Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
injection into diabetic patients who need it. After samples are tested
to make sure everything is in order, the vials are ready to be shipped
to a drug distribution warehouse.
Bacteria at Work
Many types of recombinant biotechnology products are available
today, but at the outset, the major spur to adopt the technology
came from the search for safe, efficient, and economical ways to
produce protein drugs. Small chemical drugs could be synthesized
in the laboratory and factory from inexpensive materials, but
such methods were ineffective for proteins. Over the years, bio-
logical researchers had identified hundreds of proteins that were
potentially useful for treating disease, but producing them in the
large amounts needed for testing and use was difficult, and often the
animal protein would not work in humans. In the first years of the
industry's existence, the 1980s and early 1990s, most biotechnology-
derived protein drugs were produced in bacteria, particularly in a
strain of the bacterium
Escherichia coli
(
E. coli
) that had been
changed so it could not cause disease. We all carry large numbers of
E. coli
bacteria in our intestines, where they help digest our food.
The strains of
E. coli
in our intestines do not cause disease unless
the bacteria somehow escape to other tissues or organs. A serious
infection can develop if a wound in the intestine allows
E. coli
and
other bacteria to leak into the abdomen. Some strains of
E. coli
do
cause disease even if they do not leave the intestines. You may have
heard of a type of
E. coli
that can cause severe food poisoning
if someone eats undercooked, contaminated meat (most bacteria
can be killed if meat is cooked thoroughly). This strain of
E. coli
produces a poisonous protein, called a toxin. When someone eats
food contaminated with this strain of
E. coli
, the bacteria grow
rapidly and the toxin they emit can cause severe diarrhea, kidney
damage, and even death. The strain of
E. coli
used to manufacture
proteins is very different from the type that causes food poisoning
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