Craig Venter is in the process of using his understanding in genomics in order to alter organism genomes for the benefits to create improved biofuels, increase agricultural foods, and treat diseases such as cancer. In this way, organisms may be custom designed to achieve such tasks mentioned before through "synthetic life", or molecular biology. .
Article 2: "Gene Therapy".
Quote.
According to the article, gene therapy, a relatively new medical treatment, may be used to treat hereditary diseases. This therapy is done by replacing a mutant gene with a functional one. (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2010).
Reaction.
One of our largest concerns in the 21st century today is heredity diseases. These diseases most commonly are incurable. Now that gene therapy has been introduced, some hereditary diseases may be treated. In my opinion, this is absolutely amazing. Gene therapy is a huge breakthrough for the medical and biotechnology field. I have a few family members who suffer from certain hereditary diseases, maybe gene therapy can cure them. Gene therapy has created a whole new branch of pharmaceuticals in the pharmaceutical domain in biotechnology. The treatment also contributes to the diagnostic domain of biotechnology using DNA in the genes to alter mutated genes. .
Summary.
Gene therapy is becoming the new type of medicine treatment. The therapy is the process of inserting normal genes in replace of defective, mutated genes in the body that cause diseases such as cystic fibrosis and cancer. This is done by injecting a normal working gene into a vector such as a virus that will eventually release the gene in place of the defective gene. However, gene therapy is still in the clinical trials stage with a few successes so far. Many cancers are linked to the p53 gene that prevents tumors. This gene may become mutated and cause the disease of cancer. With gene therapy to synthetically create a functional p53 gene eventually, the cure for cancer along with many other mutated gene diseases may be in sight with the help of diagnostic biotechnology to alter the genes.
