Category Archives: Genetic Engineering

29 - Genetic Engineering by Bailey Hanson
29 - Genetic Engineering by Bailey Hanson.

By: Bruce Rasmussen

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29 - Genetic Engineering by Bailey Hanson - Video

Life Science 012: Genetic Engineering
Life Science 012: Genetic Engineering Lesson objectives: Explaining the concept and process of genetic engineering.

By: SABC Education Shows

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Life Science 012: Genetic Engineering - Video

" ": How University of Belgrade shake
Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Belgrade Serbia http://www.abtek.ru/home/news/161-novosti-kompanii/286-the-art-of-shaking http://vk.com/abtek...

By: Abtek TV

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Shaking Science with style from IMGGE University of Belgrade, Serbia
Shaking Science with style made by the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering (IMGGE), University of Belgrade, Belgrade Serbia Video made for the Competition The Art of Shaking...

By: The Art of Shaking by Kuhner Shaker

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Shaking Science with style from IMGGE University of Belgrade, Serbia - Video

Federal authorities have been slow to answer questions about genetic engineering regulations asked by an Oregon task force assembled by Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Kitzhaber launched the task force early this year to write a report framing the controversy on genetically modified organisms and how theyre regulated in Oregon.

Task force members held a teleconference in early June with representatives from the USDA, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which jointly regulate biotechnology.

Task force members followed up with two sets of questions to clarify such issues as how the government increases tolerance levels of pesticides on biotech crops. They requested a response by mid-August. As of the task forces latest meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 3, only the FDA provided responses to the questions, according to state officials at the meeting.

I personally am disappointed they have not been able to come back to us with concrete responses, says Ivan Maluski, director of Friends of Family Farmers, a group thats critical of federal oversight of biotechnology.

Stephanie Page of the Oregon Department of Agriculture says representatives from USDA and EPA have apologized for the delay, citing the absences of key officials.

It appears that some of the FDAs responses left task force members underwhelmed.

Specifically, the task force asked FDA whether the agency is enforcing laws against misleading labeling of genetically modified organisms in food.

Agency officials told the task force that the agency doesnt consider the presence of GMO ingredients a material fact that must be disclosed to consumers, but supports voluntary labeling.

What struck me by their answer is that they didnt really answer the question, says Connie Kirby, vice president of scientific and technical affairs for the Northwest Food Processors Association, an industry group that opposes mandatory labeling.

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Feds slow to respond to state GMO task force

Genetic engineering was one of the greatest breakthroughs in recent history that has immensely helped mankind, according to Harikrishna Ramaprasad Saripalli, Associate Professor at Aksum University in Ethiopia.

Sri Durga Malleswara Siddhartha Mahila Kalasala Department of Zoology organised a lecture on Genetic Engineering and Cell Culturing-Animal Science Perspectives here on Wednesday.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Harikrishna said that there were many advantages of genetic engineering. Diseases could be prevented by detecting people or animals that were genetically prone to certain hereditary diseases and preparing for the inevitable.

Genetic engineering, a technique used to manipulate genes, makes human bodies better, and has the capacity to make disease a history, he said.

Animals and plants can be tailor made to show desirable characteristics. The genetic engineering would bring novelty. Another advantage of genetic engineering is that animals and plants can be made to have desirable characteristics which could help solve some of the worlds problems. The underlining principle behind every research and novelty should be aimed at solving the problem faced by the people, he said.

All these techniques and technologies should be used for the betterment of society. If a vaccine for diseases like polio was found, it should be used for the community. Otherwise there was a danger that commercial motives behind research may bring an end to community itself, he felt.

Mr. Harikrishna said that the students would excel in the field of life sciences only if they love their subject. There were plenty of job and research opportunities in the field of genetic engineering. Every country, including India, was focusing on research and development in genetic engineering. The only quality that a student should have was determination, dedication and love to the subject, he added.

College Principal T. Vijaya Lakshmi and Department of Zoology Head Uma also spoke.

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Genetic engineering can prevent diseases, says expert

Cotton research institute to write to GEAC for allowing refuge in bag cottonseeds

Chennai, September 10:

Nagpur-based Central Institute for Cotton Research will soon write to the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) to allow sale of refuge in bag (RIB) cottonseeds that will have Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) variety along with non-Bt.

A process such as RIB will ensure that pests present on a farm growing genetically modified crop like cotton and corn do not develop resistance to the Bt gene that destroys them.

