Animal Biotechnology Myths & Facts

Myth: Only humans can benefit from medical biotechnology.Fact: According to USDA, there are 105 licensed biotech products for animals. These products include veterinary vaccines, biologics and diagnostic kits. The animal health industry invests more than $400 million a year in research and development. Current sales of biotech-based products for use in animal health generate $2.8 billion (out of a total market for animal health products of $18 billion).Myth: Biotech and cloned animals are still years away - improving animals through biotechnology, or cloning them is science fiction.Fact: The first biotech animal to be sold to the public reached...

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Plant Biotechnology Myths & Facts

Plant Biotechnology Myths & FactsMyth: There are no biotech food products currently on the market.Fact: Today, it is estimated that at least 70 percent of processed foods on grocery store shelves contain ingredients and oils from biotech crops. The first biotech crop, a tomato improved through biotechnology, was sold in 1994. The first biotech commodity crops - an insect resistant variety of corn - were grown and sold in 1996. Today, the most popular biotech crops are corn, soybean, cotton and canola.Myth: Biotech foods are unsafe to eat.Fact: Fact: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that biotech foods and crops are as...

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VIT-D REDUCES HEART DISEASE AND DIABETES

High Levels of Vitamin D in Older People Can Reduce Heart Disease and Diabetes Middle aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D could reduce their chances of developing heart disease or diabetes by 43%, according to researchers at the University of Warwi...

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TO PREVENT BREAST CANCER

Few Women Take Tamoxifen to Prevent Breast Cancer Researchers with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have found that the prevalence of tamoxifen use for the prevention of breast cancer among women without a personal history of breast cancer is very l...

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Viruses Helped Shape Human Genetic Variability

Viruses Helped Shape Human Genetic VariabilityScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2010) — Viruses have played a role in shaping human genetic variability, according to a study published February 19 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics. The researchers, from the Don C. Gnocchi and Eugenio Medea Scientific Institutes, the University of Milan and the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, used population genetics approaches to identify gene variants that augment susceptibility to viral infections or protect from such infectio...

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Stem cell experiment reverses aging in rare disease

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2010 (Reuters) — In a surprise result that can help in the understanding of both aging and cancer, researchers working with an engineered type of stem cell said they reversed the aging process in a rare genetic disease. The team at Children's Hospital Boston and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute were working with a new type of cell called induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells, which closely resemble embryonic stem cells but are made from ordinary skin cells. In this case, they wanted to study a rare, inherited premature aging disorder called dyskeratosis congenita. The blood marrow disorder resembles the better-known...

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LATEST IN THE WORLD OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

Chicken egg whites - answer to three-dimensional cell culture systemsMore and more laboratories are seeking to develop three-dimensional cell culture systems that allow them to test their new techniques and drugs in a system that more closely mimics the way in which cells grow.DNA Amplification and Detection Made SimpleTwenty-three years ago, a man musing about work while driving down a California highway revolutionized molecular biology when he envisioned a technique to make large numbers of copies of a piece of DNA rapidly and accurately. Known as the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, Kary Mullis's technique involves separating the double strands of a DNA fragment into single-strand templates by heating it, attaching primers that initiate the copying process, using DNA polymerase to make...

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