Transgenic animals

[attachment=17182]

PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The intent of this project was to describe the applications for transgenic animals, and examine the impact of this new and controversial technology on society. This IQP explores the potential medical, industrial, and educational benefits of transgenic animals. The research also illustrates various relationships between the technologies, the ethical concerns of society, and the legislation that regulates the use of transgenic animals. Chapter-1 describes how transgenic animals are created and categorized their uses. Chapters-2 and 3 investigate the ethics and legalities surrounding this contentious technology. The author concludes that these experiments should be allowed to continue with tight NIH and FDA oversight to ensure careful consideration for the well being of the transgenic animals involved, and that patenting transgenic animals provides necessary legal protection to allow further transgenic research to continue.



Transgenic Applications
A transgenic animal is a type of animal engineered to incorporate a foreign gene into its genome for the purpose of giving it new properties. This technology resulted from the explosion of molecular biology techniques in the 1970‟s and 1980‟s, and has created a variety of new animals that benefit society. The purpose of this chapter is to categorize the types of transgenic animals created to date, as an introduction to subsequent chapters on the impact of the controversial technology on society.


Disease Models
Disease models have been engineered to mimic some aspect of a human disease, to allow a better understanding of disease formation, and to test potential therapies. These models hold great promise for the study of human pathology, and in some cases are required intermediate steps for testing therapies prior to human testing. These animals provide a living system that can be used to acquire new information about a disease, with the ultimate goal of testing new vaccinations and treatments on laboratory specimens before moving onto human trials



AIDS Mouse
Another important disease model is the AIDS mouse. The HIV virus that causes AIDS normally only infects humans and chimpanzees. But limiting factors such as high maintenance costs, and a dwindling population in their natural habitat, made primates ill-suited for laboratory research. Additionally, the virus does not cause full blown AIDS in chimps.