1. Examples & Applications
Self & World: Impact of Technological
Advances in Biotechnology
Dr. Karen Guzman

2. Topics What causes the Flu? Synthetic Biology Transgenic Humans
Human Microbiome

3. What causes the flu? What virus causes the flu? Danger of a Pandemic
Epidemic vs. Pandemic
Our immune response
Antigenic drift vs. shift

4. Biology of Influenza Virus
Lipid bilayer
Surface proteins: H, N, M2
Matrix protein
8 pieces of RNA
Virion
HA: H1, H2, H3, …
NA: N1, N2, …
New combinations, cross-species
Genes

5. Here are just a few issues…
What do we do in a pandemic with limited resources?
How do we safely study such a deadly form of the virus as the 1918 virion?
Public Health: requiring vaccination

6. Synthetic Biology
What is it?

7. Synthetic Biology defined
“Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new biological parts, devices, and systems, and the re-design of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes.”
Nature Publishing:
“Synthetic biology arose from four different intellectual agendas… EBRC:
First… one practical test of understanding is an ability to reconstitute a functional system from its basic parts. Using synthetic biology, scientists are testing models of how biology works by building systems based on models and measuring differences between expectation and observation.
Second… biology is an extension of chemistry and thus synthetic biology is an extension of synthetic chemistry. Attempts to manipulate living systems at the molecular level will likely lead to a better understanding, and new types, of biological components and systems.
Third… natural living systems have evolved to continue to exist, rather than being optimized for human understanding and intention. By thoughtfully redesigning natural living systems it is possible to simultaneously test our current understanding, and may become possible to implement engineered systems that are easier to study and interact with.
Fourth… biology can be used as a technology, and that biotechnology can be broadly redefined to include the engineering of integrated biological systems for the purposes of processing information, producing energy, manufacturing chemicals, and fabricating materials.”

8. Synthetic Biology Application
Creating life
Understanding life
New uses/applications
Create superior life?
Making the perfect person
Faster genetic engineering with modular components
Uses in engineering circuitry
Information storage beyond genetic information

9. Brief history…

10. Brief history… continued

11. Recent work…
dcentral.com/articles/ /s x
nih.gov/pubmed/

12. Transgenic Humans Designer babies, Gene Therapy, etc.
Can gene therapy work and in what circumstances?
Can we target disease genes & how do we know which? What are complications?

13. Human Microbiome What is the microbiome? Where is it?
Why do we not know more about microbes?
What is metagenomics?
Relationship to disease?

14. More about the human microbiome…
How important is the microbiome to who we are?
We are outnumbered and co-evolved.
Who are we really?
Are we making transgenic humans by manipulating the microbiome?
NHGRI: Microbes & Microbiomes (see the video under Microbes Make you who you are)
Microbiome as a fingerprint
Microbiome fingerprints
Unique fingerprint
Microbiome in forensics
Interview: Forensics evidence?
Losing individually identifying features with time
Other topics of interest:
Mouthful of microbes
Antibiotics a cause of diabetes?
Video on YouTube…
How Bacteria Rule Over Your Body – The Microbiome: