University of Phoenix Innovation in Biology and Technology Research Paper

Topic selection (use the topic you selected for step 1 of this assignment, included here as a reminder):

a) Vaccines. Your friend is worried about the many vaccines that his newborn son is scheduled to receive and asks you for advice since you are taking a biology course. Start with an explanation of how vaccines work. Briefly contrast the traditional methods used to create vaccines with more recently used biotechnology techniques, including the COVID 19 mRNA vaccines. Explain how the mRNA vaccines work based on your knowledge of the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology. What are some of the diseases that infants and children in the US are routinely vaccinated against? How have vaccinations impacted the frequency of these diseases over the past 100 years? Why are some people worried about giving their children vaccines? Why do some people believe that the MRR vaccine can cause autism? Is there scientific evidence to support these concerns? Conclude with advice to your friend in regard to getting the recommended vaccines based on what you learned from reliable information sources.

DISCUSSION:

Cells without proteins do not function and synthesis of these molecular machines starts at the DNA level. The process of gene expression occurs similarly in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. Through that process, synthesized proteins attribute traits (phenotype) to cells (and organisms). Additional traits can be given to a cell by introducing a gene using molecular biology techniques. For example, the gene gfp (codes for green fluorescent protein) isolated from jellyfish, is an important tool used in mammalian cells to track eukaryotic proteins. This is done by fusing gfp gene to a gene-of-interest and reintroducing the modified gene back into the cell. (When DNA from different species are joined, the newly made DNA molecule is called a recombinant DNA.)

Provide two clinically important products that have been produced using recombinant DNA technology. (see reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4748523/ )

In agriculture, biotechnology is used to engineer crops that resist insects, viruses, weeds, or express certain nutrients. Are there any drawbacks from eating GMOs food? For example, would you consider eating AquAdvantage Salmon engineered by AquaBounty? Provide a rationale for your answer  

POST

recognize and explain how the scientific method is used to solve problemsmake observations and discriminate between scientific and pseudoscientific explanationsweigh evidence and make decisions based on strengths and limitations of scientific knowledge and the scientific methoduse knowledge of biological principles, the scientific method, and appropriate technologies to ask relevant questions, develop hypotheses, design and conduct experiments, interpret results, and draw conclusionsWrite a paper about your chosen topic.