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Discoveries in DNA, cell biology, evolution, biotechnology have been among the major achievements in biology over the past 200 years with accelerated discoveries and insights over the last 50 years. Consider the progress we have made in these areas of human knowledge. Present at least three of the discoveries you find to be most important and describe their significance to society, health, and the culture of modern life.
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Reference to supporting readings. 50
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Total: 250
Technology and Scientific DNA Discoveries Sample Answer
DNA Discoveries
Introduction
Indeed, new discoveries in the field of biology have continued to rise over the years due to technological and scientific advances. These extraordinary advances over the past 50 years in cellular and molecular biology, evolution, biotechnology , nd genomics have contributed a great deal to medicine, health and human life in the society because they carry very significant and vital progress towards genetics. In the society today, the study of genetics has received a lot of attention owing to the fact that genes in the human body form the basis of ethe xplanation of several origins of deadly diseases and hereditary variations in man. Singleton & Hardy (2016), point out that the most dangerous diseases in the world today have an underlying genetic basis. Human beings are genetically predisposed to many of these diseases and hence genetic makeup influence their prevalence in man.
Therefore, advances in molecular biology and by extension genetics in areas that deal with genetic counseling, cancer, autoimmune disorders, personalized medicine and forensic science have helped find medical solutions to these life threatening conditions. Some of the discoveries that have been made include gene therapy that involves inserting new and functional genes into patients to replace mutant ones at the expense of using drugs or surgical interventions. Gene therapy has found extensive use in tthe reatment of cancers and inheritable disorders. Another discovery is reproductive cloning that has been advanced over the years to produce genetically identical organisms. Epigenetics is another discovery that has given a deep understanding of the role of gene expression in inheritable changes observed in man. These epigenetic changes have been characterized by markers that regulate genes in certain inheritable diseases. This essay will enumerate on the significance of gene therapy, cloning and epigenetics as the most recent discoveries in cellular biology and the role of biotechnology in these areas towards human health and modern life.
Technology and Scientific DNA Discoveries Epigenetics
The role of epigenetics in human diseases is a new area of advancement in molecular biology. Epigenetics occur in situations where there is a change in the expression of genes without significant change in the underlying DNA sequence. In other words, there is a change in phenotype without necessarily changing the genotypic make up of an organism. However, during the research for advancement in epigenetics, it has been noted that several factors such as environment, age, and lifestyle and disease state affect these changes.
Impact of Discovery
Epigenetics is commonly used in identifying genetic pre- disposition to diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease as well as the epigenetic markers for cancer progression and ageing of the skin. Cramer, Adjei & Labhasetwar (2015), state that epigenetics has helped in drug discovery where scientists have concluded that drugs that stabilize or inhibit these markers can be used clinically to manage cancer. These drugs are also under investigation for their effectiveness in sickle cell disease.
Epigenetic mechanisms that comprise chromatin and DNA modification of histone proteins and their systems including RNA non coding machinery can help explain human pathologies for instance musculoskeletal disease, chronic inflammatory diseases and Rheumatoid arthritis. Epigenetic markers are important in control of homeostasis and development of these proteins play a role in the pathogenesis of these conditions. Hence understanding the genesis of epigenetics has helped understand how to manage these chronic conditions. Research in this area has played a vital role for therapeutic intervention management and the drug discovery utility that prevent epigenetic signaling not only in cancerous conditions but also these inflammatory diseases.
Epigenetics has also been appreciated at molecular level in understanding the role epigenetics play in ecology and evolution. Epigenetic changes and mechanisms have interactions with morphological, physiological and genetic systems which are important apparatuses in environment-organism interactions in ecology. As proposed in genetics, epigenetic mechanisms are also inheritable hence some scientists have used it to modify explanation of Modern Synthesis. In the society and in the medical field, epigenetics has helped explain the environmental stressor response of individuals critical to soft inheritance and phenotypic plasticity. It has serves a role in conservation and invasive species biology. Therefore epigenetics has helped provide an understanding into community processes both at evolutionary time scales and ecological levels.
