DNA Technology

In recent years, scientific and technological developments have drastically changed human life in our planet, as well as our views both of ourselves as individuals in society and of the universe as a whole. Perhaps one of the most profound developments of the 1970s was the discovery of recombinant DNA technology, which allows scientists to introduce genetic material (or genes) from one organism into another.

In its simplest form, the technology requires the isolation of a piece of DNA, either directly from the DNA of the organism under study or artificially synthesized from an RNA template by using a viral enzyme called reverse transcriptase. This piece of DNA is then ligated to a fragment of bacterial DNA which has the capacity to replicate itself independently. The recombinant molecule thus produced can be introduced into the common intestinal bacterium Eschericia Coli, which can be grown in very large amounts in synthetic media. Under proper conditions, the foreign gene will not only replicate in the bacteria, but also express itself, through the process of transcription and translation, to give rise to large amounts of the specific protein coded by the foreign gene.

The technology has already been successfully applied to the production of several therapeutically important bio-molecules, such as insulin, interferon and growth hormones. Many other important applications are under detailed investigation in laboratories throughout the world.