Eventually there are millions of them, each programmed to produce insulin. This method of producing insulin is a great breakthrough for diabetics. Not only can the insulin be made more cheaply, but it can be made in large quantities. Prior to this, bovine insulin was used but people were understandably alarmed at being injected with cow hormones. This situation was worsened with the discovery of BSE being passed onto humans. Also, bovine insulin was not always 100% effective and there could be side effects. In spite of some opposition to genetic modification of organisms, this appears to be an example where only good has come from it.
This is a break through for diabetics in the way that they can have the own insulin reproduced in the vat of genetically modified bacteria instead of the using the cows. This is saving lives of people in societies all around the world.
Human Factor VIII is clotting agent in blood and the lack of this causes Haemophilia A. this is a genetic disease which is carried in women and effects only men, can also be caused by mutation of cells. Haemophilia A is where the blood doesn’t clot and therefore a cut will keep bleeding longer that normal, it doesn’t bleed stronger or faster just longer. The clotting factor VIII is what stops the bleeding; this needs to be added to the blood if the person gets a deep cut or internal bleeding. The human factor VIII is manufactured by using a process of Recombinant DNA. This is made by tacking one piece of DNA and combining it with another, this is how it got the name recombinant. This is done in three ways: Transformation, Phage Introduction, and Non-Bacterial Transformation.
Transformation is where you use a bacterium like E. coli to do the process very much like the insulin but with the factor VIII gene.
Phage introduction is the process of transfection, which is equivalent to transformation,
except a phage is used instead of bacteria.
Non-bacterial transformation is a process very similar to Transformation. The only difference between the two is non-bacterial does not use bacteria such as E. coli for the host.
These methods are used to replicate the factor VIII in the plasma of the blood to help hemophiliac’s stop major bleeding or internal bleeding as the person would not be able to do it themselves naturally because of the condition.
These processes help society by helping prevent people from sever illness and temporally stopping the person’s disease such as diabetes or hemophilia from causing them harm. And letting them have as much of a normal life as possible. With this technology advancing every day there might be cure produced for diabetes and hemophilia and many more using these methods which are cheap and produce mass amounts of the product. It is safer than using someone else’s genes or blood as this could spread more diseases.