The importance of epigenetics in society, everyday life and healthy living must not be overlooked as it is one area in the society and medical field that is gaining great interest. Commonly called everyday epigenetics, human daily action influences human epigenome studies. Everyday eating and exercise habits influence gene expression as either overreacting or undereating. An area of particular interest is endurance training and its long term effects on gene changes. Exercises are believed to modify the epigenetic mechanisms of muscles increasing their activity. The more genetics play a vital role in everyday life so does epigenetics. However epigenetics has showed the inner being is not necessarily be-all and terminate all in human health. In order to better this important advancement biologists have taken into account the risks that are associated with in vitro reproductive epigenetics. These include genomic imprinting that arise as a result of differences in the expression of alleles and intrauterine alterations. When epigenetic therapy is used in patients there is need for careful monitoring especially in hematological disorders to prevent these alterations from occurring.
Technology and Scientific DNA Discoveries and Cloning
Cloning is another advancement in the field of cell biology that has continued to be researched on. Reproductive cloning was initially fronted by biochemists to produce genetically identical organisms but has found application in medicine, health and the society at large of late. The history of cloning is one that has come a long way and evolved due to scientific research and technology from initial cloning of Dolly sheep by nuclear transfer to what today is considered modern cloning. Cloning creates copies of organisms which are identical using the genetic material of somatic cells. Cloning can be done mainly through artificial twinning or Somatic cell nuclear transfer that identifies and involves use of plasmid vectors such as Escherichia coli bacteria strain or in cases of reproductive cloning using somatic eggs.
In cloning organisms, the vector DNA is prepared by treatment with an endonuclease enzyme that cleaves the part of DNA site where the foreign material will be inserted. The DNA is prepared and a recombinant DNA created with enzyme DNA ligase. This ensures joining together or ligation of the DNA mixtures that is now ready to be introduced into the host organism. The host organism takes up the recombinant DNA and undergo biotransformation to new organisms that are screened for desired inserts of DNA with good properties. Therapeutic cloning which is an area of interest in healthcare creates multiple copies of cells used in treating different diseases. The advancements made in cloning can be viewed as the starting point of genetic engineering methods to biotechnology. Biotechnology applies both cloning and Polymerase chain reaction in making large DNA amounts that are required for genetic engineering.
Impact of Discovery
Cloning in human beings plays an important role in production of new tissues and grafts that are required for organ transplant (Brown & Brown, 2016). These patients most likely suffering from organ failures when cloned organs are transplanted into them there is reduced risk of rejection by the body’s immune system. Some genetic diseases such as Parkinson’s disease are thought to be caused by death of brain cells. Cloning can reduce symptoms of this disease by transplanting pig brain cells in to human brain. Transplantation therapy by applying clones has helped alleviate deadly diseases among them diabetes. Cloning also reduces infertility in women due to somatic cells with female eggs that can be cloned in surrogate mothers to produce children. Cloned organisms poses very desirable characteristics because of genetic viabilities improving their health survival in the society.
Another important application of cloning is in the field of drug discovery treatment or vaccination of certain diseases. Scientists have used the animal model that mimic how the human body behaves in order to test the how effective a drug is. Animals that are not genetically susceptible to some diseases such as AIDS will be asymptomatic when injected with the HIV virus. Therefore because it is hard to test the vaccines used to treat these diseases cloning maybe applied to produce animal models that are genetically modified. This makes it easy to inoculate these diseases and aid in treatment. Additionally, molecular cloning in the society has contributed to discovery of genetic sequences of different organism species, creation of transgenic organisms for example herbicide resistant crops that have high yield.
In the modern society today, cloning has found extensive use in the food production industry. Animals for milk and meat production with selected traits that are desirable can be multiplied by cloning and their products used to manufacture food. These foods commonly called genetically modified foods are under approval for their safety use and efficacy. However, cloning is often faced with ethical issues that arise as it is seen to contradict the religious beliefs that stated that life begins at conception. It is also seen as a threat to human evolution raising key legal compromises but these areas of concern are still being researched on.
