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