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Risk Communication in a Democratic Society
Published in Susanna Hornig PriestCRC, Nanotechnology and the Public, 2017
Philosophers and ethicists tend to distinguish between ethical issues associated with outcomes, including physical, social, or psychological harm. An example is the assertion that human cloning might be wrong because it has bad effects on individual organisms (including people). There are also ethical issues associated with the violation of basic rights or other ethical principles, such as the idea that it may simply be inherently wrong to clone people because the worth and value of individual humans lies partly in their dignity and their uniqueness, which cloning is seen as desecrating. The first type of issue analysis, concerned with outcomes, is called consequential or utilitarian, and the second may be referred to as a rights-based or rules-based perspective. Similarly, a particular form of medical technology such as gene therapy that made possible a permanent alteration to the human body might be evaluated in terms of its potential benefits and harms alone, or in terms of an argument that it is (or is not) inherently wrong to alter an individual’s genetic makeup. (Some medical ethicists may distinguish between alterations intended to cure an illness and alterations intended to “improve” inherited traits that fall within the normal range.) One contemporary prediction is that in the future, new forms of nanotechnology now under development may facilitate gene therapy.
Medical Biotechnology
Published in Firdos Alam Khan, Biotechnology Fundamentals, 2020
After cloning so many species, the next big step would be cloning humans. Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing or previously existing human. There are two commonly discussed types of human cloning: therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning involves cloning cells from an adult for use in medicine and is an active area of research, while reproductive cloning involves making cloned human beings. Such reproductive cloning has not been performed and is illegal in many countries. A third type of cloning called replacement cloning is a theoretical possibility and would be a combination of therapeutic and reproductive cloning. Replacement cloning would entail the replacement of an extensively damaged or a failed or failing body through cloning, followed by whole or partial brain transplant. The various forms of human cloning are controversial. There have been numerous demands for all progress in the human cloning field to be halted. Some people and groups oppose therapeutic cloning, but most scientific, governmental, and religious organizations oppose reproductive cloning. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and other scientific organizations have made public statements suggesting that human reproductive cloning be banned until safety issues are resolved. Serious ethical concerns have been raised by the idea that it might be possible in the future to harvest organs from clones. Some people have considered the idea of growing organs separately from a human organism. In doing this, a new organ supply could be established without the moral implications of harvesting them from humans.
Medical biotechnology
Published in Firdos Alam Khan, Biotechnology Fundamentals, 2018
After cloning so many species, the next big step would be cloning humans. Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing or previously existing human. There are two commonly discussed types of human cloning: therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning involves cloning cells from an adult for use in medicine and is an active area of research, while reproductive cloning involves making cloned human beings. Such reproductive cloning has not been performed and is illegal in many countries. A third type of cloning called replacement cloning is a theoretical possibility and would be a combination of therapeutic and reproductive cloning. Replacement cloning would entail the replacement of an extensively damaged or a failed or failing body through cloning, followed by whole or partial brain transplant. The various forms of human cloning are controversial. There have been numerous demands for all progress in the human cloning field to be halted. Some people and groups oppose therapeutic cloning, but most scientific, governmental, and religious organizations oppose reproductive cloning. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and other scientific organizations have made public statements suggesting that human reproductive cloning be banned until safety issues are resolved. Serious ethical concerns have been raised by the idea that it might be possible in the future to harvest organs from clones. Some people have considered the idea of growing organs separately from a human organism. In doing this, a new organ supply could be established without the moral implications of harvesting them from humans.
