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Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms .
Ethical issues related to gene therapy and human genetic enhancement concern the medical risks and benefits of the therapy, the duty to use the procedures to prevent suffering, reproductive freedom in genetic choices, and the morality of practicing positive genetics, which includes attempts to improve normal functions. [5]
Genetic engineering techniques allow the modification of animal and plant genomes. Techniques have been devised to insert, delete, and modify DNA at multiple levels, ranging from a specific base pair in a specific gene to entire genes. There are a number of steps that are followed before a genetically modified organism (GMO) is created.
Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes).
Genetic engineering is in widespread use, particularly in agriculture. Human germline engineering has two potential applications: prevent genetic disorders from passing to descendants, and to modify traits such as height that are not disease related.
Relatedly, biomedical engineering is an overlapping field that often draws upon and applies biotechnology (by various definitions), especially in certain sub-fields of biomedical or chemical engineering such as tissue engineering, biopharmaceutical engineering, and genetic engineering. [citation needed]
Medical genetics was a late developer, emerging largely after the close of World War II (1945) when the eugenics movement had fallen into disrepute. [5] The Nazi misuse of eugenics sounded its death knell. [6] Shorn of eugenics, a scientific approach could be used and was applied to human and medical genetics.
There are proposals to use genetic engineering to control cane toads in Australia. [158] [159] Many lines of transgenic X. laevis are used to study immunology to address how bacteria and viruses cause infectious disease at the University of Rochester Medical Center's X. laevis Research Resource for Immunobiology (XLRRI). [160]