Recombinant DNA technology applications

Microbes for Industiial and Agiicultural Applications, Dekker, NY, 1993. Click, B. R. and J. J. Pasternak, Molecular Biotechnology Trinciples and Applications of Recombinant DNA, ASM Press, Herndon, VA, 1994. Bajpai, Rakesb K., and Ales Prokop, eds. Recombinant DNA Technology II, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 721, 1993. 

The molecular causes of a number of heritable diseases of bone (eg, osteogenesis imperfecta) and of cartilage (eg, the chondrodystrophies) are being revealed by the application of recombinant DNA technology. 

The application of recombinant DNA technology is revolutionizing the field of hematology. 

Downham, M., Busby, S., Jefferis, R., and Lyddiatt, A., Immunoaffinity chromatography in biorecovery an application of recombinant DNA technology to generic adsorption processes, /. Chromatogr., 584, 59, 1992. 

Examples of the early application of recombinant DNA technology in medicine are the development of recombinant human growth hormone human insulin human interferons, thought to have anticancer activity in addition to antiviral activity interleukins (regulatory proteins from lymphocytes that are believed to be important in the treatment of immunodeficiency diseases and cancer) tumor necrosis factor epidermal and bone marrow progenitor cell growth factors and the production of vaccines (Table 12.1). 

This area of recombinant DNA technology also has application in the degradation of solid waste materials In waste water recovery, in leaching minerals from ore-containing rock, in improved oil recovery, and in the decontamination of chemical waste dumps through the engineering of microorganisms that can destroy specific toxic contaminants. 

Many other factors, including applicable advances in recombinant DNA technology and impetus provided by the Human Genome Project, also have contributed to important permutations of methodology and applications, such as polymerase chain reaction- (PCR)-ISH (6) and spectral karyotyping (5). 

The advent of recombinant DNA technology led to the development of antibodies and fragments that are tailored for optimal behaviour in vivo [7,8]. Humanized and chimeric antibodies can be constructed to circumvent the human anti-mouse antibody response elicited by mouse antibody treatment of patients, which severely hampers the application of these powerful molecules. The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis patients with doses of as high as 10 mg kg cA2 chimeric antibody specific for TNFa [9], emphasizes that at present the production and purification methods for these proteins have been optimized to such extent that clinical studies can be considerably intensified. 

Further success in increasing yield and concentration of 1,3-PD is expected from the application of metabohc engineering and recombinant DNA technology, especially with respect to extending the substrate spectrum to use cheaper and abundant substrates such as glucose and starch [12,13]. 

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