Биофизика и биотехнологии. Biophysics and biotechnologies. Учебное пособие

What would be the position of the children of donors in relation to clones?

These people are concerned that cloning, or genetic engineering, would interfere with the laws of religion or nature. Others are concerned that it might lead to attempts to alter the features of a particular race and result in a new kind of ethnic cleansing. The fact is that the new opportunities offered by science have always meant that we are faced with new ethical questions. These questions need to be discussed and evaluated before we move ahead.

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL VOCABULARY WORKING OUT THE MEANING OF UNKNOWN WORDS

2. The following words in the box are all from the text above. Find them in the text.

3. For each word, read the sentence it occurs in and answer the questions:

a)Is the word positive, negative or neutral?

b)Is it a noun, adjective, adverb or verb?

c)Can you think of a word with a similar meaning (synonym) and one with an opposite meaning (antonym)?

AFTER READING TASKS

4.Answer the questions

1.Do you know anything about genetic engineering?

2.Do you buy genetically modified food?

3.Would you like to clone something or someone?

4.Have you read any books - scientific or fiction - about cloning?

5.Are there any films where the issue of human cloning comes up?

6.Is cloning a matter of technology, ethics or politics?

7.When did the first attempt to create a clone take place? What happened?

8.Who’s Dolly? Why is she famous?

9.In what ways is cloning different from copying?

10.What are the disadvantages of cloning from an ethical point of

view?

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5. Match the synonyms:

6. Match the antonyms:

7. Translate:

1.Cloning is the process of growing two or more identical organisms from one cell.

2.Early successful experiments with cloning, using the tadpoles of frogs, took place in 1968.

3.The technique of tadpole cloning consisted of transplanting a frog's DNA, contained in the nucleus of a body cell, into an egg cell whose own genetic material had been removed.

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4.Cloning does not mean copying: a clone shares the same genes as its donor, but its behaviour and characteristics will be different.

5.Cloning could be beneficial to humans. For example, we could use cloning to improve health; we could learn more about how organisms develop and we could put an end to the risk of extinction of endangered species.

6.The practical applications of cloning are financially promising but many ethical questions remain.

8. Fill in the glossary. Read and translate. Write the summary of the text.

Cloning Breakthrough as Scientists Create Mouse Clones from Freeze-Dried Cells. It is a Much Safer and More Cost-Effective Method.

Human activity, be it direct killing or destruction of habitat, is causing animals to go extinct at an alarming rate. Many have now got to a point where conservation and breeding efforts are the only path to keeping the species alive, and one of the efforts at the forefront of this is cloning.

To do so, however, is expensive and liable to failure. Genetic information is stored at incredibly low temperatures and should there be a

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power cut or the freezers are compromised in any way, this genetic material is destroyed.

Now, new research has demonstrated the ability to clone mice using just somatic cells that have been freeze-dried, a process significantly more suited to the task. The findings were outlined in a paper published in Nature.

“Here, we show that freeze-dried somatic cells can produce healthy, fertile clones, suggesting that this technique may be important for the establishment of alternative, cheaper, and safer liquid nitrogen-free biobanking solutions,” write the authors.

Current cloning techniques involve the removal of sperm or eggs – for example from the last Northern White Rhino – and long-term storage of sperm and embryos until they can be implanted into a female.

Teruhiko Wakayama and colleagues from the University of Yamanashi set out to expand on this by using freeze-dried somatic cells to provide the genetic material needed for cloning. Taking a sample of somatic cells from mice, the researchers subjected them to freeze-drying, in which the sample is frozen before the ice is removed. Doing so allows the sample to be frozen for up to nine months.

The cells do die in this process, but the researchers were able to perform somatic cell nuclear transfer and recover the nucleus, which contains all the necessary genetic information to create an early blastocyst. Soon, the researchers were able to create stable embryonic lines from the frozen samples.

Once implanted into females, the mice delivered healthy cloned litters, which were then mated further to prove they were able to reproduce.

The work is a major milestone in the pursuit of efficient cloning, but it is not without flaws. Freeze-drying results in more DNA damage compared to traditional methods, and somatic cell cloning has a slight reputation for birth defects. These are issues that will need to be ironed out before it becomes a viable method to save threatened species.

