Biotechnology

1. Biotechnology Man and Environment , Science Group Work By: Joey, Adeline, Ming Yang and Jun Wei P6 Resilient Rosyth School

2. What Is Biotechnology? • Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make useful products. • Examples of biotechnology are selective breeding, in which parents with specific genes are selected to breed to produce young with those genes, or genetic modification, in which an organism's genes are directly manipulated. • Biotechnology is used in fields like medicine and agriculture, and even engineering, bioremediation and biodegradation!

3. Medical biotechnology is the use of living cells and cell materials to experiment and produce products that help treat and prevent human diseases. • The first medical product of modern medical biotechnology was introduced in 1978.

4. In medicine, modern biotechnology finds promising applications in areas such as drug production, pharmacogenomics, gene therapy and genetic testing. • Genetic testing or screening is a technique in biology to detect genetic diseases. For example, testing the developing fetus for Down's syndrome, Amniocentesis, which is the sampling of amniotic fluid using a hollow needle inserted into the uterus to screen for developmental abnormalities in a fetus and Chorionic villus Sampling, which is a form of prenatal diagnosis to determine chromosomal or genetic disorders in the fetus.

5. Medical biotechnology is helpful, as there are medicines that can help treat and prevent human diseases faster than other medicines due to the cells modified in it. Medical biotechnology can also help detect any genetic disorders in the fetus so that the doctors or parents can be notified of any risks during birth. Overall, medical biotechnology is very helpful as it has helped save many lives, and scientists are constantly researching to find other ways to modify and create medicines that will help treat humans.

6. Every year, one new disease is discovered, and most of them are extremely harmful to the human body, and can be deadly. Scientists may take five to ten years to find and create a medicine to treat the disease. • Luckily, there has been no epidemic in recent years killing over 1 million people. • Medical biotechnology has contributed to improved medical diagnostics and treatment.

7. Agricultural biotechnology is a collection of scientific techniques used to improve plants, animals and microorganisms. • Based on an understanding of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), scientists have developed solutions to increase agricultural productivity.

8. Genetic engineering is moving genes from one organism to another. This process allows the transfer of useful characteristics into a plant, animal or microorganism by inserting genes from another organism. • Molecular markers are used to select plants or animals that possess a desirable gene, even in the absence of a visible trait. They can also be used to identify undesirable genes that can be eliminated in future generations. ·

9. Molecular diagnostics are methods to detect genes or gene products that are very precise and specific. Molecular diagnostics are used in agriculture to more accurately diagnose crop and livestock diseases. • Biotechnology-derived vaccines can be used in livestock and humans. They may also be cheaper, better and safer than traditional vaccines. They are also stable at room temperature, and do not need refrigerated storage which is an important advantage for smallholders in tropical countries. • Tissue culture is the regeneration of plants in the laboratory from disease-free plant parts. This technique allows for the reproduction of disease-free planting material for crops.

10. How is this Helpful? • Like traditional breeding, biotechnology helps make our food supply safer for consumers and the environment and less expensive to produce. • For example, when plants are modified to be resistant to pests, less pesticides can be used, thus soil pollution will be reduced. • Plants can be altered to have: • Insect and virus resistance • Herbicide tolerance • Delayed fruit ripening • Fruit with higher nutritional value

11. In conclusion, agricultural biotechnology will help ensure that we have a sufficient food supply and the advantages brought about by the research of agricultural biotechnology has been a big step forward in improving crop productivity and can also help in solving the problem of food shortage.

12. Biological engineering is the application of lots of (sometimes extremely complicated) concepts to problems in real life. • The word 'biological' suggests that it has to do with science and the word 'engineering' suggests that it has to do with real life.

13. Examples of biological engineering can be found everywhere in our daily lives. • For example, the concept of plastic being a poor conductor of heat has led to plastic handles for pots and pans so that people can avoid getting burnt.

14. Of course, it is easy to see that biological engineering is helpful as it can solve problems in our daily lives! Without the example of biological engineering mentioned earlier, we would probably still be burnt by hot pots and pans today.

15. Humanity is meeting new problems and challenges all the time. • To improve biological engineering, we can think of more innovative solutions to problems that are cheap and effective. (The Innovative Programme in our school is an example.)

16. Bioremediation • Use of microorganisms to remove harmful pollutants • Returns the harmed environment to its original state Biodegradation • Nature's way of recycling wastes • Breaking down of organic matter by enzymes of an organism into a harmless natural state to be used by living things again

17. Bioremediation • Using prokaryotes to clean up oil spills or remove pollutants. • Introducing parasitic bacteria to kill other bacteria • Using duckweed to absorb additional mineral nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphates. Biodegradation • Banana peel reduced from cellulose to water, carbon dioxide and humus. • Plastic can be biodegraded but it takes about 100-400 years.

18. Bioremediation • Allows natural processes to clean up harmful particles in environment Biodegradation • Reduces environmental pollution • Environmentally-friendly

19. Bioremediation • Efficiency • Cost - Reduce the cost of a carrier used to grow bacteria - Reduce the cost of the electrical network used to blow air for growth of bacteria • Reliability • Speed Biodegradation • Time taken for materials to biodegrade

20. The Dark Side Of Biotechnology Biotechnology is not always good. In some ways, biotechnology alters the abiotic factors of the environment. Just now, we mentioned bioremediation. This actually can be harmful to the community that the bacteria are put in as the bacteria might cause new diseases which would force other organisms to develop immunity or die out.

21. The Dark Side Of Biotechnology After the environmental factors are altered, some organisms may not be able to adapt to the new circumstances and will die out. Then, the other organisms may also die out either due to a lack of food or no consumers to control the population. Eventually, the entire ecosystem will collapse.

22. Conclusion In conclusion, Man has to bear absolute responsibility for harming the environment as it is the environment that has provided Man with resources to improve biotechnology. It is important that Man realises that technology is not good or bad in itself, but it is how he uses it that is good or bad. Man should put his technology to good use and make every effort to save the environment.

23. ~End~ We hope you enjoyed our powerpoint presentation!