This document provides an overview of medical biotechnology. It begins by defining medical biotechnology as the use of living cells and materials to research and produce pharmaceuticals and diagnostics for treating human disease. Some key applications discussed include using biotechnology in pharmacology for drug discovery and production, as well as in areas like gene therapy, stem cells, and tissue engineering. Specific examples outlined include how biotechnology has been used to produce insulin, growth hormones, monoclonal antibodies, and vaccines.

1. Prepared by: Vipin Kumar Shukla
Assistant Professor
Department of Biotechnology
A Lecture on Medical Biotechnology

2. Introduction:
 Medical Biotechnology is the
use of living cells and cell
materials to research and
produce pharmaceutical and
diagnostic products that help
treat and prevent human
diseases.
 Human insulin, first product
of biotechnology, was
released for sale in 1982.

3. Continued….
 Medicine is by means
of biotechnology
techniques so much in
diagnosing and
treating dissimilar
diseases.
 In medicine, modern biotechnology
finds applications in areas such as
pharmaceutical drug discovery and
production, pharmacogenomics, and
genetic testing.

4. Classification of Medical Biotechnology:

8. Green Biotechnology:

9. Blue Biotechnology:

10. Applications of medical biotechnology:
 1.PHARMACOLOGY
 2. GENE THERAPY
 3. STEM CELLS
 4. TISSUE ENGINEERING

11. Pharmacology:
 Pharmacology is the branch of medicine
and biology concerned with the study of
drug action, where a drug can be
broadly defined as any man-made,
natural or endogenous molecule which
exerts a biochemical and physiological
effect on the cell, tissue, organ, or
organism .
 Study of the interaction that occur
between a living organism and chemical
that affect normal or abnormal
biochemical function.

12. Insulin production:
 Production of genetically engineered human insulin was
one of the first breakthroughs of biotechnology in the
pharmaceutical industry.
 Insulin was first produced in Escherichia coli through
recombinant DNA technology in 1978..
 PROCESS:- The human gene for insulin is placed into
bacteria, are cultured and allowed to produce insulin which
is collected, purified and sold to diabetics worldwide.

14. Human growth hormone:
 Production of human growth hormone was first done in 1979
using recombinant DNA technology.
 Scientists produced human growth hormone by inserting DNA
coding for human growth hormone into a plasmid that was
implanted in Escherichia coli bacteria.
 This gene that was inserted into the plasmid was created by
reverse transcription of the mRNA found in pituitary glands to
complementary DNA.
 Prior to this development, human growth hormone was extracted
from the pituitary glands of cadavers, as animal growth
hormones have no therapeutic value in humans.

16. Monoclonal Antibodies:
 They are so called because
they are clones of an
individual parent cell.
 Remember, antibodies are
specific proteins that target
pathogens invading our
body.

17. Advantages:
 This technology is used primarily to fight off cancer cells
as these monoclonal antibodies can be “trained” to target
markers that show up on cancer cells.
 The mab will then destroy the cancer cell and go looking
for more.

18. Gene Therapy:
 Gene therapy is the use of DNA as a pharmaceutical
agent to treat disease.
 It derives its name from the idea that DNA can be used to
supplement or alter genes within an individual cells as a
therapy to treat disease
 The most common form of gene therapy involves using
DNA that encodes a functional, therapeutic gene to replace
a mutated gene.
 Gene therapy is of two types , somatic gene therapy and
germ line gene therapy.

19. Gene Therapy for diseases:
 Gene Therapy has made important medical advances in less
than two decades. Within this short time span, it has moved
from the conceptual stage to technology development and
laboratory research to clinical translational trials for a
variety of deadly diseases.
 The most notable advancements are the following:

20. CHRONIC GRANULOMATUS DISORDER
(CGD):
 CGD is a genetic disease in the immune
system that leads to the patients' inability
to fight off bacterial and fungal infections
that can be fatal.
 Multiple gene therapy strategies have
been developed to treat a wide variety of
acquired diseases like
 Cancer, Parkinson's Disease,
Huntington's Disease, Influenza, HIV,
Hepatitis.

21. Stem Cells:
 Stem cells are mother cells that have the potential to
become any type of cells in the body.
 Stem cells can become cells of the blood, heart, bones,
skin, muscle, brain, etc.
 Stem cells can repair and replace tissue in human body.
 E.g. Tissue in our skin needs constant renewal that could
not take place without stem cells.
The easiest place to get stem cells is from an embryo.

22. Continued…..
 Stem cells are introduced into a
damaged area of the body where,
under the right conditions, will
replace the damaged area.
 Often times stem cells are grown
in a lab first to ensure the right
conditions and then placed into a
sick person.

23. Tissue Engineering:
 Tissue engineering is
creation of human tissue,
outside the body for later
replacement.
 This technique will allow
organs to be grown from
implantation and hence free
from immunological
rejection.

24. Continued……
 Tissue engineers have created artificial skin, cartilage and
bone marrow.
 Current projects being undertaken include creating an
artificial liver, pancreas and bladder.
 Again, we are far from replacing a whole organ, but just
looking for “refurbishing” our slightly used ones at the
moment.

25. Vaccines:
 Whole organism
 Live vaccine
 Dead vaccine
 Partial organism
 Protein coat only
 Recombinant
 Produced by genetic engineering

26. Xeno-Transplantation:
 Xeno-transplantation is the use of
live cells, tissue or organs from non-
human animal species, for
transplantation into a human patient.
 Interest has grown in this area of
biotechnology because up to 50% of
people waiting to receive vital organ
transplants, such as kidney, liver and
heart, die while waiting for a donor
organ.

27. SOME PROTEIN THERAPEUTICS MADE BY
BIOTECHNOLOGYAND ITS FUNCTIONS: