Genetic Engineering: What's Your Take on it?

 

So, we studied genetic engineering and cloning, and were asked to either read an article or draw a political cartoon based on what we learned.  There was one engineered creature, the Enviropig:    http://www.uoguelph.ca/enviropig/   which digests phosphorous more efficiently than their counterparts and it gave me the idea to draw this picture!  Here is a radio program that we listened to as well during this project.  What is your take on genetic engineering?

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/291/reunited-and-it-feels-so-good

 

Should consumers have the right to buy any genetic test?

   http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2010/08/11/should-consumers-have-the-right-to-buy-any-genetic-test/

   How much power should consumers hold?  At what point do we need to step back and let medical experts take over?  This is the question that the article I chose for Biology discusses.  Early in 2010, a genetic test for disease risk was close to being marketed in everyday drug stores.  However, in April, the FDA raised questions about the tests, possibly in response to other questions and opinions.  How would being able to test to see whether you were at risk for heart disease change who you were as a person?  What about the more difficult tests, learning that your child had a high risk of Down Syndrome or Trisomy 13?  Would you be able to make a reasonable and mature conclusion without a doctor to talk you through risks and lifestyles?  Not even professional tests are right 100% of the time; would you wait and see if your test turned out to be wrong?  But I digress.  In the end, Walgreens decided not to sell the products, and the FDA warned for producers of these genetic tests that they may be subject to regulation.

   How far should our hold over genetic testing and knowledge reach?  As of yet, it has often been determined by the creators and producers of such products as to whether or not they can be purchased in such a manner.  However, with our ever increasing biotechnology, and understanding of these diseases and disorders, it is clear that something will have to change.  "In such a fast-changing landscape, striking the right balance between protecting the public and promoting innovation is crucial," says Gail Javitt, of the Berman Institute of Bioethics at John Hopkins University.  It is true, isn't it?  We need a certain guideline to go by or else there may be serious issues resulting from these tests in the future.

   I didn't know all that much about genetic testing or genetic disorders before this project in Biology.  This article was especially interesting.  I feel (through my own experiences alone) that there could be some very serious consequences from allowing the average consumer take tests, especially concerning genetic disorders.  My good friend has an aunt, who was told that her child was at risk for Down Syndrome, but it turned out that the test was incorrect.  This leads me to believe that a home test would be even faultier, meaning that many people may make rash decisions based on those results, taking them at face value.  It is a very tricky path, and I will be very interested to learn more about where this road takes us.

Convicted by Juries, Exonerated by Science

   A Crime they did not Commit:

   Her four year old son.  This was the only eyewitness to the rape and murder of your best friend.  Three suspects, all sent to jail though the child continually said there had been only one.  Now you've learned that none of them are responsible, two serving 30 years in prison, the other dying there.  This is the story of Phillip Bivens, convicted with a life sentence for a crime he did not commit, and serving 30 years of that sentence before he was exonerated and released.

   He and two others, Larry Ruffin and Bobby Ray Dixon, were convicted of raping and killing a woman in her home.  All three pled guilty to the crime under the threat of the death penalty.  The confessions were factually inaccurate and were inconsistent with each other yet they were all sent to because Bivens and Dixon testified and Ruffin's trial in exchange for life sentences.  Ruffin, unfortunately, died while he was still there.  However, the DNA from the victim's clothing was put through testing and it didn't match the DNA of any of the suspects, but another man's who two years later committed a similar crime and was caught and convicted.

   After this evidence was found, there was an immediate application for their exoneration.  Dixon, who had suffered seizures his entire life, was released on medical parole in 2010 when they found he had lung cancer.  Bivens was finally exonerated as well in December 2010, only a few months after Dixon.

   The Progression of DNA Technologies:

   DNA technologies have come a long way in a few short years.  They started with Gregor Mendel, the "Father of Genetics", when he discovered the Law of Segregation, the Law of Independent Assortment, and the Law of Dominance from his work with pea plants.
   Rosalind Franklin was also an incredible contributor to this development, helping us better understand the double helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (or DNA).  She worked with Maurice Wilkins in this study, and it ultimately helped James Watson and Francis Crick with their own work.  From Franklin's photograph of DNA, they deduced the size and build of DNA as well as Chargoff's rules (Adenine with Thymine and Cytosine with Guanine).  On their own, they also found more about the build such as how the bases face in and the phosphates and sugars outward, and about Hydrogen bonding.  Also they suggested a model for the replication of DNA that would allow a DNA molecule to be copied.
   Meselson and Stahl's experiment showed that DNA replication is semi-conservative, meaning that each old strand (half of the old double helix) becomes the template for a new strand of DNA.

   DNA technology boomed from 1977-2000.  in 1977, the first human protein was produced from a transgenic bacterium.  This is bacterium from a different species.  This is considered the arrival and begging of the age of Biotechnology.  A method was created for sequencing DNA, RFLP analysis was discovered, transgenic mice were produced after a ruling from the Supreme Court, a method for identification by DNA fingerprinting was produced, the sheep Dolly was cloned, and much much more in that short time.  This was the development of biotechnology as we know it today.

