Biotechnology of Insulin

Biotechnology of Insulin

I chose the biotechnology application of Insulin. Since I am a new diabetic, it is something I've been doing research on. For those of you, who are not familiar with diabetes and insulin, I will try to give clear and concise information on both. Diabetes is a disorder that changes the way your body uses food for energy. Ordinarily, the sugar you take in is processed and broken down to a simple sugar, known as glucose. The glucose then flows in your blood where it waits to enter cells to be recycled as fuel. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, supports move of the glucose into cells. A normal pancreas regulates the extent of insulin established on the amount of glucose. However, if you have diabetes, this progression is disrupted, and blood sugar levels become too high.

In 1978, Genentech and the City of National Medical Center successfully made human insulin via recombinant DNA technology. In 1982, the FDA approved the first recombinant DNA drug, Humulin from Eli Lilly & Co. Human insulin lead the way to the biotech industry, and its importance among the worldwide community of insulin-reliant diabetics and smoothed the path of the work to increase value control standards, to advance refinement approaches and begin more effective production. (How is Human Insulin Made eHow.com)

Human insulin has been quarantined and filtered from the pancreas of human corpses. The hormone is removed and preserved beforehand and is than treated in a solution for cleansing. In history, porcine- and bovine-derived insulin from dead pigs and cattle were removed and filtered using the same process because the hormones were similar in structure as human insulin. Now with any new medicine, they are benefits and there are side effects.

Human Insulin is the first human protein produced in the bacteria with the same chemical construction to natural human insulin. Administration of Humulin decreases the chance of antibody production and inflammatory reaction in diabetic patients, which was not the case in porcine and bovine made insulin. The human insulin is also cheaper than animal made insulin. While, humulin seems to have a positive effect on diabetics, there have been some cases, where patients have reported episodes of hyperglycaemic complications after being switched from animal made insulin to human made insulin (Human Insulin and Recombinant DNA Technology)

A key ethical fear about the practice of biotechnology is the safety of patient's medical privacy. Patients need to be certain that all individually distinguishable

Medical info, including information resulting from genetic tests, will be respected, treated in confidence and secured from biased misuse. Many individuals would like to get legislature enacted that forbids insurers from denying persons insurance based on their genomic data. People need to have the