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Chapter 1

The Emergence of Molecular Biotechnology

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Introduction

  • Humans have a long history of using living things to our benefit
  • Artificial selection at generational level
    • Domestication of livestock
    • Selective breeding of plants
  • Fermentation and vaccines
  • Now manipulation at molecular level

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Figure 1.3: Worldwide agricultural fields planted with genetically modified crops have increased 100-fold since 1996, from 1.7 million hectares to over 170 million hectares in 2012

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???

Why does wine have to be made in airtight barrels?

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What are enzymes? What do they do?

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What is Molecular Biotechnology?

  • Hungarian engineer Karl Ereky coins ‘biotechnology’ in 1917
  • “all lines of work by which products are produced from raw materials with the aid of living things”

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Figure 1.4: Karl Ereky

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What is Molecular Biotechnology?

  • Harnessing biological systems
  • Proteins and nucleic acids
  • Genes: functional units of heredity
  • Both research and industry applications

Figure 1.21: A model of DNA showing the major groove patterns characteristic of the molecule

Structure from Protein Data Bank 1BNA. H. R. Drew, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 78 (1981): 2179-2183. Prepared by B.E. Tropp.

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How Did We Get Here? The Path to�Molecular Biotechnology

  • The Science: Pursuit of knowledge
  • The Technology: Application of knowledge

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Figure 1.5: While biotechnology has advanced greatly in a relatively short period of time, this scenario is still the stuff of satire.

© www.CartoonStock.com

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Gregor Johann Mendel Fathers�the Study of Genetics

  • “Experiments with Plant Hybrids” in 1866
  • Conceives idea of factors, now known as genes
  • Mendelian genetics aka transmission genetics
  • Established two laws of heredity
    • Law of Segregation
    • Law of Independent Assortment

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Natural Selection and Evolution: �Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Alfred Russel Wallace

Figure 1.8

© pictore/iStockphoto.com; Reproduced from Alfred Russell Wallace (1889) Darwinism, London and New York: Macmillan and Co.

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Figure 1.9: The line of reasoning introduced by Darwin and Wallace as the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection.

Adapted from a table in Wallace, A.R., 1889. Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection with Some of Its Applications. Macmillan, London.

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Johann Friedrich Miescher Discovers DNA

  • Swiss doctor 1869
  • Isolated “nuclein” from white blood cells
  • Found in nuclei of subsequent cell types
  • Believed to be critical to cell function

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Figure 1.10: Johann Friedrich Miescher (1844-1895)

Courtesy of Friedrich Miescher Institute

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DNA is a Double Helix

  • Watson, Crick, Franklin, and Wilkins
  • Determine molecular structure of DNA
  • Based on Chargaff’s rules
    • A pairs with T
    • C pairs with G
  • Based on X-ray crystallography
    • Molecule is helical and double-stranded

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What does insulin treat?

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What major biotechnology discoveries have happened since you were born?

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2016

The CRISPR - Cas9 system was first used to treat sickle cell anemia by modifying blood cells. It significantly improved the patient’s symptoms however it would cost $500,000 - $1 million to offer at this time.

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2019

Zolgensma, another gene therapy treatment used for spinal muscular atrophy ($2.125 million per dose). Zolgensma directly delivers a working copy of the defective gene into cells with the use of adeno-associated virus- highly specific to the individual.