Overview of the applications of biotechnology in medicine that will be dealt here: 1. Gene Therapy 2. Pharmacogenomics 3. Genetic Testing 4. Cloning
What is Biotechnology?
Biotechnology can broadly be defined as the art of understanding and manipulating living organisms’ genes (code of life) and their products for the production of food, medicine, drink, or for other benefits or useful purposes to mankind and other organisms. Basically, it is a field of applied biology that involves the using of living organisms to create useful products for mankind and other organisms.
BIOLOGY + TECHNOLOGY = BIOTECHNOLOGY
Biotechnology can be used to solve many biological processes as well as many other fields of work. Biotechnology can also be used to conduct researches which allow biotechnology to form the bases of learning and understanding living organisms and diseases.
Depending on the area of application of biotechnology, it is branched into codes with different colors such as:
Red Biotechnology – this deals with biotechnology in medicine.
Green Biotechnology – this deals largely with biotechnology in the field of agriculture
White Biotechnology – involves the industrial applications
The goal of Biotechnology in Medicine 1. To fight and cure diseases 2. To find a way to improve life 3. To identify and manage the originated cause of diseases
In medicine, biotechnology has many applications, these are: * Gene Therapy * Tissue Cultures * Genetic Testing * Genetic Engineering * Cloning * Recombinant DNA technology * Pharmacogenomics
Gene Therapy
Genes are specific sequences of bases that encode instructions on how to make proteins that perform most life functions and make up most of cell structures. When gene becomes altered, it may prevent them from carrying out their normal functions leading to genetic disorders. Since this is a problem of having abnormal genes in