Question

Based on Watson and Crick’s pioneering work on how DNA works, does it make sense to say that biology today is an “information” science?
What are the benefits of DNA fingerprinting, and do they outweigh the ethical risks?
Why do medical researchers need a genetically engineered mouse?

Answer 1

(1)BIOLOGY: INFORMATION SCIENCE

in the mid-1960s biology became an information science. While Jacob and Monod’s work on the genetic code is usually credited with propelling biology into the Information Age.

Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a molecule that contains the instructions an organism needs to develop, live and reproduce. These instructions are found inside every cell and are passed down from parents to their children providing essential information for further development.

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(2)DNA fingerprinting

DNA fingerprinting is a chemical test that shows the genetic makeup of a person or other living things. It’s used as evidence in courts, to identify bodies, track down blood relatives, and to look for cures for disease.

Benefits of DNA Fingerprinting

• Match tissues of organ donors with those of people who need transplants.
• Identify diseases that are passed down through your family.
• Help find cures for those diseases, called hereditary conditions.
• Physically connect a piece of evidence to a person or rule out someone as a suspect.
• Show who your parents, siblings, and other relatives may be.
• Identify a dead body that’s too old or damaged to be recognizable.
• DNA fingerprinting reduces the uncertainty of an identification.
• This technology gives investigators another option to consider for evidence.
• DNA fingerprinting has an indefinite storage period.
• It is not an obtrusive process for the individual.
• Genetic treatments are possible because of DNA fingerprinting.

Ethical risks of DNA Fingerprinting

Many of the risks associated with genetic testing involve the emotional, social, or financial consequences of the test results. People may feel angry, depressed, anxious, or guilty about their results. In some cases, genetic testing creates tension within a family because the results can reveal information about other family members in addition to the person who is tested. The possibility of genetic discrimination in employment or insurance is also a concern

Ethnic targeting becomes a possibility with this technology.
One of the worst traits of humanity is the tendency to try purging people who are different from the majority in their culture. Nazi Germany is the most famous example of this issue, but numerous ethnic cleansing campaigns happened in the 20th century. Even as late as 2017, government-sanctioned ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims killed thousands, with children allegedly burned alive by Buddhist vigilantes and the Myanmar military.

This technology makes it easier to discriminate against people, just as it can help us to identify who we are. It is a disadvantage that could eventually lead to high levels of classism in society.

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(3)Need of a genetically engineered mouse medical researchers.

The best models — stand-in surrogates for humans and our diseases — are mice.  

The impact of mouse-based research on biological discovery and medical progress over the past century has been profound. Read the background of most Nobel Prizes awarded in Physiology or Medicine and you’ll find mice used for the research 26 Nobel Prizes can be directly tied to JAX® Mice.

Today, mice are more important than ever to research. Mice and humans are strikingly similar — genetically and biologically. They get most of the same diseases we do. With groundbreaking genome sequencing and genetic engineering capabilities, we can now create mice that have the same mutations that human patients have. We can observe them throughout their lifetimes to see how environmental, pharmaceutical or other variables affect health and life span. We can even mimic human genetic variability with populations of mice that are deliberately quite genetically different.

Introducing a variable — a new drug, for example — leads to different responses. With mice, researchers can readily track the genetics that underlies those differences and use their findings to inform drug development and more accurate clinical trials.

Mice are the key filling in the blanks of human genomics, and their presence in research is vital for the development of new diagnostics, treatments, and preventative actions.