We have conducted tests of RIB seeds for the last three years and the results are promising. We are now preparing the data on the results. Once we prepare them, we will write to GEAC, said KR Kranthi, director of the research institute. While the Bt variety will make up 95 per cent of the RIB cottonseeds, the non-Bt one will comprise the rest.

While cultivating genetically-modified crops, it is mandatory for farmers to grow refuge or a non-GM trait of the same crop in five per cent of the area. In India, while selling Bt cottonseeds, seed companies provide the non-Bt refuge seeds along with them in a separate packet.

The objective of the RIB concept is to make growers comply with norms for growing genetically modified crop and, in turn, make the process simpler.

Growing a refuge crop in the field of a Bt crop is based on the law of genetics. If a pest develops resistance to the Bt gene, then the non-Bt plant grown on the same farm will help tackle the problem. The principle is simple: the pest from the Bt plant will mate with a similar one from the non-Bt plant and develop a progeny that will not be resistant to the Bt gene.

Since farmers are oblivious to the dangers of growing just Bt cotton, they throw away the non-Bt seeds. Some farmers do it to get returns from the Bt variety as it will fetch them more money, said an official with a seed firm.

DuPont Pioneer came out with such a concept for Bt corn first, while Monsanto has developed a similar concept for Bt cotton. US companies have been developing the RIB concept for a number of years now. In India, we proposed it to the CICR and are awaiting further details from them, said a Monsanto spokesperson. During a meeting among stakeholders of Bt cotton, Monsanto floated the idea. We at the CICR told them that we would also like to test the RIB process, said Kranthi.

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An RIB solution to make pests non-resistant to Bt gene

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

10-Sep-2014

Contact: Melanie Scharler 917-340-6492 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

(New Rochelle, New York) September 10, 2014 - Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., leading publisher of over 80 science, technology, and medical publications, announced today the launch of first time hard cover title Inevitable Collision: The Inspiring Story that Brought Stem Cell Research to Conservative America, in an effort to bring awareness to the growing conversation and debate surrounding stem cell research and regenerative medicine.

Written by Tory Williams, author, advocate, mom, and co-founder of the Alabama Institute of Medicine (AIM), Inevitable Collision is a human-interest story that details the controversial Geron Trial, the first human embryonic stem cell trial for patients with paralysis, and thoughtfully documents the first and fifth patients, TJ Atchison and Katie Sharify. The book features provocative conversations with doctors, medical researchers, and scientists including Dr. Hans Keirstead, the famous scientist whose groundbreaking research helped rats to overcome paralysis through stem cell treatments and introduced the therapy to humans, and helps inform the public conversation by presenting the facts and opportunities surrounding stem cell research and therapy.

"Tory's personal journey of advocacy, perseverance, and commitment to the advance-ment of stem cell research and its application is an important and relevant testament to the stem cell conversation at large," said Mary Ann Liebert, president and CEO of the company that bears her name. "Inevitable Collision will strongly resonate with the six million Americans suffering from paralysis, a quarter of which are the result of a spinal cord injury. In a very readable and compelling style, Williams has brought the much needed human voice to the oftentimes controversial and misunderstood topic of stem cell technology. It is an important read for the public, legislators, and patients and their families, as well as for researchers and members of the health care community. This book will make a difference!"

Compared to the narrative and journalistic writing style of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Inevitable Collision explains in reader-friendly terms how stem cells work, and why they are considered important tools in finding a cure for paralysis and other disabilities. The book also details author Tory Williams' physical and emotional struggles while raising funding and public awareness surrounding embryonic stem cell research across the nation.

"Through this book I hope to bridge the gap between science and religion and raise awareness of the importance and power of stem cell research," said Tory Williams. "This book is intended not only for patients who suffer from paralysis and diseases such as cancer and Parkinson's, but for everyone affected by these afflictions, directly and indirectly."

The launch comes on the heels of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's (CIRM) recent announcement green lighting the follow-up phase to the Geron clinical trial as approved by the FDA.

Inevitable Collision's 208 pages plus 8-page photo spread retails at $21.95 for the hard-back and $9.99 for the e-book and includes an afterword written by Roman Reed, a tire-less patient advocate who was paralyzed from a sports injury 20 years ago. Roman is the Founder of the Roman Reed Foundation and Roman's Law, which was the impetus for California's groundbreaking stem cell program.

