Genetic Engineering Wiki

http://geneticeng.wikispaces.com/

Through my wiki, I will be presenting to the class how genetic engineering works through plants, animals, and human beings. I will explain the process on the engineering, and the pros and cons. The research I have found is very accurate because many sites contain the same information. In years to come, genetic engineering can potentially harm our society and ourselves.

On my wiki I will contain six sub-pages. Genetic engineering on plants, humans, and animals. Please take your time to click on the link and further view my wiki.

End of Journey

Sadly to say, this will be the last of the blog postings about genetic engineering. This project has helped me learn more about humans, plants, and animals. It created a visual image in my mind on how people may have there body look like if they didn't like their original features. Humans have many varieties of ways to manipulate their body. Whether its becoming stronger, more athletic, different eye color, or hair color.

Genetic engineering also paved the way to better understand the types of food I eat. Nevertheless, there are many pros and cons to genetic engineering. It benefits our society in many ways, but yet destroys it slowly. Thank you all for following up on this interesting topic.

Pros and Cons of Human Genetic Engineering

Many people in the world have a fear of dieing. Many people would love to live longer and some people just want to live their normal life. If you had the opportunity to be remade and live longer, would you take that opportunity? With technology advancing, it is possible to increase the live span for humans to 100-150 years. Many people also have the dream to remain young forever. Scientists are advancing on this dream and are trying to make it possible to slow down certain cellular metabolisms.

Scientists supposably say that with genetic enginnering, the body will be free of diseases. I don't think that is true because everyday something new is discovered. New diseases form and somehow will find a way around the blockage to attack the human body. Nevertheless, it is also good to be sick sometimes. The immune system learns of the disease or sickness and can produce anti-bodies to help from getting this disease or sickness again. It only makes the body stronger.

Baxamusa, Initials. (2011). Genetic engineering in humans. Retrieved  from   http://www.buzzle.com/articles/genetic-engineering-in-humans.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTZnVnAWOjY

Why Genetic Engineering is a Threat to the Environment...

Considering over a million of years plants have been interbred through the wind and pollination, scientists are beginning to stop that natural aspect of breeding. For example " The new Monsanto soybeans, called Roundup-Ready Soybeans (RRS), now have non-soybean genes in their cell nucleus. Thus in a tiny instant of time Monsanto crossed a genetic boundary that could not be crossed naturally." [Campbell] Now, the only way in the U.S. to buy unmodified foods is buying something marked "organic". The Food and Drug Administration tried to change that by adding genetically modified goods in organic packaging, but the public stopped that. Do you feel safe eating genetically modified food?

Campbell, J. (n.d.). Why is it an environmental threat?. Retrieved from http://www.cqs.com/gmo.htm

Will Cloning Animals be Beneficial?

The first ever clone of an animal was done on a sheep named Dolly. It took scientists 277 attempts to successfully clone the sheep. However, there can be some flaws in cloning in animal. Taking DNA from the embryos can cause many mutations in the cloned animal. Many scientists are still trying to figure out if cloned animals can reproduce. Considering that animals can now be cloned, would you want animals to be cloned too? Nevertheless, we have these big athletes emerging in every sport. What happens if someone like Lebron James was cloned? Sports will be no fun to watch or play. 


I think that cloning ruins society's individuality. Why would people want to see a multiple of the same things. Things would get boring to look at. Soon enough, the whole world will be acting the same and performing the same tasks. 

Genetically engineered animals. (08, 26 10). Retrieved fromhttp://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/developmentapprovalprocess/geneticengineering/geneticallyengineeredanimals/default.htm

Can Genetic Diseases Be Stopped?

According to research at least 1,500 genetically passed on diseases have been discovered. Throughout the years, diseases are enhancing and becoming a very extreme medical problem amongst the population. Nevertheless, because of these diseases, scientists have been better able to understand the structure of DNA and the structure of the human body.

Genetic diseases are usually treated by dietry therapy, drug therapy, or gene product replacement therapy.  Diets low in lactose are used to treat individuals with galactosemia. Drug therapy is used to reduce or block the accumulation of compound C.  Good enough, it is possible to detect a genetic disease by diagnosis of the utero.


Paoletti, R. (1974). Genetic engineering and bioethics. Argent Media.

Modified Foods

Genetically modified foods consist of combining genes from different organisms. Food is most likely altered because of insects and farmers want to have "insect resistance" on their plants. Would genetically engineered food be good for humans? Would the food cause human allergies? Many questions are still waiting to be answered. Many cancers could evolve from these genetically engineered foods. Even animals are becoming engineered to reproduce faster and produce meat differently.

