This Unit in our Biology class was all about
biotechnology. This unit was probably the best unit we've done this year, and
by far, the one I found the most fun. It was particularly interesting because
of the rapid developments of biotechnology currently happening around the
world. For example, in an article I read for one of our assignments, I learned that
a company called Pembient is attempting to help stop animal
trafficking - starting with one of the most lucrative poaching markets,
especially in Asia - Rhino Horns. The article explained that rhino horns
contain the exact same materials as the hair fibers and nails of humans, and
thus Pembient is creating genetically identical duplicates of these
rhino horns. These duplicates come in at around 20 percent of the cost, with
higher quality, and less risk of transmitted disease, and thus will take the
poachers out of business extremely quickly. Furthermore, this new rhino horn
made by Pembient, is in large supply, and thus Pembient is
teaming up with beer and other alcohol companies to use these genetically
identical rhino horns to make hangover cures.
We started of our unit by learning the basics of
biotechnology. Biotech in is simplest form is just the manipulation
of living things, including their cells, tissues or organs, to benefit
humankind. Biotech generally focuses on the understanding of
genetics, proteomics, and genomics. The 4 main applications, or
domains, of biotechnology are industrial and environmental biotechnology,
medical and pharmaceutical biotech, agricultural biotech, and
diagnostic biotech.
We continued to learn about the technologies of
biotechnology, such as the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, gel
electrophoresis, and sequencing. PCR is a procedure to amplify a
specific region of DNA, and it yields millions of copies of a sequence. Gel
electrophoresis is a method using electricity to separate DNA fragments based
on length. Larger pieces travel slower than smaller pieces through the gel -
and after using a known fragment length as a ruler, we can determine the exact
length of the unknown fragments. The last main tech used in Biotech, is
sequencing, which is used to determine the exact sequence, or order, of a given
DNA strand. Each copy of the sequence is one base longer and contains a
florescent dye attached to it.
Next, and probably most importantly we learned about
recombinant DNA - which is basically inserting DNA of one organism into DNA of
another organism and is often called genetic engineering. The result of recombinant
DNA is a transgenic organism or GMO. Restriction enzymes are an essential
part of any recombinant DNA - restriction enzymes are enzymes that cut DNA
whenever it reads a specific sequence.
The last main ideas we learned in this unit
was about bioethics - something that has really come into the limelight over
the last decade - with technology rapidly advancing. There will always be two
sides of any arguments, and this vodcast helped me
understand which path to take, by using my values and morals to make these
decisions. In the vodcast, we learned a mature, easy way to
handle these sorts of bioethical decisions, and just ethical
decisions in general. The first step is to clarify the values at hand
pertaining to the ethical dilemma, then you must identify the problem or
issue and why it is a problem or issue. Once doing this, you move on to the crucial step
of exploring all alternatives and other solutions. Once you complete that step,
and are not able to find a better alternative, you must identify the pros and
cons of adopting to the solution, or each of the multiple solutions.
We did multiple labs in this unit, my favorite
probably being the pGLO lab. Find a pic from the lab below:
Another one of the labs that we did in this unit, was the candy electrophoresis lab, in which we got DNA fragments from different candies and ran them through gel to compare their lengths:
I learned a lot from the 2 labs pictures
above, not only content and concept wise, but also in another way. I learned that
I must follow directions carefully, especially in high level labs. In the candy
electrophoresis lab, I was forced to check the directions after every step,
because of the complexity of the project. In my unit 5 reflection, which can be
found here,
I vowed to improve my group work habits, and to try to become a better
group mate, helping people out whenever they do not understand
something, as well as making sure that our entire group is constantly on the
same page. I feel that this semester, has been much better for me in this
regard, as my group has been able to finish labs constantly working
together in an amazing way. We could all make sure that each other had the
right idea in mind, and any confusion was swiftly solved and our group would
not move on, even if one of us had a shadow of a doubt about the next
step.
This brings me to my strengths and weaknesses of this
unit. I feel like my main strength in this unit was me and my group's success
and understanding of all the lab content. We could flawlessly work
together with rarely any disagreements, and we were all able to come
out with a pure understanding of the concepts, something that I could
not say for previous units, or previous groups. Just minor changes in my group
dynamic, really helped solve many of the problems I had misunderstandings from
in previous units - it just shows you how important the people you associate
with yourself are - the adage goes, "A man is only as good as
the company he keeps."
My main weakness in this vodcast, in my opinion
was interpretation of data and understanding of some lab questions. Especially
in the pGLO lab I misunderstood one of the blog questions
about bacteria, confusing during what time the question was asked about, and I received a
completely different answer than those of my group mates. I also at first
found the arabinose and ampicillin a bit confusing and hard
to distinguish between what does what, and to what extent, however, at the end
of the unit I could clear up all my questions and make sure that I go into the
unit test with an exceptional understanding of all the concepts.
I really wanted to learn more about current biotech developments
and what type of technology we could see soon. How close are we to genetically
modifying people? How close are we to making sure that no one will ever get
disease? Furthermore, I wanted to have a bioethical debate about some
of these questions and about some of the current uses of biotechnology in our
world. For example, we could debate whether removing disease for
everyone in the world is a good thing, or is it a bad thing because it messes
with the natural selection of our world.
Earlier this semester, I made a News Years Goals post,
talking about the two main goals that I wanted to strive toward accomplishing
over this semester. My first goal being to better improve my time management,
and I have seen a drastic increase over the past month. I organized all my
activities into one calendar, and I am now able to see whenever a
conflict presents itself and make sure to plan with all parties involved well
in advance. I have been able to juggle, speech and debate, mock trial,
basketball, boy scouts and schoolwork, primarily because of my new time
management approach.
My second main goal for this year was wot more
effectively improve my studying habits for assessments by
learning what type of studying work for me and better implementing
them into by regular studying routine. I have started to make progress to this
goal by using the VARK questionnaire as well as other platforms
to find out that I am a visual and reading learner and thus I have really
improved my test scores. Last semester, in some of my classes, my test scores
were the category pulling my overall grade down, and this semester,
because of the changes I made, I feel as if the test scores category
is the one that is holding my grades together. I hope both these tends
continues and stay tuned for more updates in future blog posts.
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