Biotechnology and its Applications — Part 2: Applications in medicine: visual lesson, CBSE Class 12 Biology

Lesson

Biotechnology in medicine

Part 2 — safer medicines, gene therapy and early diagnosis.

In this lesson you will

Explain how human insulin is produced by recombinant DNA technology
Describe gene therapy with the example of ADA deficiency
Describe molecular diagnosis using PCR, probes and ELISA
State the idea of stem cell technology

Diagram

Insulin: two chains

Insulin is made of two short polypeptide chains, A (21 amino acids) and B (30 amino acids), linked by disulphide bridges. In the body it is synthesised as proinsulin, which has an extra C peptide that is removed during maturation.

Concept

Making human insulin in bacteria

Insulin from slaughtered cattle and pigs caused allergic or other reactions in some patients. In 1983, Eli Lilly, an American company, prepared two DNA sequences for the A and B chains, introduced them into plasmids of E. coli, produced the chains separately, extracted them and joined them by creating disulphide bonds, forming human insulin (Humulin).

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