BIOL 121 Lecture : Biol 121- 2010.03.03- Genetics- Gene Technology (Ch. 19).docx

• School: UBC
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIOL 121
• Professor: Carol Pollock

Document Summary

Method of introducing alleles into human cells using engineered viruses (4 steps) People with pituitary dwarfism have defective copies of the gene gh1 which codes for the gh1 growth hormone protein. Affected people are typically no more than 4 feet tall by adulthood. Growth hormone was injected into people just like insulin injections for diabetes. Only growth hormone from humans worked, and therefore it had to be extracted from cadavers (dead bodies) and therefore was scarce/expensive. Even worse, infectious proteins called prions that cause degenerative brain disorders emerged in patients people can get prions by inheritance or by eating prion proteins. Their growth hormone supply was contaminated with a prion protein from the brains of the cadavers supplying the hormone. Retroviruses are currently the vector of choice in gene therapy. They are viruses that have an rna genome and can code for proteins that produce. Dna from their rna and insert it into the dna of the cell.