My Own Thoughts...

   From this unit and this story, I will take away a lot.  For the longest time, courts and trials were pretty much only reliant on eyewitness accounts and alibis.  This man sat in jail, missing out on thirty years of his life, for a crime he didn't commit.  I'm much more aware of and grateful for DNA testing because that should never have happened.  I suppose I'm a little frustrated with the justice system as well because biotechnology is fairly young and sins and murders are almost as old as the human race itself.  I can't help but wonder how many innocent people were sent to jail, and how much that changed things for them.  What do you even do in a position like that?  This unit has helped shaped my views on science itself because of how many lives it changes for the better with the use of biotechnology and similar things.  This was very interesting and I am very interested in learning more as the year progresses.

Lucy the Chimp

Please listen to these first, because this is an analysis of the amazing and tragic tale of Lucy Temerlin, a chimpanzee raised as a human.

http://www.radiolab.org/2010/feb/19/lucy/   Skip to about 7:26 if you want only her story, and listen to this if your curious as to how the story ended http://www.radiolab.org/2010/feb/19/lucy-the-epilogue/


How would socialization as a human effect a chimpanzee?  Would they become like us?  How much would they learn?  These are the questions that motivated two people to take a very young chimpanzee into their home with them.  The story of Lucy starts in 1964, with psychologist Dr. Maurice K. Temerlin, and his wife Jane.  Lucy was only two days old when they took her home.  They treated her as their own and as a human, not a chimp.  Lucy wore clothes, communicated in sign language, could make tea for guests and could draw among many other things.  They were very happy together for several years.  However, every chimp reaches a point where they experience a massive growth in their strength, and though they do not necessarily mean to, they become very destructive.  Dr. Temerlin and Jane, along with a new caretaker, Janis, held on to her for longer than most others who have tried keeping chimps before.  But even they eventually had to relinquish her.  They did so on a small remote island with Janis and a number of other chimps who had a similar upbringing to her own.  The rest, I'll leave in case you haven't checked out the links above just yet.

Lucy was human like in many ways.  She could create new sentences, once describing a bad radish that she'd tasted as "cry-hurt food".  Lucy also lied, something that we'd previously thought only humans were capable of.  Lucy could make tea, drank gin, and read magazines.  Also, due to her upbringing, she had become attracted to human males, and when they brought a male chimp over, she was scared of him.

   The transition from life as a human to life as a chimp was very rough on Lucy.  Janis had to have a cage built up around herself so that Lucy and the other chimps wouldn't stay with her.  As the others began to get bored and eventually assimilated to life on the island and as chimpanzees, Lucy continued to stay next to the cage.  She wouldn't eat and moved little, signing for Janis to come out from the cage to her, and that Janis was hurting her by not.  Janis had to occasionally feed Lucy bits of human food just so the malnourished chimp wouldn't die, and did what she could to show Lucy what she was supposed to do.  Finally, one day Lucy took a leaf and offered it to Janis, taking a bite out of another one.  That was the turning point, and eventually Lucy was able to lead her new life.
   Once a year Janis came to check up on them, the first time bringing articles that had once belonged to Lucy.  Lucy looked at them a bit, and then hugged Janis tightly, as though saying that it was ok, and that she understood.  The next time Janis came, she couldn't find Lucy and had to search for her.  Eventually she found the chimp's skeleton, lying in the place where the cage had once been, with her hands missing and her skull detached from the body.  They believed  that it was the work of poachers who took advantage of Lucy's familiarity and friendliness with humans.

   Many things can be learned from the story of Lucy.  I believe that the most prominent lesson though is the ramifications of raising one species as another.  By treating Lucy as a human, many barriers were broken down.  Things like the food she was used to eating, her sexual attraction to human males, and her aversion to her own species made her very separate from most chimpanzees.  It also raises important questions as to how far those barriers can be broken, or if they should be at all.  this is the story of Lucy the human chimpanzee.  What do you believe?


  
From this link:  http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ep0ncjyW-dU/S4CQOLbFFiI/AAAAAAAAHAs/xjK9CMtwbo8/s640/LUCY.png

Hello!

Hi there!  My name is Lacey Meek, and I'm a tenth grader at Animas High School in Durango, Colorado.

This year, as a Sophomore, I am taking Biology as one of my classes.  On this blog, I will write about our adventures and mishaps, telling people what I've learned and posting our readings and my take on them.

First though, I should start with describing how our class will work.  In each semester, we have a series of essential questions that need to be answered.  This semester goes like this:

• What are field research techniques utilized by biologists?
• How are scientific findings communicated?
• What are the essential components of experimental design?
• How is data analyzed and interpreted?
• What is the importance of diversity?
• How does energy and matter flow through an ecosystem?
• How do biotic and abiotic factors interact within an ecosystem?
• How are species classified?
• How are traits inherited?
• What is the relationship between genetics and evolution?
• How have Hominids evolved over time?
• How have biotechnologies impacted our justice system?
• How is DNA processed to create a DNA fingerprint?

   These are the semester one questions and I am very excited to dive into Biology this year!