Medical Biotechnology

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Medical Biotechnology
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Introduction

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

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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.

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Current Areas of Research
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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)

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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
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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!

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Cloning
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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.

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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.

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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.

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Controversies with therapeutic Cloning

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

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.