Medical Biotechnology - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 22
About This Presentation
Title:

Medical Biotechnology

Description:

Introduction Medical biotechnology is the fusion of genetics, cell biology and many other sciences in order to further advances in medicine. Why is medical ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:302
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 23
Provided by: daveja
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Medical Biotechnology


1
Medical Biotechnology
2
Introduction
  • Medical biotechnology is the fusion of genetics,
    cell biology and many other sciences in order to
    further advances in medicine.

3
Why is medical biotechnology important?
  • The main reason for medical biotechnology is to
    prolong life.
  • Other reasons are to ease suffering of palliative
    care patients or to increase accessibility for
    people with disabilities.

4
Current Areas of Research
5
1) Monoclonal Antibodies (mAb)
  • They are so called because they are clones of an
    individual parent cell.
  • Remember, antibodies are specific proteins that
    target pathogens invading our body.

6
1) Monoclonal Antibodies (mAb)
  • This technology is used primarily to fight off
    cancer cells as these monoclonal antibodies can
    be trained to target markers that show up on
    cancer cells.
  • The mAbs will then destroy the cancer cell and go
    looking for more.

7
2) Bioprocessing
  • Bioprocessing is the mass production of human
    proteins, vaccines, etc by genetically modifying
    bacteria or viruses.
  • This allows for a large quantity of the desired
    product to be created in a short amount of time
    and for a relatively low cost.

8
2) Bioprocessing
  • Example insulin, the human protein responsible
    for lowering blood sugar after eating.
  • Process The human gene for insulin is placed
    into bacteria, and cultured to produce insulin
    which is then collected, purified and sold.

9
3) Stem Cells
  • A stem cell is a cell that has the potential to
    become any cell type in the human body.
  • Everyone has stem cells, but they are very hard
    to access.
  • The easiest place to get stem cells is from an
    embryo.

10
3) Stem Cells
  • Stem cells are introduced into a damaged area of
    the body where, under the right conditions, will
    replace the damaged area.
  • Stem cells can be grown in a lab first to ensure
    the right conditions and then placed into the
    patient

11
3) Stem Cells
  • Can be used to treat several things such as
  • - Crohns disease
  • - Baldness
  • - Replacing damaged heart tissue after heart
    attack
  • - Replacing damaged nerve tissue for spinal cord
    injuries
  • - Fatal cancers (bone marrow transplants)

12
4) Tissue Engineering
  • A form of regenerative medicine, tissue
    engineering is the creation of human tissue
    outside the body for later replacement.
  • Usually occurs on a tissue scaffold, but can be
    grown on/in other organism.

Engineered urethra
Engineered skin tissue
Engineered trachea
13
4) Tissue Engineering
  • Tissue engineers have created artificial skin,
    cartilage and bone marrow.
  • Current projects being undertaken include
    creating an artificial liver, pancreas and
    bladder.
  • On April 9,2013 a 2 year in Illinois had a
    successful transplant of an artificial trachea
    engineered from the stem cell in her bone
    marrow!

14
Cloning
15
Introduction
  • Cloning produces cells that are genetically
    similar to each other (have the same DNA).
  • This prevents an organ (or cells) made through
    cloning from being rejected.
  • Human cloning is the creation of a genetically
    identical human being, human cell or human
    tissue.

16
Types of Cloning
  • There are two types of cloning
  • Therapeutic cloning is the use of (stem) cells
    for medicinal or research purposes.
  • Reproductive cloning would be using (stem) cells
    to create cloned humans.

17
Therapeutic Cloning
  1. Nucleus of an egg cell is replaced with the
    nucleus of a body cell.
  2. Egg cell is stimulated with electricity.
  3. Embryo grows.
  4. Embryo stem cells are collected and used to treat
    the donor.

18
Controversies with therapeutic Cloning
  • Therapeutic cloning creates embryos and then
    destroys them for stem cells, which is morally
    wrong to some.

19
Reproductive Cloning
  • Begins using the same technology at therapeutic
    cloning except
  • Embryo is put into a uterus and allowed to grow
    and be born.
  • The baby is an exact genetic copy of the donor!

20
Controversies with Reproductive Cloning
  • Reproductive cloning is deemed morally wrong
    because it could lead to creating human life for
    the purpose of organ donation for the genetic
    donor.

21
Pro-Reproductive Cloning arguments
  • Could create a fertility treatment that allows
    parents who are both infertile to have children
    with at least some of their DNA in their
    offspring.
  • Some scientists, including Dr. Richard Seed,
    suggest that human cloning might prevent the
    human aging process.
  • Could repair the cell depletion related to aging
    by growing replacement tissues from stem cells
    harvested from a cloned embryo.

22
Anti-Reproductive Cloning arguments
  • The process will likely lead to severely disabled
    children.
  • Bioethicist Thomas Murray of the Hastings Centre
    argues that "it is absolutely inevitable that
    groups are going to try to clone a human being.
    But they are going to create a lot of dead and
    dying babies along the way.
  • It is likely that there would be a great number
    of failures in the creation of a living human
    clone, such as clones without viable immune
    systems or other gross genetic failures.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com