LK Singhania Public School,

Nimbahera

Central Board of Secondary Education,

New Delhi

All India Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, 2023-24

Project Record
on
Biotechnology & it’s applications

Name of Student : Yukta kumawat

Class :XII-Raman
Subject & Subject Code : Biology (044)
Submitted To : Mr. Amit Massey sir

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Certificate
This is to certify that miss YUKTA KUMAWAT a student of

class XII-RAMAN has successfully completed her project

under the guidance and supervision of our biology teacher

Mr. AMIT MASSEY , during the year 2023-24 in the partial

fulfilment of curriculum of CBSE.

Student has taken keen interest and made her sincere

efforts to complete the project up to my satisfaction and

as per the guidelines issued by CBSE.

Principal’s Signature

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Internal’s Signature External’s Signature

Bio-
Technology
and
its
applications
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Introduction
At its simplest, biotechnology is technology
based on biology - biotechnology harnesses cel-
lular and bio-molecular processes to develop
technologies and products that help improve
our lives and the health of our planet. We have
used the biological processes of microorganisms
for more than 6,000 years to make useful food
products, such as bread and cheese, and to pre-
serve dairy products.

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Research areas
The applications of biotechnology includes ther-
apeutics , diagnostics ,genetically modified
crops for agriculture , processed food , bioreme-
diations , waste treatment and energy produc-
tion. Three critical research areas of biotechnol-
ogy are :-
(I)Providing the best catalyst in the form of im-
proved organism usually a microbe or a pure en-
zyme.
(II)Creating optimal conditions through engi-
neering for a catalyst to act.
(III)Downstream processing technologies to pu-
rify the protein \ organic compound.

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Biotechnological applications
in agriculture
Application of Biotechnology in Agriculture in-
volves scientific techniques such as Genetically
Modified Organisms, BtCotton, Pest Resistant
Plants. It helps in modifying plants, animals,
and microorganisms and improve their agricul-
tural productivity. Techniques like vaccines, tissue
culture, genetic engineering are also used.

Genetically Modified Organisms

GMO stands for ‘Genetically Modified Organ-
isms’. GMOs are plants, animals, bacteria or
fungi whose genes have been modified by ge-
neTic manipulation. Genetically modified crops or
GM crops are used in the following ways:

 They are more tolerant to stresses such as

drought, cold, heat etc.
 They are pest-resistant and therefore less de-
pendent on chemical pesticides.
 Genetically Modified crops help to reduce
post-harvest losses.
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 They help to increase the mineral usage by
plants, thereby preventing early exhaustion of
soil fertility.
 Genetically modified crops have enhanced nu-
tritional value. Example – Vitamin A enriched
rice.
Genetic modifications also help to create tailor-
made plants to provide alternative resources to
industries, such as fuels, starches, and pharma-
ceuticals. Let’s look at some examples of GM
crops and how they are useful.

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Biotechnological
applications in medicine
Biotechnology has a variety of applications in
the field of medicine. Some of the biotechnol-
ogy applications in medicine include the follow-
ing:
Recombinant Insulin :
Insulin is required by diabetic patients to remove
excess sugar from the blood. Diabetic patients
have a very low level of insulin or no insulin pro-
duced by the body. Therefore, they need exter-
nal insulin to control blood glucose levels.
Later it was discovered that the insulin pro-
duced by the pancreas of the pigs can be used
by humans. But there were not enough pigs to
provide the quantities of insulin required. This
led to the cloning of the human insulin gene.
The specific gene sequence that codes for hu-
man insulin were introduced in E.coli bacteria.
The gene sequence altered the genetic composi-
tion of the E.coli cells. Within 24 hours several E.-
coli bacteria containing the recombinant
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human insulin gene were produced. The recom-
binant human insulin was isolated from E.coli
cells.

Gene Therapy :
Gene Therapy holds the most promising answer
to the problem of genetic diseases. Gene ther-
apy is used to treat genetic disorders usually by
the insertion of a normal gene or correct gene
for the defective or inactive gene into an individ-
ual with the help of vectors such as retrovirus,
adenovirus, and herpes simplex virus.

