bmt challenges in biomedical research

What do you think?

It is okay to animals for food

Keeping animals in cages is wrong

A chimpanzee is more like a human than a rat

Animals feel pain

People who are studying to be a physician should dissect a human corpse (dead body)

Just as there is no absolute certainty in science, there are also no absolute scales of rightness in ethics!

Fact

Information

Ideas that can be

supported by data

Can be proven Opinion

Belief not based on

certainty or fact

Something that

seems probable to one’s own mind

How to decide

Is there data to support?

Is it factual?

Who are the sources?

Is it a reliable source?

Dinosaurs sighted!

Man Lives 14

Years with

Chimp’s Heart

Think of daily activities and see if any

animals were involved, directly or

indirectly

How would you be affected if animals

were not part of research?

Do benefits outweigh

the risk?

Biotechnology-collection of scientific

techniques that use living cells and

molecules to make products and solve

problems

Transgenic organisms-organisms that

contain another species’ genes within

their chromosomes

Used in selective breeding of livestock, controlled plant pollination, and microorganisms to bake bread, brew beer, and make cheese

First transgenic organisms (created in a lab) were bacteria, which was used to produce insulin in a lab

Animal models-an established part of biomedical research; mice used most often

Pharmaceutical production-using transgenic animals to produce substance used in medicine (pharming)

Organ donors-Most xenografts (Tissue or organs from an individual of one species transplanted into or grafted onto an organism of

another species) come from pigs

-Biggest challenge to successful use of pig organs in human transplants is rejection!

Livestock improvement

Scientist get a transgene into another organism by injecting it into a single cell embryo

Researchers must apply for a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office to get approval to create a transgenic animal

Opposed Beliefs:

Believe it threatens our environment,

health, and food safety

Favor Beliefs:

Believe that transgenic techniques

may one day be able to treat human

disease

TherapeuticGoal is to produce embryonic stem cells

vs.

ReproductiveGoal is to create new organism

Clone===Precise genetic copy

What was the first thing cloned?

In 1997, Dolly the sheep was the first cloned mammal

Currently, there is no evidence of successful human cloning in the

world

Few scientist

believe in human

cloning but support

therapeutic cloning

to hopefully

produce treatments

for diseases!

Stem cells are important to medical researchers they are used to create perfectly matched tissue to treat an individual disease or disorder

Adult stem cells

› Used for stem cell transfusions when a person’s own stem cells are destroyed, such as by radiation

Embryonic stem cells

› come from a fertilized egg

› for the purpose of treating disease