MEDICAL BIOTECH

Medical biotech is responsible for the advancement of gene therapy. Gene therapy is used for numerous things like treating and curing genetic and acquired diseases like cancer and AIDS. Gene therapy uses normal genes to replace defective ones. It can also be used to improve someone’s immunity and help the person’s health improve. There are two ways medical biotech has discovered to implement a gene therapy treatment.

The first method of gene therapy is called ex vivo, meaning ‘outside of the body’. Bone marrow or cells are removed from a patient’s blood. They are then grown in a laboratory and exposed to a virus carrying a desired gene. When the virus enters the cells, the gene becomes a part of the DNA and then injected back into the patient.

The second method of gene therapy is called in vivo, meaning ‘inside of the body’. Cells are not removed from the body with this method. The desired gene is delivered inside the patient’s body with the use of a vector. A vector is a virus. Although the point is to create immunity to the virus, there are known side effects causing toxicity, inflammatory responses, and gene control issues. There is still a lot to learn about gene therapy and medical biotech is working steadfast to determine all of the risks associated with it.

Today, gene therapy is still a medical biotech testing and trial issue and not widely used. There are many trials worldwide being used on gene therapy, primarily in the United States. Many different diseases including cancer are being tested thoroughly with gene therapy and scientists are hoping to have a major breakthrough. It was reported that recently two children that were born with sever combined immunodeficiency disorder were cured after receiving gene therapy.

Medical biotech is researching every disease and every cure they can and as quickly as possible. Many of the testing is limited to funding and many of the biotech companies coming up with new drugs are nonprofit, which can sometimes force breakthroughs to be put on hold. The therapies and cures created by medical biotech are saving lives.