Medical Science

1
Medical Science
2
Warm up Questions

• If your heart gave out, could they replace it
  with another?
• If there was no other heart on hand, could they
  grow you a new one?
• Could there be an exact copy, a clone of you, out
  in the world?
• Can you genetically engineer plants and animals
  and combine their genes to form new super
  organisms like they do in sci-fi movies?

3
Medical Science Advancements

• We will be looking at a variety of med-science
  advancements today
• They may seem crazy
• They may seem impossible
• They may even scare you. (They should)

4
Organ Donation

• Taking out a defective organ and replacing it
  with another persons.
• The organ must be a match for the patient.
  (usually based on blood type, body proteins or
  genetics) or it will be rejected by the body.

5
Organ Donation

• Some organs can be donated while still alive.
  Kidney, liver, skin, small intestine, pancreas.
• All other organs must be collected after the
  donors death.
• Can you transplant a brain into another body?

6
Health Implications

• Living longer
• Saving lives
• Advancing medical science
• Some organs and tissues can even be grown in a
  lab, taking the donor out of the equation. How
  far can we take that?

7
Social/Economic Implications

• Selling organs for big
• Stealing organs (you hear about that in Mexico)
• Black market organ trade.
• If multiple patients need one,
• who gets the organ????

8
Gene Therapy

• Replacing faulty or absent genes to cure
  genetic disorders.
• Viruses are designed to target DNA and insert new
  genes into adult body cells
• This is extremely
• difficult to develop

9
H Implications

• Treating incurable diseases.
• Stopping genetic conditions before they develop
• What side effects could there be?

10
S/E Implications

• Can you improve genes that arent defective?
• At what point are you no longer yourself?
• If your genetic code is being
• fundamentally changed,
• are they still your genes?

11
Cloning

• Creating an exact duplicate of an organism
• How to
• Remove the nucleus from an egg and replace it
  with the nucleus of an adult cell.
• Implant that cell into the uterus.
• Clone should grow like a normal baby

12
(No Transcript)
13
Cloning

• Many animals have been cloned.
• Human cloning is illegal (that doesnt mean it
  isnt happening somewhere)
• Any animal that undergoes asexual reproduction
  produces a clone (plants do this a lot)

14
Cloning

• Grafting implanting part of a plant to a host
  of another species so the new part grows on it.
• This is how Macintosh apples are all grown.

15
(No Transcript)
16
HI

• Making clone for medical reasons
  /experimentation.
• Clones would be a great source for organs.

17
SEI

• Having a clone for spare parts.
• Cloning political figures and replacing them
• Mass producing humans with desirable traits
  making an army?
• How can you know that you are in fact unique

18
Transgenics

• Genetically engineering a zygote to have more
  desirable traits.
• Genes from other organisms are implanted into the
  zygote to change its DNA.
• This is often called Splicing

19
Transgenics

• Have you encountered Transgenics?
• If you have eaten any corn or soy in the past
  decade, you probably have.

20
Transgenics

• What kind of transgenics are out there?
• Fire breathing lions?
• Flying humans?
• No, its much more mundane

21
Transgenics

• 1st Flavr Savr Tomato
• 2nd Monsanto Round-UP ready canola/corn
• 3rd Pest resistant crops
• 4th - Golden rice
• 5th food plants that produce vaccines
• 6th livestock with more growth hormone
• 7th - Glofish

22
HI

• No one knows the risks of eating transgenic
  foods.
• Altering the genes can change the plants in
  unseen and unpredictable ways.
• What happens when we get to the stage of
  engineering humans???

23
SEI

• Vegetarians implanting animal genes into plants
• Companies owning genes yes, they GMOs they
  have created are now OWNED. If you are caught
  growing their crops without legal documentation,
  you will be sued for ALL YOU ARE WORTH.
• Owning parts of the human genome. (That doesnt
  even make sense, but its happening!)

24
SEI

• Controlling the market with a superior product
• 90 of all corn in the US is Monsanto designed
  corn. They control the corn market completely.
  No one else can compete.

25
SEI

• Human competitiveness everyone will want their
  kids to be the fastest/strongest/smartest.
• People who can pay for their children to be
  engineered will become superior
• How far can we take human engineering?

26
SEI

• What about engineering other animals?
• KFC Boneless chickens?
• Bags of orange juice growing on plants?
• Plants growing organs or meat?
• Maple trees that run pharmaceuticals instead of
  syrup in their stems.
• Margaret Atwoods Chik-ee-nobs

27
SEI

• Is there any limit to where this technology will
  take us?
• Worst of all.
• What if we implant human genes into our food
  products?
• Yes its happened

28
As You Can See

• Transgenics are really
• really
• really
• CRAZY