Preventing the Zombie Apocalypse- Making Gene Therapy Safe!
How viruses could introduce therapeutic genes into the human body.Copyright 2017 FDA, Public Domain, Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fdaphotos/39151355192
Students become biomedical engineers and create model viruses for use in therapeutic applications, such as gene therapy. In constructing their models, students carefully plan for side effects and modify a virus that can be used to safely to deliver gene therapy. This process involves taking a “wild type” (or unmodified) virus so it can target a specific area of the body.
Genetic engineering is the artificial manipulation, modification, and recombination of DNA or other nucleic acid molecules to modify an organism or population of organisms. Engineers who engage in this field are highly trained experts who use a variety of molecular tools and technologies to rearrange fragments of DNA. Their overall goal is to add or remove an organism's genetic makeup for the better, or to transfer DNA code from one species into the other.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Understand gene therapy and its use in genetic engineering.
- Modify a virus that can be used to safely to deliver gene therapies.