9. Read the text and translate it. Retell the text to your group mates.

Students in introductory biology classes typically have to learn more new vocabulary words than students taking a foreign language! The good news is that many science vocabulary words use the same Greek and Latin roots. When you know these roots, you can figure out what a word means, even if you've never heard it before. This table shows you many roots to help you decipher words you hear in biology class.

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WRITING

10.Write the summary of the text "CLONING".

11.Write the summary of the text "CLONING BREAKTHROUGH AS SCIENTISTS CREATE MOUSE CLONES FROM FREEZEDRIED CELLS".

SPEAKING

12. Get prepared with the presentation "THE BENEFITS AND PROBLEMS OF HUMAN BEINGS CLONING".

Remember to speak about:

1.What cloning is.

2.How cloning is done.

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3.Benefits: medicine, saving of endangered species.

4.Problems: donors and clones, children of donors, religion, ethnic cleansing.

GRAMMAR FOCUS

Latin and Greek plural

Study the rule. Make the plural. Translate the nouns into Russian.

13. Make the plural. Translate the nouns into Russian.

a.cactus, fungus, radius, stimulus, genius, virus;

b.alga, formula (in science), vertebra, antenna;

c.bacterium, curriculum, datum, medium, memorandum, stratum, millennium;

d.index (in mathematics, in books);

e.appendix (in books, in medicine);

f.analysis, axis, basis, crisis, diagnosis, hypothesis, oasis, parenthesis, thesis;

g.criterion, phenomenon.

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READING

1. Read the text and translate it:

An Introduction to Immunology

Welcome to the fascinating world of immunology! This is a field of science which studies the complex system responsible for protecting our bodies from harmful pathogens. It focuses on understanding the complex interactions between the immune system and various pathogens, diseases, and disorders. Let us get an insight into the pressing problems in this field which require research and advancements.

The human immune system works as a defense for the whole body. It is a complex network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to identify, target, and eradicate harmful pathogens. It defends the body against infections, prevents the growth of cancerous cells, and aids in the healing process.

Immunity can be active or passive. Active immunity can be acquired naturally through infection or artificially through vaccination. It provides long-lasting protection by stimulating the production of memory cells that recognize and respond to specific antigens. Passive immunity occurs when preformed antibodies are transferred from one individual to another. It offers immediate but temporary protection and is commonly seen in newborns who receive antibodies from their mothers through breast milk.

The urgent problems in immunology are considered to be immunotherapy, vaccine development, autoimmune diseases, and emerging infections.

Immunotherapy has revolutionized the field of treatment dangerous diseases by harnessing the power of the immune system to fight them. The immune system comprises two major components: the innate immune

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response and the adaptive immune response. The innate immune response provides rapid, nonspecific defense mechanisms, whereas the adaptive immune response offers specific and long-term protection. Physical barriers, such as the skin and mucous membranes, act as a first line of defense against pathogens by preventing their entry into the body. White blood cells, including phagocytes and natural killer cells, play a vital role in the innate immune response. Phagocytes destroy pathogens, while natural killer cells target virus-infected cells and tumors.

In spite of the progress in the sphere, several challenges remain, such as enhancing the specificity and potency of immune therapeutic drugs, overcoming immune suppressive mechanism, and managing adverse effects. The innovative approaches in this area are chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Vaccines are crucial tools in preventing the spread of infectious diseases. By introducing harmless fragments of pathogens, weakened pathogens, or their toxins into the body, vaccines stimulate an immune response that leads to the development of immunological memory. Different types of vaccines, including live attenuated, inactivated, subunit, and mRNA vaccines, use strategies to stimulate the immune system to protect against specific diseases.

However, the development of vaccines demands extensive research, clinical trials, and manufacturing processes. The main direction is development of vaccines which comes in line with improving vaccine efficiency, overcoming public skepticism, and the logistical challenges of large-scale vaccine distribution.

In autoimmune diseases, the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells and tissues within the body, resulting in chronic inflammation and potential damage to organs. This direction will explore the pressing problems associated with autoimmune diseases, including understanding the underlying causes, identifying novel diagnostic biomarkers, developing targeted therapies, and improving patient management. Nowadays scientists all over the world are doing research in the areas like genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and personalized medicine for autoimmune diseases.

The rapid emergence of new infectious diseases is a significant challenge to global healthcare systems. The recent COVID-19 pandemic is a good example. The challenges in this area include the early detection and

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