Cell Engineering

Each living organism consists of cells: beginning from the bacterium, ending with the higher mammals. Higher organisms are composed of organs, organs are made up of tissues, tissues are made up of cells. All the properties of any organism are determined by its genome, which is in the cell (in any of the cells of the given organism).

According to some data, the genome of the common fly and the person coincide by three quarters. There is nothing surprising in this. The basis of the genes, deoxyribonucleic acid -DNA, carries all the information about the construction of all proteins and biochemistry of this organism, and apparently there are not so many "appearance" species, sizes and weights of the specimen of the biological species . In short, Darwin is absolutely right, and evolution at a certain nodal stage connects both the fly and the person. And this does not contradict religion in any way, because it claims only the fact of creation of life by God, but does not regulate the technology itself.

Genetic and cellular engineering (this one concept) deals with the relationship between the device of DNA and the hereditary properties of organisms. Of course, it is armed with such methods, which, for example, in the times of Mendel, did not even dream of.

The method of cellular engineering is at the present stage in the fact that specialists receive DNA fragments of different organisms and integrate them into the DNA of the organism chosen as the object of research. This method, in the language of scientists adoring special terms, is called the expression of recombinant DNA. As a tool, restriction enzymes are taken - special bacterial enzymes capable of splitting DNA. They are called figurative - biological knives.

Having obtained the necessary gene (transgene), assembled from the fragments mentioned, it is embedded in a DNA molecule called a vector and transferred to a cell where it replicates (reproduces) independently or after integration with the "native" chromosome. Here there are great difficulties with the equipment, since the material must be introduced into the microscopic cell compulsorily, but without violating its integrity. To do this, there are many very sophisticated methods, because natural ways can not be done. Of course, there is no mysticism here, just evolution has not foreseen anything, on the contrary, put a lot of obstacles in the framework of natural selection.

The goal of cellular engineering is: getting medicines, breeding quality cultivars, creating new breeds of animals, and as the highest point - delivering our civilization from all diseases. Those who argue (do not want to call them obscurantists) should keep in mind that synthetic insulin alone has saved and saves millions of diabetics and prolongs their life for decades!

Concerns about genetic engineering originate from the time of her birth in 1972, when P. Berg's group (USA) synthesized the first recombinant DNA from the oncogenic SV40 and E.coli monkey virus. The latter is an E. coli, without which a person can not live. And it has a virus that causes cancer. Scientists in the literal sense of frightened, and did not even continue to work at that time. There has come a long period of researching under the strictest control of the state, comparable to the control over the work on nuclear weapons.

Fortunately, the complexity and cost of biological gene work is comparable in complexity and cost to atomic research, and therefore it is too expensive for potential terrorists.

In fact, cellular engineering is a double-edged sword - it can give a person as many years of life as he wants, but can also sow terrible misfortunes for all life. Do not argue, the opposite is not proved, but the "price of the question" is known. It all depends on the one in whose pure or dirty hands is the cellular engineering. And for objective reasons, it can neither be banned nor pushed forward. The development of science is subject to its own laws.