Bacterial bioengineering has many uses in our society; it can produce synthetic insulins, a growth hormone for the treatment of dwarfism and interferon for treatment of cancers and viral diseases (Stableford34). Throughout the centuries disease has plagued the world, forcing everyone to take part in a virtual "lottery with the agents of death" (Stableford 59). Whether viral or bacterial in nature, such diseases are currently combated with the application of vaccines and antibiotics. These treatments, however, contain many unsolved problems. The difficulty with applying antibioticsto destroy bacteria is that natural selection allows for the mutation of bacteria cells, sometimes resulting in mutant bacterium, which is resistant to a particular antibiotic. This now indestructible bacterial pestilence wages havoc on the human body. Genetic engineering is conquering this medical dilemma by utilizing diseases that target bacterial organisms. These diseases are viruses, named bacteriophages, "which can be produced to attack specific disease-causing bacteria" (Stableford 61). Much success has already been obtained by treating animals with a "phage" designed to attack the E-coli bacteria (Stableford 60). Diseases caused by viruses are much more difficult to control than those caused by bacteria. Viruses are not whole organisms, as bacteria are, and reproduce by hijacking the mechanisms of other cells. Therefore, any treatment designed to stop the virus itself, will alsostop the functioning of its host cell. A virus invades a host cell by piercing it at a site called a "receptor". Upon attachment, the virus injects its DNA into the cell, coding it to reproduce more of the virus. After the virus is replicated millions of times over, the cell bursts and the new viruses are released to continue the cycle. The body's natural defense against such cell invasion is to release certain proteins, called antigens, which "plug...
