mail or ask your professor to set up an electronic bulletin board for discussion purposes.

Question 9

The National Library of Medicine is a worldwide database of biology research publications in scientific journals and it can be accessed for free at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Access PubMed and conduct a search on any topic of biotechnology that may be of interest to you to find recent papers on the latest new research developments in biotechnology.

Question 10

Organism cloning has led to concerns that humans may be cloned. At least one group has even claimed to have already done so. Run a Google search with the terms Raelians and cloning. At the time this book was published, no claims of human cloning had been proven to be valid, and most scientists are adamantly against human cloning. What do you think Should humans be cloned

Question 11

Explain how biotechnology companies get started. Include in your answer a description of how a startup company is funded.

Question 12

Describe differences and similarities between the pharmaceutical industry and the biotechnology industry.

Question 13

Visit the FierceBiotech website (http://www.fiercebiotech.com) and sign up to receive free daily alerts on biotech industry news items. This is a great way to learn about exciting new discoveries in biotechnology, biotech company updates, career information and more.