So here’s my third video to the mini series, introducing the idea of genetic engineering in a way that hopefully won’t sound as scary as some people might find the idea.
Genetic engineering is a wonderful tool allowing us to take genes from a human and put them into bacteria. Because every organism’s genetic code is made up of the same As, Gs, Cs and Ts the bacteria can interpret the genes and make the protein products we need. Also, because bacteria are so small and multiply so often, we can have a bacteria factory making things like insulin that we can use to treat people.
I was able to have a go at genetic engineering at university to make bacteria produce a blood thinner and the fact that a whole class of 3rd year students could do this successfully without ever trying the technique before is incredible and shows how far we’ve come in using genetic tools to treat medical conditions successfully.
What’s also great is that the protein made from the gene is a human version, not a bacterial version, as the original gene is from humans. This cuts out a whole number of potential problems!
So have a look at my video and let me know what you think!
Continue reading Genetics: Back to Basics (insulin & genetic engineering)