Genetic Engineering Bioethics. Who we are University of Chicago iGEM team “International...
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Genetic EngineeringBioethics
Who we are
University of Chicago iGEM team
“International Genetically Engineered Machines” Competition
Create a genetically modified organism or “machine” every summer 10 weeks, 6-12 undergraduates and highschoolers 1 weekend at MIT Lots of prizes
What is Genetic Engineering?
Who are Genetic Engineers?
Mother nature Farmers
Scientists
Spider Silk
Creation of artificial spider silk by Nexia, a biotech company
Spider silk protein created by goats in their milk, then spun into silk
However, still not comparable to actual spidersilk
Insulin Insulin—originally isolated from
cows and pigs
1982 – Humulin, a biosynthetic human insulin
Attempting to optimize insulin production by expressing them in different things
Insert human insulin gene into bacteria
Penicillin
Directed evolution of penicillin strains
Inserted genes to make erythromycin (penicillin substitute) into E Coli, which totally worked
Genetic Engineered Foods I
Pest resistance
Herbicide tolerance
Disease resistance
Cold/drought tolerance
More nutrition
Soil remediation
Pros
Genetic Engineer Foods II
Pusztai potato data
Pusztai reportedly fed rats potatoes genetically modified to have snowdrop lectin (which is an insecticide). the rats had stunted growth + immune system damage
Controversy: confusion over the lectin was from snowdrop (cool) or jackbean (poisonous)
research republished in october 1999, reviewed by 6 reviewers. "he paper did not mention stunted growth or immunity issues, but reported that rats fed on potatoes genetically modified with the snowdrop lectin had "thickening in the mucosal lining of their colon and their jejunum" when compared with rats fed on non modified potatoes"
Case Study
Genetic Engineered Foods: Fears
"Human health effects can include higher risks of toxicity, allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, immune-suppression and cancer. As for environmental impacts, the use of genetic engineering in agriculture could lead to uncontrolled biological pollution, threatening numerous microbial, plant and animal species with extinction, and the potential contamination of non-genetically engineered life forms with novel and possibly hazardous genetic material." (http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/geneticall7.cfm)
Unintended harm to other organisms
Reduced effectiveness of pesticides
Gene transfer to non-target species
Allergies
Unknown effects
Genetic Engineered Foods IV
Royal Society of Medicine says no ill effects from GM foods
US National Academies of Sciences says no ill effects from GM foods
Sources:
RSM: http://jrsm.rsmjournals.com/cgi/content/full/101/6/290
US NAS: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10977#toc
What people are worried about are LONG TERM effects; everything is based on only 15 years of research
Official Word on Safety
Ethics
good summary of fears: http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/glenn.html
crossing species boundaries? (blurring the line btwn people and other things)
disease transmission - antibiotic strains of stuff that weren't antibiotic
alteration of animals for food
Altered species w/ human genes - humans?
genetic alteration of kids/eugenics
Foodchain issues/local, global effects