1. Application of gene technology
Transgenic organisms and gene therapy
Unit 4, AOS 2
Marina Kalcina

2. What do you think of when you look at this picture?
Image taken from ScienceAlert facebook page

3. By the end of today’s lesson you will know about one aspect of gene technology & be able to:
Describe the different ways transgenics are made
List examples of transgenic organisms
Explain how gene therapy works and list diseases for which it has been used
Debate issues surrounding the use of transgenic organisms and gene therapy
The image in this slide is a piece of artwork by Patricia Piccinini who is inspired/influenced by genetic engineering. It’s a depiction of a human/animal hybrid. The artist is Australian.
Artist: Patricia Piccinini

4. How are transgenic organisms made? Getting genes into animal cells
A transgenic organism is one in which a foreign gene has been inserted into it’s genome to enable production of a specific protein. There are 4 main ways transgenics can be made in animals:
Microinjection
Electroporation
Fusion of vesicles
Gene gun
Image taken from this website:

5. Microinjection
Image taken from page 235, ‘Spotlight Biology VCE units 3 & 4’ textbook by Joanne Burke.
A glass micropipette is used to puncture a hole in the cell and nuclear membranes and insert the genes.
Allows only one cell to be treated at a time

6. Electroporation
A short electric shock makes many cells permeable at the same time.
This allows the DNA to enter the cell
What does permeable mean?
How is electroporation different to microinjection?
Image taken from page 235, ‘Spotlight Biology VCE units 3 & 4’ textbook by Joanne Burke.

7. Fusion of vesicles
Image taken from page 235, ‘Spotlight Biology VCE units 3 & 4’ textbook by Joanne Burke.
Vesicle is created where desired DNA is enclosed in a membrane.
Vesicle membranes fuse with cell membranes and DNA enters the cell.
The vesicles can be made to fuse with many cells at a time.

8. Gene gun
Image taken from page 235, ‘Spotlight Biology VCE units 3 & 4’ textbook by Joanne Burke.
Gold or other metallic particles are coated with DNA of interest
The DNA covered metallic particles are then fired into the nucleus of a cell using a gene gun

9. How have bacterial transgenics helped us?
Insulin is a hormone diabetics need to inject every day
Too complex to be made in the lab
Limited amounts used to be obtained from pancreas of animals being slaughtered for food
The human insulin producing gene was placed in a bacterial plasmid, bacteria reproduced and made few billion copies of itself
Insulin extracted from bacteria for medical use
The animation above allows students to explore this.
Ask students to make a flow chart after working through the animation
Follow link above for animation. Taken from the Biotechnology Online website:

10. Some examples of transgenics
GFP animals from the start
Bacteria used for insulin and some vaccines
Sheep with a human gene which causes their milk to contain a blood-clotting protein which can then be extracted from milk to treat humans
Silk worms that produce human collagen
Many examples – get students to research more and present them?

11. Gene therapy
Gene therapy is the technique of delivering normal and fully functional genes to individuals to compensate for a disease causing mutation. It has the potential to treat or cure people suffering from a range of genetic conditions. The functional gene has to be located, isolated and cloned in sufficient quantities and a suitable vector needs to be found to deliver the gene. The inserted gene needs to be able to persist and function normally within the target cells

12. Gene therapy procedure and examples
AIDS
Cystic fibrosis
Cancer
Parkinson’s
Alzheimer’s
Arthritis
Image taken from:

13. Somatic cell vs. germ-line gene therapy
Somatic cell gene therapy:
The process talked about so far
Alters the genotype of somatic cells
Extremely difficult to insert new genes into every cell or organ
The healthy gene cannot be passed onto offspring
Germ-line gene therapy:
Transformation of eggs or sperm
The healthy genotype will be passed onto offspring
Extremely controversial
Not an accepted medical practice
Image taken from:

14. Questions and activities to ask students to stimulate thinking in the higher order
What do you think would be some risks associated with gene therapy?
Write down some arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ gene therapy.
Organise debates! Split the class in half. One half will argue for transgenic organisms, the other half will argue against them.
Debate: Is a tomato injected with an arctic fish gene to prevent it from frosting, still a tomato? Or, is the transgenic tomato still a suitable food for vegetarians?

15. Another activity: Present the following scenario:
Any gene researcher conducting experiments in an institute needs to have approval from the biosafety and bioethics committee. Imagine a research team is applying for permission to develop a particular transgenic organism….
Split the students into groups of 5
Allocate the role of committee to 2 or 3 members of the group.
Allocate the role of research applicants to 2 or 3 members of the group
Image link:

16. Higher order thinking activity continued….
Some points students may want to discuss in their groups:
Once students have had time to talk about the points listed in the table, ask them to present their findings in a group role-play
Members of the audience (rest of the class) can help the committee decide whether to agree to the researchers’ proposal
Researchers
Committee members
Name of the company for which you want to develop the transgenic organism?
What guidelines are the researchers to follow to ensure:
Safety to researchers in lab
Safety to environment
Ethical issues are addressed?
What transgenic organism would you like to develop and why?
What sorts of questions will be asked of the researchers?
How will we respond to questions the committee has?
Activity adapted from the ‘Science Quest 4’ year 10 textbook, ‘Getting into Genes’ chapter, pg222.

17. References and resources:
ScienceAlert facebook page
Science Quest 4 textbook, Lofts & Evergreen 2007
Nelson Biology textbook, VCE units 3 & 4, Borger et al, 2006
Spotlight Biology textbook, VCE units 3 & 4, Joanne Burke, 2007
Biotechnology online for the animation: biotechnologyonline/popups/int_splicing.html
Google images
‘Neuroscience research imaging techniques’ is another great Facebook page!