2011-2012 LS

FormTEST

29/3/2012

BIOTECHN OLOGY
STEM CELL Genetically Modified Food

Biotechnology
Biotechnology a technology that modifies living organism (including human health and the human environment) Modern technology scientific technology Genetic engineering (genetic modification) and cell engineering Purposes and Uses of Biotechnology
Preventing & Treating disease o Human Cloning / Gene therapy o Stem cells research Solving fertility problems o In vitro fertilization o Genetic screening Improving the quality of crops o Genetically modified food

Controversies arising from biotechnology

Fairness in the use of genetic information Privacy and confidentiality of genetic Psychological impact due to an individuals genetic differences Reproductive issue (reliability, limitation, societal issues) Clinical issues (accuracy, reliability and utility, influence to publiv decisions, current scientific limiations) Health and environmental issues concerning genetically modified foods Commercialization of products (Patent)

Application of Biotechnology Human Cloning the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human Purpose: to keep the cloned you in a healthy condition, so that the cloned you can replace your organs or damaged areas Controversies: Violation of laws of nature Stem Cell Research Using undifferentiated cells therapeutically to treat human disease and injury Purpose: reduce the repelling of the organ from the patients body and help to increase the

availability of organ supply for transplanting Controversies: Extracting stem cells from embryos for research is seen by some people as a form of killing

(Stem Cell Research(

What are stem cells?
The building blocks of life Two defining properties: the ability to differentiate into other cells and the ability to self-regenerate In the first few weeks of life, out tiny bodies are filled with stem cells that multiply and eventually turn into dozens of different cells that our bodies need, life heart cells, bone cells, skin cells, etc. Scientists envision drawing from colonies of stem cells that can replicate for long periods of time to create new specialized cells. These specialized cells would then be transplanted into patents to repair or replace tissues that disease and disability have damaged.

Where can you find stem cells?

Embryonic stem cells in human embryos during the first few weeks of life Neonatal stem cells in placentas and umbilical cords after birth Adult stem cells in more than 12 places in our bodies, including out blood stream, bone marrow, and skeletal muscle

Two different types if stem cell research

Adult stem cell research o Not controversial; no human being dies when these cells are collected o Currently beloved less likely to initiate rejection after transplantation A patients own cells could be expanded in culture, coaxed into assuming a specific cell type, and then reintroduced into the patient Cells are less likely to be rejected by the immune system Embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) o Embryonic stem cells blank cells that have not yet been categorized or programmed by the body, and can be prompted to generate any of the 220 human cell types, they are extremely flexible. o Kills the donor every single time o In-vitro fertilization results in several living embryos, a few of which are delivered to the parents to produce a successful pregnancy o The reaming embryos are often set to a lab where their stem cells are cut out and the undeveloped bodies destroyed

Embryonic stem cell can become all cell types of the body can be grown relatively easily in culture

Adult stem cell limited to differentiating into different cell types of their tissue of origin rare in mature tissue isolating these cells from an adult tissue is challenging, and methods to expand their numbers in cell culture (growth of cell in artificial environment) have not yet been worked out

Success of adult stem cell research

Diabetes patients have been off of insulin for over a year Parkinsons patients have sown an average sixth-one percent improvement of coordination Twenty-three patients have regained their eyesight following adult stem cell transplants A patient with multiple sclerosis improved after being treated with adult stem cells from his own blood spinal cord injuries have been treated previously paralyzed people are walking with braces

Advantages
Purposes o Bring hope to suffering patients o Diseases can be successfully cured at a higher rate (it leads to potentially life-saving medical breakthroughs) The technique shows promise for the treatment of degenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimers and Parkinsons) Impact on Medical technology o Research can enrich the understanding of human life o Medical development improve technological standard & public health o Improvement of medical technology increase economic benefits

Disadvantages
Not recognized by public Against basic human rights (the children should have the right to choose)

Opposition from the ethical problem Embryo is a human life as life begins from conception killing the embryo Hard to control Potential dangerous

The risks and benefits regarding ethics social needs and economic effectiveness must be weighed before formulating the related regulations, so as to ensure the application of biotechnology can bring about the betterment of humankind and not to create more problems Arguments FOR
The proper moral and religious course of action is to save existing life through embryonic stem cell therapy

Arguments AGAINST

 Immoral to destroy a few-days-old human embryo, even to save or reduce suffering in existing human life Regarding the destruction of the blastocyst (laboratory-fertilized human egg) to be the murder of human life. They believe insufficient attention has been given to explore the potential of adult stem cells, which have already been used to successfully cure many diseases Too little attention has been paid to potential of umbilical cord blood for stem cell research Cures have yet been produced by embryonic stem cell therapy

Stem cell research funding (USA)

