Typical Biotech Applications
- Diagnostics
- Antibodies
- Biosensors nPCR
- Therapeutics
- Natural Products
- Foxglove: ndigitalis: heart conditions nYew tree- cancer agent (taxol) breast and ovarian cancers
- Endogenous Therapeutic agents – proteins produced by the body that can be replicated by genetically engineered: tPA – tissue plasminogen factor (dissolves blood clots)
- Biopolymers and Medical Devices- natural substances useful as medical devices
- hyaluronate- an elastic, plastic like substance used to treat arthritis, prevent postsurgical scarring in cataract surgery, used for drug delivery
- adhesive substances to replace stitches
- Designer Drugs – using computer modeling to design drugs without the lab- protein structure
- Replacement Therapies- lack of production of normal substances nFactor VIII- missing in hemophilia nInsulin
- Use of Transgenic Animals and Plants
- Gene Therapy – replace defective genes with functional ones
- ADA (adenosine deaminase) deficiency
- cystic fibrosis
- Immunosuppressive Therapies – used to inhibit rejection (organ transplants)
- Cancer Therapies -one method is antisense technology
- Vaccines – biggest break through in biotechnology- prevention of disease