Most importantly, the ecosystem. Genetically engineering animals and foods changes the outcome of the environment around them. Genes can cause an uncontrollable side effect that can wipe them of the face of the earth. Some forms of pollution can be contained but for gene pollution it cannot be contained. Cross-pollination can carry genetically changed organisms to other places and can cause harmful species.

GM Products: Benefits and Controversies

Benefits

• Crops
  • Enhanced taste and quality
  • Reduced maturation time
  • Increased nutrients, yields, and stress tolerance
  • Improved resistance to disease, pests, and herbicides
  • New products and growing techniques
• Animals
  • Increased resistance, productivity, hardiness, and feed efficiency
  • Better yields of meat, eggs, and milk
  • Improved animal health and diagnostic methods
• Environment
  • "Friendly" bioherbicides and bioinsecticides
  • Conservation of soil, water, and energy
  • Bioprocessing for forestry products
  • Better natural waste management
  • More efficient processing
• Society
  • Increased food security for growing populations

Controversies

• Safety
  • Potential human health impacts, including allergens, transfer of antibiotic resistance markers, unknown effects
  • Potential environmental impacts, including: unintended transfer of transgenes through cross-pollination, unknown effects on other organisms (e.g., soil microbes), and loss of flora and fauna biodiversity
• Access and Intellectual Property
  • Domination of world food production by a few companies
  • Increasing dependence on industrialized nations by developing countries
  • Biopiracy, or foreign exploitation of natural resources
• Ethics
  • Violation of natural organisms' intrinsic values
  • Tampering with nature by mixing genes among species
  • Objections to consuming animal genes in plants and vice versa
  • Stress for animal
• Labeling
  • Not mandatory in some countries (e.g., United States)
  • Mixing GM crops with non-GM products confounds labeling attempts
• Society
  • New advances may be skewed to interests of rich countries

Chart:

[Genetically modified foods and organisms. (2008, November 05). Retrieved from http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/gmfood.shtml]


Pollack, A. (2001). Rice genome called a crop breakthrough. NYTimes, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/27/science/27RICE.html

Human Characteristics

Have you as a person, ever seen a person that you really wanted to look like? Those certain characteristics on their body that you would want. Their glamorous eye color, or their fit body tone. Or maybe you just wanted to be an athlete and go pro. Well, as the scientific field expands, so does the research on the human genes. Scientists are beginning to test certain characteristics such as eye color, addictive behavior, nutritional background, and athleticism. 


A couple years ago, scientists tested volunteers for genetic muscle traits. The tests looked for single-nucleotide polymorphism to actually tell whether an individual had a predisposition for muscle strength, size, and performance. If a volunteer tested positive, the scientists would credit the program to their own abilities. If a person tested negative, then they would be able to view the technological changes they could make to their genetic makeup. It is a scary thought. What if the scientists made an error while inserting the proper genes, would they be fixable? Would you want to have genes inserted into your body to better improve your genetic makeup, thinking again how positive traits can cause a negative-self image? 


 Simmons, D. (2008). Genetic inequality: human genetic engineering . Retrieved from     
 http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetic-inequality-human-genetic-engineering-768

Human Diseases

The most appealing thing about genetic engineering to me is about human diseases and how they are treated by being cloned. How is the disease formed? or maybe How is the disease fixed? However, I never expected a scientist to manually removed someone's disease by cloning.


Better yet, genetic engineering helps scientists provide people with certain genes that they lack. For example, in 1990 a young girl had a disease to the lack of ONE single gene. Easily fixable, the scientist withdrew some blood from the girl, copied the gene she was missing and inserted it into her white blood cells. Click here for a quick video on gene therapy. To learn more about Genetic Engineering, click here.

 Association of Reproductive Health Proffessionals, ARHP. (n.d.). Human cloning and genetic modification. Retrieved from http://www.arhp.org/publications-and-resources/patient-resources/printed-materials/cloning 


  Levine, L. (2011). Genetic Engineering. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from Grolier Online http://gme.grolier.com/article?assetid=0117820-0

An Interest in the Human Body

I've always wondered what the world would be like if scientists knew every step your brain takes to help you survive throughout the world or if you were cloned and had someone that acted the same way you did. For the past couple of weeks, I have exploring what DNA is and how it takes effect on the human body.


I've been thinking about how to brain thinks and how the brain comes up with the decisions it does to tell the body what to do. However, everybody has their own type of DNA, sort of like fingerprints. A person can be identified by their certain DNA that roams their body. DNA, also known as deoxribonucleic acid, is constructed as a double helix like a ladder. DNA can also be used for cloning, which leads to my second question stated above.


Would cloning help our society, or will it just make it worse by putting more stress on the atmosphere? That question along with others will help me pave my way into finding more about the human genome. I hope you will enjoy learning about the structure of the human body.