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The normal gene replaces the defective or inac-
tive gene and carries out its functions. The ther-
apy has the highest chances of developing a per-
manent cure if introduced in the earliest stages
of life.
Molecular Diagnosis :
Medical diagnosis is another application of
biotechnology in the health sector. Many times
the pathogen concentration increases by the
time the disease is diagnosed. Hence, early diag-
nosis and knowledge of pathophysiology are es-
sential for an effective cure. This can be
achieved with the help of techniques such as Re-
combinant DNA Technology, Polymerase Chain
Reaction (PCR) and Enzyme-Linked Immunosor-
bent Assay (ELISA), etc.

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Transgenic animals
Transgenic animals are the animals with the
modified genome. A foreign gene is inserted
into the genome of the animal to alter its DNA.
This method is done to improve the genetic
traits of the target animal.
Initially, the improvement of genetic traits was
done by selective breeding methods. In this, the
animals with desired genetic characteristics
were mated to produce an individual with im-
proved genetic characteristics. Since this tech-
nique was time-consuming and expensive, it was
later replaced by recombinant DNA technology.
Transgenesis is the phenomenon in which a for-
eign gene with desired characteristics is intro-
duced into the genome of the target animal. The
foreign gene that is introduced is known as the
transgene, and the animal whose genome is
altered is known as transgenic. These genes are
passed on to the successive generations.
The transgenic animals are genetically engi-
neered and are also known as genetically modi-
fied organisms. The first genetically modified or-
ganism was engineered in the year 1980.
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Methods for creating transgenic
animals
Normal Physiology and Development
In transgenic animals, a foreign gene is intro-
duced due to which the growth factor is altered.
Hence, these animals facilitate the study of gene
regulation and their effect on the everyday func-
tions of the body.
Study of Diseases
Transgenic animals are specially designed to
study the role of genes in the development of
certain diseases. Moreover, in order to devise a
cure for these diseases, the transgenic animals
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are used as model organisms. These transgenic
models are used in research for the develop-
ment of medicines. For example, we have trans-
genic models for diseases such as Alzheimer’s
and cancer.
Biological Products
A number of biological products such as
medicines and nutritional supplements are ob-
tained from transgenic animals. Research for
the manufacture of medicines to treat diseases
such as phenylketonuria (PKU) and hereditary
emphysema is going on. The first transgenic
cow, Rosie (1997), produced milk containing hu-
man protein (2.4 grams per litre). This milk con-
tains the human gene alpha-lactalbumin and
could be given to babies as an alternative to nat-
ural cow milk.

Vaccine Safety
Transgenic animals are used as model organisms
for testing the safety of vaccines before they are
injected into humans. This was conventionally
done on monkeys.
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Ethical issues
o Genetic modification of organisms can have
unpredictable results when such organisms
are introduced into the ecosystem, hence the
Indian Government has set up organizations
such as GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval
Committee), to make decisions regarding the
validity of GM research and the safety of intro-
ducing GM-organisms for public service.
o The modification/usage of living organisms for
public services has also created problems with
patents granted for the same.
o Patent is the right granted by the Government
to a producer to prevent other from using his
product.
o An American company got patent rights on
Basmati rice but the variety of Basmati had
actually been derived from Indian farmer’s
varieties.
o Several attempts have also been made to
patent uses, products and processes based on
Indian traditional herbal medicines.
Example- turmeric, neem.
o

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o Biopiracy is the term used to refer to the use
of bio-resources by multinational companies
and other organizations without proper au-
thorization from the countries and people
concerned without compensatory payment.
o Some nations are developing laws to prevent
such unauthorized exploitation of their bio-re-
sources and traditional knowledge.

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Importance
Biotechnology is most important for its implica-
tions in health and medicine. Through genetic
engineering – the controlled alteration of ge-
netic material – scientists have been able to cre-
ate new medicines, including interferon for can-
cer patients, synthetic human growth hormone
and synthetic insulin, among others.

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Bibliography
I have taken help from following :-
•Sites :
1) google.com
2) www.bioworld.com
•Books :
1) NCERT class 12
2) All in one (biology)

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