1. Genetic Engineering Effective Creative Self Team Participator Thinker
L.O: Understand what genetic engineering is and its uses
Grade 4: Describe what GM organisms are, give examples and describe why they are useful. Order the stages of genetic engineering.
Grade 6: Describe the steps used in genetic engineering. Analyse data to describe why growing GM crops may be beneficial to a farmer.
Grade 8: Explain the process of genetic engineering using technical vocabulary. Explain how it could be used to cure people with inherited disorders, and discuss the limitations.
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2. TABOO !!! Give clues to the person guessing the word
You are NOT allowed to say the taboo words!
Hands up! No shouting out!

3. Reflective Learner Effective Participator Team Worker
VARIATION
Taboo words:
Species
Different
Continuous
Discontinuous
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4. Reflective Learner Effective Participator Team Worker
GENE
Taboo words:
DNA
Characteristic
Allele
Chromosome
Feature
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5. Reflective Learner Effective Participator Team Worker
ALLELE
Taboo words:
Gene
Dominant
Recessive
Two
Characteristic
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6. Reflective Learner Effective Participator Team Worker
MEIOSIS
Taboo words:
Divide
Cell
Haploid
One
Mitosis
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7. Boardworks GCSE Science: Biology
Genetic engineering
Boardworks GCSE Science: Biology
Genetic Engineering
Living things naturally create useful products, but genetic engineering can be used to make living things produce other valuable products.
For example, yeast naturally converts sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol, and is used in baking and brewing.
Yeast can also be genetically engineered to produce vaccines for human diseases.
Genetic engineering is about changing the DNA of a living thing to change its characteristics.
Write this down!

8. How does Genetic Engineering work?
Watch the clip and note 5 key words/points.

9. How does genetic engineering work?
Boardworks GCSE Science: Biology
Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering involves four main stages.
Example
Stage
1. Select the product or characteristic needed.
antigen for hepatitis B
2. Isolate genes from specialist cells.
hepatitis B virus
3. Insert the genes into target cells.
yeast
4. Replicate the new organism.
yeast culture in fermenters
What is the product in this example?
Hepatitis B vaccine.

10. Boardworks GCSE Science: Biology
Using bacteria
Boardworks GCSE Science: Biology
Genetic Engineering
Bacteria are often genetically-engineered to produce useful chemicals because their DNA is loose in the cytoplasm, making it easy to modify. They also grow and replicate quickly.
loose strand of main DNA
plasmid
– small ring of
additional DNA
A new gene can be inserted into the plasmid and the bacteria then produce the protein for which the gene codes.

11. Boardworks GCSE Science: Biology
Using viruses
Boardworks GCSE Science: Biology
Genetic Engineering
A virus cannot read its own genes but it can make a host cell copy them and make the proteins.
protein coat
genetic material
This virus is a bacteriophage. It infects bacteria by injecting its genetic material down a special tube.
Teacher notes
Viruses are useful because, like plasmids, they can transfer new genes through bacterial cell walls. Bacteria duplicate the new genes and make the proteins for which they code. Bacteria can cut out sections of viral DNA using ‘restriction enzymes’ that act like molecular scissors. These enzymes are one of the most important tools that genetic engineers use to isolate and transfer genes between organisms.
Why are viruses useful in genetic engineering?
injection tube

12. Boardworks GCSE Science: Biology
Growing cells
Boardworks GCSE Science: Biology
Genetic Engineering
Genetically-engineered bacteria are unable to make proteins that are identical to those found naturally in humans, despite having human DNA.
This is because the way in which bacteria make proteins is different to the way that mammals make proteins.
A better way is to use genetically-engineered mammalian cells grown in industrial bioreactors. These produce proteins that are identical to the ones found in humans.
Teacher notes
The breast cancer therapy Herceptin is made using genetically-engineered mammalian cells. Herceptin is not a drug but a monoclonal antibody (a type of biologic therapy). It is very effective in women who have a particular type of breast cancer.
Antibodies are a type of protein that are normally involved in the immune response. Herceptin antibodies work by binding to the surface of cancer cells and either stopping them from dividing or making them a target for destruction by the immune system.
Many women in the UK with early-stage breast cancer have been refused treatment because the high cost of Herceptin (the complexity of the manufacturing process means it costs over £20,000 per person per year) made it too expensive for the NHS to prescribe in certain areas of the country. However, women in other parts of the country have been able to receive the treatment. This inequality is called ‘postcode prescribing’. Students may want to discuss the ethical issues associated with very effective but very expensive medicines.
See the ‘Immunization’ presentation for more information on antibodies.

13. Task Creative Thinker LOW LEVEL: ‘Genetic Engineering’
MID LEVEL: ‘The Process of Genetic Engineering’
HIGH LEVEL: ‘What is Genetic Engineering and What should it do for us?’
Use Pages 224 – 225 from the AQA Biology Textbook to help you.

14. In experiments like these, some bacteria take up the plasmid (ring of DNA) containing the insulin gene. Other bacteria fail to take up a plasmid, or they take up an unmodified plasmid (a ring of DNA which has not been cut open and which does not contain the insulin gene).

15. Genetic Engineering Creative Thinker Self Manager Team Worker
L.O: Understand what genetic engineering is and its uses
Grade 4: Describe what GM organisms are, give examples and describe why they are useful. Order the stages of genetic engineering.
Grade 6: Describe the steps used in genetic engineering. Analyse data to describe why growing GM crops may be beneficial to a farmer.
Grade 8: Explain the process of genetic engineering using technical vocabulary. Explain how it could be used to cure people with inherited disorders, and discuss the limitations.
Creative
Thinker
Self
Manager
Team
Worker
Effective
Participator