Unit 6 Reflection

Unit 6 talked about biotechnology, how it works, and its applications. 

Biotechnology itself is the study and manipulation of living things to benefit ourselves. Its used industrially, environmentally, Medically, Pharmaceutically, agriculturally and diagnostically. This includes fermentation, gene therapy, forensics and identification, and GMOs. 

Technologies include Polymerase Chain Reaction, Gel Electrophoresis, and Sequencing. PCR is used to yield millions of copies of a portion of DNA for it to be further examined. The strand is denatured and a primer is added to both ends. Then DNA polymerase yields the new double stranded DNA. This repeats itself. Electrophoresis runs a current through bands of DNA on a gel. The shorter bands move farther while the longer bands don't move as much. Sequencing determines the exact order of bases in a strands of DNA, resulting in an electropherogram. 

We also learned about recombinant DNA which is inserting foreign DNA into an organism. The DNA fragment is cut by a restriction enzyme and put into the plasmid, which is resistant to an antibiotic. The new bacteria is then grown and the protein is extracted. This created transgenic or GMOs.

Bioethics it the study of decision making as applied to biology. Based on your morals and values, you can take a stance on an issue. You use this to answer questions like: Is it okay to take extra napkins from a fast food restaurant?

Lastly, we did the pGLO lab, where we inserted a pGLO plasmid into e.coli. We placed them on different petri dishes and the dish with arabinose, broth, and ampicillin glowed under UV light.

Overall, this unit was a little tricky at first. I didn't understand recombinant DNA or the technologies until we did the labs. After doing the candy electrophoresis lab and the pGLO lab, it made much more sense to me.

I would like to learn more about the forensics side of biotech and agricultural applications. I also would have liked to do a lab that inserted DNA into a plasmid using restriction enzymes. I want to learn more about the successes and failure of biotech experiments, because I think it would be very funny and interesting.