| 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 | living organisms. |
| 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 functio |
| 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. |
| 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. |