Originally posted here:
Tory Williams combats controversy surrounding stem cell therapy with new book

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

The past few decades have seen enormous progress being made in synthetic biology the idea that simple biological parts can be tweaked to do our bidding. One of the main targets has been hacking the biological machinery that nature uses to produce chemicals. The hope is once we understand enough we might be able to design processes that convert cheap feedstock, such as sugar and amino acids, into drugs or fuels. These production lines can then be installed into microbes, effectively turning living cells into factories.

Taking a leap in that direction, researchers from Stanford University have created a version of bakers yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) that contains genetic material of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), bringing the morphine microbial factory one step closer to reality. These results published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology represent a significant scientific success, but eliminating the need to grow poppies may still be years away.

If dog has been mans best friend for thousands of years or more, the humble yeast has long been mans second-best friend. The single-cell organism has been exploited by human societies to produce alcoholic beverages or bread for more than 4,000 years.

Like any animal or plant that mankind domesticated, there has been a particular interest in the study and optimisation of yeast. When breeding turned into a scientific discipline, it quickly became a model organism for biological experiments. And in 1996, its complete genome was the first sequenced from a eukaryotic organism the more advanced tree of life. This extensive knowledge of yeast biology makes it an attractive platform for synthetic biology.

In the new study, Christina Smolke and her team further show that yeast could be a good candidate for the production of opioids a class of drugs that includes morphine. To achieve this transformation, Smolke would need a complete biological pathway required to produce complex opioids.

In 2008 she got the first hint on successfully fermenting simple sugars to make salutaridine, an opioid precursor. Then in 2010, a Canadian team identified the last two missing pieces of the morphine puzzle in the genome of opium poppy.

Using these biological parts from plants, together with some from bacteria, Smolke has now created yeast that can produce many natural and unnatural opioids. All it takes is to feed the microbes an intermediary molecule extracted from the poppy plant called thebaine.

These results bring the technology one step closer to microbial factories that can produce pharmaceutical molecules in a tank rather than in the field. What is left now is for Smolke to find a way to turn salutaridine into thebaine efficiently. Filling this gap may allow her to create a yeast strain producing opioids directly from sugars.

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Instead of Poppies, Engineering Microbes to Make Morphine

Arina O. Grossu 6:34 p.m. EDT September 9, 2014

Jeff Bridges plays The Giver and Brenton Thwaites is the chosen Receiver of Memories in a movie based on a 1993 novel.(Photo: David Bloomer, The Weinstein Co.)

Atheist writer Richard Dawkins' Twitter message to the world regarding an unborn child with Down syndrome was, "Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice."

Even more horrific than Dawkins' assertion is the fact that we actually follow his advice. Up to 90% of unborn children with Down syndrome are aborted. Further, euthanasia of elderly people and children is a present-day reality in Belgium.

Are we that far off from the atrocities in the movie The Giver? Not really. The Giver, now in theaters, is a dystopian story based on Lois Lowry's 1993 best-selling book. The story takes place in a futuristic world where hatred, pain and war have all but been eliminated. No one has more or less. The constructed world with its apparent equality seems like a socialist's paradise. The environment, weather and even emotions are controlled. Each day, each member of the community must take drugs that numb real emotions.

An elderly man known as The Giver retains the memory of the "old world" and must pass it to a chosen Receiver, a boy named Jonas. Coming out of his allegorical cave with newfound knowledge of reality, Jonas describes his constructed world as "living a life of shadows" because he recognizes that evil still exists.

The movie is rife with bioethical implications applicable to our society, from genetic engineering and infanticide to surrogacy and euthanasia. In this seemingly perfect universe, the most imperfect members are eliminated. When elderly people no longer have utility, they are "released" (read, euthanized), as are sickly babies.

Isn't this exactly what the contracting parents in the recent Australian surrogacy case of baby Gammy wanted? They asked the Thai surrogate mother carrying their twins to abort one of them because he had Down syndrome. When she refused, they took only his healthy twin sister and demanded a refund.

Gammy represents Gabriel in the movie, a baby at risk because he was considered undesirable. Thankfully, Gammy was protected by his surrogate mother, just as Gabriel is protected by Jonas.

In the most disturbing scene in the movie, Jonas' father, whose job is "releasing" babies, takes a needle and inserts it into the head of a sickly baby to kill him. The Washington Post reported the line from the book that was "too dark" to add to the scene was the father cheerfully saying, "Bye-bye little guy," while placing the dead baby in a box. As Jonas puts it, "They hadn't eliminated murder. ... They just called it by a different name."

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'The Giver' reflects reality: Column