Bush blocked a bill that would have expanded he federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, regarding stem cell research as morally wrong. o Some argues that this US policy is slowing down the global effort to develop therapies for a range of diseases and illness Obama ends ban on stem cell research o He reports that American public strongly supports federal funding for embryonic stem cell research o As South Korea, Great Britain, Japan, India, and other countries rapidly pioneer this new technological frontier, the Us is being left farther and farther behind in medical technology

Public Opinion
2001: 61% Approve and 21% disapprove; 2004: 73% Approve and 11% disapprove 2001: 68% had heard or read about stem cell issues; 2004: 83% were familiar with the subject

Stem cell research around the world

United Kingdom: major player in bioscience and has been heralded as Europes leader in stem cell research o `In 2004, became the third country in the world to allow scientists to clone human embryonic stem cells explicitly for research purposes. o The first to successfully clone blastocysts, or early-stage embryo Canada: enacted legislation permitting research on discarded embryos from in vitro fertilization procedures, o Yet the creation of human embryos for research is still prohibited South Africa: first African nation to create cell bank

Regulations on reproductive technology

The Council on Human Reproductive Technology was established in 2001 in HK accoriding to the Hunan Reproductive Technology ordinance o Provision of reproductibe technology procedures o Conducting of embryo research o The handling storing or disposing gametes or embryos

o Any of the above related to reproductive technology procedure or embryo research and surrogacy arrangement

(Genetically Modified Foods(

They are crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques. These plants have been modified in the laboratory to enhance desired traits such as increased resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content. Original method: breeding Disadvantage: very time consuming and are often not very accurate Better method: Genetical engineering Reason: Create plants with the exact desired trait very rapidly and with great accuracy Genes can be transferred from one plant to another, and genes from non-plant organisms also can be used Benefits of GM Foods
Can potentially produce higher crop yields feeding more people in developing countries Economical, despite the initial high cost of the seeds Reduce the need for pesticides and herbicides as well as reducing the manpower needed to successfully grow the crops improve fiancial gains Improve food quality (e.g. Tomato being engineered stay fresher for longer) Crops can be engineered to withstand weather fluctuations and extremes provide sufficient yields and quality despite a severe poor weather season GM food can be engineered to have a high content of a specific nutrient that is lacking in the dit of a local popilations group (e.g. Vitamin A in golden rice)

Issues/Criticism with GM Foods

The ability of a food to trigger an allergy in human Organism in the ecosystem could be harmed lower level of biodiversity (removing of food source of an animal) GM crops could prove toxic to an organism in the environemnt, leading to reduced numbers or extiction of that orgainsm For GM crops Crops can be engineered to be pest/disease resistant and so reduce or eliminate the need to Against GM crops The creation of pest or herbicide resistant GM crops could result in superbugs or superweeds

use pesticides or herbicides. This reduction in chemicals can benefit the environment and wildlife. GM foods could be made healthier than conventional foods by, for example, modifying them to include extra vitamins and nutrients.

that evolve to be resistant to the chemicals or toxins developed in conjunction with GM crops.

The growing of GM crops could result in cross-pollination between GM crops and non-GM and organic crops thereby contaminating them. (solution: create buffer zones around fields of GM crops beneficial or harmless insects would habe a refuge in the non-GM corn, and insect pest could be allowed to destroy the non-GM crop and would not develop resistence)

Since the wide scale consumption of food from GM crops began some seven years ago there have been no substantiated cases of harm to human health.

Because it is a new technology, there is a need to adopt the precautionary principle. The long term impacts on human health, food safety or the environment cannot be accurately predicted. It is too risky to allow the commercial growing of GM crops at this stage.

Crops could be modified to reduce or eliminate allergic affects, e.g. by removing the allergic properties from nuts or altered so they have medicinal benefits, e.g. contain vaccines for specific diseases.

GM crops which have additional proteins or altered genetic composition could result in toxic and allergic reactions in certain people.

Crops could be modified to enable them to survive GM crops will result in increased dependency on and grow in unfavourable conditions and withstand drought or floods. This could be particularly beneficial to farmers in the developing world. transnational biotech corporations to supply seed and chemicals, the result being monocultures. This will prove particularly costly and damaging to small scale farmers in the developing world who rely on saving seed from year to year and often plant a diversity of crops. Crops can be created that give higher yields and better quality food. This is particularly important to help meet the demand for food by an expanding world population. GM is not the key to food security and GM crop developments to date have largely benefited northern countries and markets, not small scale farmers in the developing world. Food security lies in the more equal distribution of food, access

to land and money by the poor.

Regulations on genetically modired food

Hong Kongs Guidelines on Voluntary Lavelling of Genetically Modified (GM) Food is recommendatory in nature and it is not legally binding, the government encourages business to adopt the guideleins so as to standardize the information provided to consumers