Technology and Scientific DNA Discoveries Gene Therapy
Gene therapy has been one of the most significant advances in the field of molecular biology over the recent years. This discovery has been advanced in the treatment of single and inherited defects such as blood cancers, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, autoimmune disorders and Severe Combined Immune Deficiencies (ADA-SCID). In targeted genetic therapy, a mutant and defective gene is identified and sequenced to locate the disease causing variant. Then, a new functional gene is injected into the cell. Administration involves using viral vectors such as adenoviruses to deliver the gene to relevant sites at therapeutic levels (Ginn et al., 2013). The adenovirus vector translocates into the target tissue and attaches onto the host cell inducing transfer of genetic material. Hence the defective genes are disrupted and the new genes express themselves taking over the genetic makeup of the tissues by altering DNA or RNA transcript that are useful in protein synthesis.
Impact of Discovery
The discovery of gene therapy has contributed towards providing cure for genetic disorders. The use of somatic gene therapy that replaces faulty genes which in so doing makes the body to produce proteins that eradicate the gene that causes the disorder. Some of these genetic disorders may not have cures and hence gene therapy has gone a long way in treating these patients. For instance, in Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, blood cancers such as leukemia, hemophilia, and Parkinson’s disease. When gene therapy is used it reduces the need for drugs and surgery. Moreover, in cancer patients who require chemotherapy and radiation that are associated with harmful side effects such as hair loss gene therapy is helpful in avoiding these side effects.
Another benefit of gene therapy in the society is that it offers a large scale treatment of hereditary diseases that have the capability to be transferred to generations. Gene therapy also employs germ-line therapy that passes corrected genes from one generation to another through reproductive cells so that the gene is passed to future offspring. Huntington’s disease, a neurogenerative disorders that can be passed down the family line can be stopped so that generations in the family do not get worried about acquiring it. This is the promise that comes with genetic therapy. Hence, the cells that carry the genetic disorders are altered and fixed before they can be inherited by family members. Additionally, gene therapy has a great untapped therapeutic potential hence when advanced it has the potential to reduce the danger of exposure of mankind to pathogens due to new genes that are able to withstand these harmful agents of disease. Gene therapy is still under extensive research but its benefits have served a vital role in bringing an attractive healthy hope to patients who are terminally ill with genetic conditions especially when they are incurable and life threatening.
Thus far, gene therapy has not only served to solve single disease disorders but also to identify the genetic origins and make up of multifunctional diseases such as heart failure, autism, alcohol dependency that sometime are genetically predisposed. One of the most important advancement in gene therapy has been the improvement of technology with a technique called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to aid the process of DNA sequencing and chromosomal corrections. This technique helps amplify sequences at high speed capacity to extract chromosomal mutations hence faster genetic treatment has become increasingly easy. Gene therapy is done with a lot of care during the process of delivery of the gene using vectors to ensure it is delivered to the right target cells. Delivery to wrong cells may lead to errors that are recognized by the body’s immune system as pathogens damaging the genetic pool because of initiation of immune response to counter any foreign body.
Technology and Scientific DNA Discoveries Conclusion
New discoveries in cellular and molecular biology in the recent past like gene therapy, cloning and epigenetic engineering have made it easy to identify, treat and manage not only inheritable conditions but also terminal life threatening diseases. Some of them for instance cancers, neurogenerative disorders like Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease have a genetic origin hence these advancements in DNA have helped reduce their symptoms and find their cures. These areas of genomic science are still under research for the betterment of medicine and the society but it has without a doubt improved medical care for patients with such conditions. These advances have made great contribution to modern healthcare as the science of genetical engineering still continues to grow.
Technology and Scientific DNA Discoveries References
Brown, T. A., & Brown, T. (2016). Gene cloning and DNA analysis: an introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Cramer, S. A., Adjei, I. M., & Labhasetwar, V. (2015). Advancements in the delivery of epigenetic drugs. Expert opinion on drug delivery, 12(9), 1501-1512.
Ginn, S. L., Alexander, I. E., Edelstein, M. L., Abedi, M. R., & Wixon, J. (2013). Gene therapy clinical trials worldwide to 2012–an update. The journal of gene medicine, 15(2), 65-77.
Singleton, A., & Hardy, J. (2016). The Evolution of Genetics: Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases. Neuron, 90(6), 1154-1163.
