5/12/2023 - technology-and-innovation

What is biotechnology?

By milagros castroman

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For decades, biotechnology and biological sciences have played a key role in humanity. Your study helps us understand how life works. This is essential because it means knowing how to use these knowledge and having the ability to employ them as a tool to improve people's quality of life.

The word biotechnology has been resonating in the media in recent times and its presence in everyday life becomes more evident day by day in the form of vaccines, diagnosis, energy and food, among other things. This demonstrates that it is really an elementary discipline for the development of our current society. For this reason, year after year we have more susodicha interventions, as well as a growing number of people dedicated to it.

However, as much as we are surrounded by this technology, it still goes unnoticed to many people. Today, I propose to ask you what biotechnology is and why it is shaping our future, however sometimes it is invisible in the eyes of many.

What is biotechnology?

Biotechnology is a specialized science that combines advanced molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics. focuses on the manipulation of living organisms and biological molecules to create products and optimize processes to improve people's quality of life. This discipline has a wide field of application in various areas. Among them we can find the medicine and food industry, the design of vaccines, agriculture, biofuels and others.

As modern as they sound, biotechnology is not a recent discipline. Its roots go back to antiquity. For example, the ancient Egyptians used yeasts to make bread and beer, while the Sumerians employed fermentation techniques to make wine. This type of methods were used for thousands of years, although the underlying biological processes were not always understood.

As new discoveries were made in relation to what happens “after” these techniques, these were improved. Today our life is much simpler thanks to biotechnology.

Functional food

The deficiency of vitamin A is the cause of most cases of night blindness in the world and prevents the correct development of the immune system in infants. For this reason, the WHO (World Health Organization) considers that the lack of this substance is one of the problems that most affects the health population.

Arroz dorado

Thanks to biotechnology, foods containing biologically active compounds can be created. The well-known “golden rice”, it is a transgenic food prepared as possible solution for the great vitamin A deficiency. This grain is genetically modified to acquire the ability to produce betacarotenes, a substance necessary for the manufacture of this vitamin.

GM Cultures

To protect the agricultural crops of insects, significant quantities of agrochemicals are implemented. However, its careless use can lead to environmental problems such as soil and water contamination, which derives from biodiversity loss. In terms of human health, the use of pesticides may have toxic effects on people who are in charge of their manipulation and application, causing, for example, respiratory problems.

BT plants are an invention of biotechnology. These are transgenic plants resistant to certain insect species. His name comes from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. On certain occasions, the bacteria generates spurs where it accumulates a protein that is toxic to insects.

It can be said that it is a natural and non harmful insecticide for humans, it can be implemented in cultures that derive in products suitable for human consumption.

Maíz BT

Fluorescent proteins

Fluorescent proteins are a great help tool, as they allow us to visualize processes that are invisible to the human eye. GFP (Floorescent Green Protein) emits fluorescence when exposed to ultraviolet light.

Imagen de la medusa Aequorea victoria

This molecule is produced by the medusa Aequorea Victory. The gene that encodes for GFP can be isolated from this organism through genetic engineering. Once isolated, it can be entered into a cell of another organism. One of the many applications of this technique implies the observation of the development of cancer metastases in rats. The gene is inserted in vivo in cancer cells and with this information, synthesise GFP. This would imply that when illuminating with UV light they would shine. Thus, one can observe the evolution of cancer through intravital microscopy.

The great dilemma of genetic engineering

It is true that technologies will continue to progress until they reach an unimaginable potential. It is not irrational to think that the evolution of technologies applied in the field of medicine will lead us, in a not far future, to the alteration of the large-scale human genome.

In 2020, scientists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier received the nobel chemistry award after deciphering a technique called CRISPR-cas9 with which it is possible to modify the genetic code: one can indicate to an enzyme that cuts a specific sequence so that it is modified by another. This leads us to the possibility of exchanging evil DNA sequences for healthy ones. This advance would lead society to design a world in which cases of individuals suffering from hereditary diseases could be reduced over time.

However, these modifications that seem to do nothing more than good can be used for other purposes. It is a fact that if a parent is carrier of a gene that increases the possibilities of developing a disease with high mortality rate, this will want to decrease the chances that your child hered. However, it is essential to establish a limit on what we can, or not, change.

The ethical line: how far can we reach with genetic manipulation?

But then... Where do we draw the line for acceptable use? Thanks to the new technologies, reality is getting closer and closer to science fiction, and as difficult as it is to imagine, it is not uncertain to think that in a few decades we will have the option to design individuals to come to the world. From its skin color to its physical fitness, all are characteristics that are expressed in the genetic code in the form of sequences that, by ende, could be altered.

As expected, this technique opened its doors to great social and ethical debates. Religious groups in particular argue that man must be received into the world in the way God wanted and that, through genetic engineering, scientists would be playing to be God, which would cause a imbalance in the cycle of life. Others mention that the service will be accessible to few, as the treatment will likely have a very high cost. Therefore, it would generate an even greater gap between people from low and high resources.

Although this technology is in full development and its use in embryos is not approved, society must prepare for an uncomfortable conversation about moral and ethical questions regarding the implementation of the CRISPR-cas9 technique. Yes, it is controversial, but it could be a tool of high effectiveness to reduce human suffering and it would be waste that by the selfishness of man is implemented for the wrong reasons.

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milagros castroman

milagros castroman

I'm a second-year biotechnology student at UADE. I have a deep interest in the application of science in addressing environmental issues in order to promote a greener future.

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