to biotechnology. Genetic engineering is what most people are referring to. Genetic engineering is the manipulating of genes. Today we manipulate genes in plants to make then better tasting, bigger, and more resistant to disease, in animals to protect humans from adverse effects and for future use on them. And now experiments in humans have begun and are in the early stages. Another use of gene manipulation occurs in the pharmaceutical business, they manipulate proteins so that synthesized drugs can be created. Recombinant DNAThe National Human Genome Institute defines recombinant DNA to be a variety of techniques that molecular biologists use to manipulate DNA molecules to study the expression of a gene. The word recombinant DNA is also another term commonly used to describe biotechnology. The difference is that recombinant DNA refers to the transfer of a gene to another organism. In order for this to occur the gene must be removed from a cell and then recombined with in another cell. Usually its removed from a human and then recombined into another organism, such as bacteria because there arent enough proteins under controlled conditions. The Human Genome ProjectThe National Institute of Health and United States Department of Energy joined forces in 1988 to create the Human Genome Project. The Human Genome Project (HGP) is an international research program designed to construct detailed genetic and physical maps of the human genome, to determine the complete nucleotide sequence of human DNA, to localize the estimated 50,000-100,000 genes within the human genome, and to perform similar analyses on the genomes of several other organisms used extensively in research laboratories as model systems. (NHGRI) In laymans terms they are gathering information about all the chromosomes, such as the structure, location and function it performs. Once all 24 chromosomes are mapped, new technologies will result allowing biotechnology companies...
