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Engineering
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Autoimmune disorders | A condition which occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue. |
Biotechnology | The application of technology to the study or manipulation of living things. |
Chemical bases | Adenine (A), Guanine (G), Cytosine (C) and Thymine (T). The genes that make up your body by stringing together to form DNA. |
Cloning | To generate a population of genetically identical molecules, cells, plants or animals. |
Diamond vs. Chakrabarty | A United States Supreme Court case dealing with whether genetically modified organisms can be patented. |
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) | The genetic material of most living organisms. |
DNA fingerprinting | A test to identify and evaluate the genetic information called DNA in a person's cells. |
Fermentation | The anaerobic conversion of sugar to carbon dioxide and alcohol by yeast. |
Genes | A region of DNA that controls a hereditary characteristic. |
Genetics | The branch of biology that deals with heredity, especially the mechanisms of hereditary transmission and the variation of inherited characteristics among similar or related organisms. |
Genetic engineering | A laboratory technique used by scientists to change the DNA of |
Gene therapy - A technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development. | Human genome map - The finished sequence of the human genome. |
Human Genome Project - An international scientific research project with a primary goal to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to | identify and map the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint. |
Immunology - The study of our protection from foreign macromolecules or invading organisms and our body’s responses to them. | Interferon - A naturally occurring substance that interferes with the ability of viruses to reproduce. |
Molecular biology - The study of biology at a molecular level. It chiefly concerns itself with understanding the interactions between the various systems of a cell. | Nucleotide - A nucleotide is the monomer structural unit of nucleotide chains that form the nucleic acids RNA and DNA; in other words, the building blocks for DNA and RNA. |
Proteins - Any of a group of complex organic macromolecules that are composed of one or more chains of amino acids. | Recombinant DNA - The joining — or recombining — of two pieces of DNA from different sources, such as from two different organisms. |
RNA (ribonucleic acid) - One of the two main types of nucleic acid (the other being DNA), that consists of strands of repeating nucleotides joined in chainlike fashion, but | the strands are single (except in certain viruses), and it has the nucleotide uracil (U) where DNA has thymine (T). |
Somatic cell nuclear transfer - Or therapeutic cloning involves removing the nucleus of an unfertilized egg cell, replacing it with the material from the nucleus of a "somatic | cell" (a skin, heart, or nerve cell, for example), and stimulating this cell to begin dividing. |
Stem cells - A class of undifferentiated cells that are able to differentiate into specialized cell types. | Thalidomide - introduced as a sedative drug in the late 1950s, then banned in the early 1960s after it was found to cause deformed limbs in the children of women who took it early in pregnancy. |
Transgenic - An organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. | Xenotransplantation - The transplantation of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another, such as from pigs to humans. |
Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer invented the technique of DNA cloning, which allowed genes to be transplanted between different biological species. Their discovery signaled the birth of genetic engineering. | Robert Hooke developed inventions including the spring control of the balance wheel in watches, and the first reflecting telescope. The first to apply the word "cell" to describe the basic unit of life. |
Edward Jenner discovered in 1796 that inoculation with cowpox gave immunity to smallpox, an immense medical breakthrough that has saved countless lives. | Louis Pasteur invented pasteurization and discovered the germ theory of disease. |
William James Beal was one of the pioneers in the development of hybrid corn. | Walther Flemming developed a new staining technique in 1879, using synthesized aniline dyes to identify chromosomes, the structures of the cell nucleus. This allowed observation of mitosis, a term first used by Flemming for cell division. |
George Washington Carver worked on improving soils, growing crops with low inputs, and using species that fixed nitrogen as alternative crops to cotton. | Peyton Rous was involved in the discovery of the role of viruses in the transmission of certain types of cancer. |
Alexander Fleming was the bacteriologist who discovered penicillin. | Henry Wallace experimented with breeding high-yielding strains of corn (maize), and developed a breed of chicken that at one point accounted for the overwhelming majority of all egg-laying chickens sold across the globe. |
Oswald Avery proved that DNA — not protein, as many believed at the time — is the agent of heredity. | Linus Pauling is the only person who has won two undivided Nobel Prizes, studied and published papers on the effects of certain blood cell abnormalities, the relationship |
between molecular abnormality and heredity, the possible chemical basis of mental retardation, and the functioning of anesthetics. | James Watson and Francis Crick were discoverers of the DNA molecular structure. |
Norman Borlaug helped to develop the high-yield, low-pesticide dwarf wheat upon which a substantial portion of the world's population now depends for sustenance. | Paul Berg performed pioneering work involving recombinant DNA, leading to the development of modern genetic engineering. |