Heterologous expression of azurin from Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the yeast Pichia pastoris
Published in Preparative Biochemistry & Biotechnology, 2021
Yagmur Unver, Busra Sensoy Gun, Melek Acar, Seyda Yildiz
Heterologous protein expression capacities of four selected yeast clones that had resistance to variable antibiotic concentration (to 1 and 2 mg/mL) were compared by culturing BMMY media inducing with methanol. According to Western blot analyzes, protein bands that were specific to anti-azurin and anti-6xHis-tag antibodies were observed in every sample derived from culture supernatant precipitates and cell lysates. Hence, these results showed us azurin was produced by all clones. The first clone which was resistant to 2 mg/mL of zeocin had the highest protein yield both extracellularly and intracellularly (Figures 4 and 5). Hence, we thought that the copy number of azurin gene cassette in the genome of this clone was higher than the others. As for the others, no significant difference was observed between the extracellular protein production capacity of the 3rd and 4th clones while the intracellular protein expression level of the 3rd clone was higher than the 4th clone. On the other hand, the 2nd clones had the lowest extracellular protein yield and secretion ability (Figure 4b). But, as seen from Figure 5a, a piece of the protein was still in the cells such as in others.
Increased removal of cadmium by Chlamydomonas reinhardtii modified with a synthetic gene for γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2020
René Piña-Olavide, Luz M. T. Paz-Maldonado, M. Catalina Alfaro-De La Torre, Mariano J. García-Soto, Angélica E. Ramírez-Rodríguez, Sergio Rosales-Mendoza, Bernardo Bañuelos-Hernández, Ramón Fernando García De la-Cruz
The spectinomycin-resistant C. reinhardtii RPO2, successfully harvested in selective media, showed the transgenic state of this clone, as it has the gene aadA encoding for aminoglycoside adenyl transferase that confers such resistance. To confirm the presence of the transgene, a PCR analysis revealed the amplification of the targeted gene segment for gshA in DNA samples from one clone. In this analysis, the transplastomic clone RPO2 matched the positive control (+), which contained the amplification band (792 bp) of gene aadA, when compared to it and the two negative controls, one being the reaction without DNA (C–) and the other being the wild-type (WT) strain (Figure 2b). Furthermore, the amplified specific region of cDNA for the gene gshA, using sense Poli2Frt and antisense Poli2Rrt oligonucleotides by RT-PCR, related the sequence of 329 bp to the selected intergenic region for gshA in the characteristic location of this gene (Figure 2c). These results confirmed the presence of the construct pRPO2 in the transformed clone (RPO2) of C. reinhardtii.
Nanobodies targeting the interaction interface of programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1)/PD-1 ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1)
Published in Preparative Biochemistry & Biotechnology, 2020
Biyan Wen, Lin Zhao, Yuchu Wang, Chuangnan Qiu, Zhimin Xu, Kunling Huang, He Zhu, Zemin Li, Huangjin Li
The human domain antibody library (Source BioScience, Nottingham, UK) was used for phage screening. Escherichia coli DH5α (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) was used for molecular cloning and E. coli BL21 (DE3) (Merck) was used as a host for human nanobody expression. The pET-21b vector (Merck) was used to clone the human nanobody gene. Ni-NTA, CM-Sepharose, Sephadex-G25, and Sephadex 75 columns were used for the purification of nanobodies (GE Healthcare, Buckinghamshire, UK). Human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells and human lung cancer A549 cells were purchased from the Chinese Academy Type Culture Collection. The human pancreas adenocarcinoma BxPC-3 cells and human mucoepidermoid pulmonary carcinoma NCI-H292 cells were purchased from the Chinese Jennio Biotech. DMEM, RPMI-1640, fetal bovine serum (FBS) and supplements were purchased from HyClone (Logan, UT). MPBS buffer is a PBS buffer supplemented with 5% marvel milk powder (w/v). PBST contained 0.1% Tween-20 in PBS buffer. 2 × YT medium was made by dissolving 16 g of bacto-tryptone, 10 g of yeast extract and 5 g of NaCl in 1 L of deionized water. Bacteria-tryptone (10 g), yeast extract (5 g), and NaCl (8 g) were dissolved in 800 mL of deionized water and mixed with 200 mL of 20% glucose solution (w/v). Ampicillin solution (1 mL) was then added to prepare TYE ampicillin glucose agar plates. For this, Ampicillin sodium salts were dissolved in deionized water to a concentration of 100 mg/mL and stored at −20 °C. PB consisted of NaH2PO4 and Na2HPO4 in deionized water.