Karl Kjer || Brief about Applied Biotechnology

Karl Kjer is a famous science writer and biologist here he provide some important tips about applied biotechnology.

Biotechnology is a broad spectrum science that uses any living organisms like bacteria, virus, fungi, plant, and animal cells to produce inimitable commodities: an industrial based business for development of bio produce using genetically engineered or modified microbes and animals. Traditional biotechnology provides evidences of bread baking and brewing alcohols that form the layout for the development of this technology. Genetics, molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, microbiology and its genetics, immunology and their applications are few interdisciplinary areas of biotechnology, which leads to advanced and modern biotech.

Genetic engineering is the process of adding, deleting or modifying a gene of interest according to the need of the produce. New gene technology has resulted in many innovative approaches for production of hybrid yields of plants, crops and chemicals by genetically modified microorganisms. In 1997, the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep marked the success of trangenesis where the DNA of the animals was manipulated to express the desired character or organism. This engineering aims at preparing drugs, improved plants, growth hormones, enzymes and proteins e.g. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) were genetically incorporated into plants and crops to farmers that survives pest infestation and yield healthy crops. Bt produces a protein that acts as a toxin to the pests: microbial pest control management. This technology of inserting or modifying the gene of an organism is the recombinant DNA technology

Medicine biotechnology focuses on drug development and production, gene therapy, Human genome project, Pharmacogenomics and genetic testing and screening. rDNA technology enables the invention of genetically engineered Insulin, a cure for diabetics by making a microbe available to secrete insulin for humans. Gene therapy is a method that corrects the genetic birth defects diagnosed in the embryo: a normal gene is inserted to the defective embryo, which expresses normal function by masking the non-functional gene. There are some early diagnostic methods made available by rDNA technology, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzyme linked immune-sorbent assay (ELISA). PCR is widely used to detect HIV in AIDS patients. Antibiotic and vaccine establishment, transgenic experiments to study the nature of diseases and cures and other medical biotechnology approaches are carried out with the support of Government policies and regulations of Social and ethical issues. Any organization or groups of manufacturers must have a licensed agreement to accepting terms and conditions of Government regulations; violating this regulation (Biopiracy) results in severe compensation and punishment. 

Industrial and environmental biotechnology relates with modern biotechnology to increase the efficacy and decrease the industrial impacts to the environment. Biocatalysts, biopolymers, bio plastics, bioremediation, bio surfactants, bio fertilizers and biodegradable materials take the modern concept to commercial market. Textile industry, cosmetic industry and many chemical industries rely for eco friendly harvests. Wastewater management recovers the spoiled soil and sewage water treatment; water acts as biofuel for generators. 

The most vocal challenges are noted between the benefit and the risks involved in modern biotechnology. Biodiversity conservation comprises a nature-balancing factor. This however promises future with certain amount of risk. The approval and regulation would up bring this modern technology to scale up new trend.

Karl Kjer-How to Study Biology to Get a A-Plus

Karl Kjer the famous biology science writer explain some important tips to study biology to get in A-plus Category.

Biology is the study of life in its entirety. The growth of biology as a natural science is interesting from many points of view. One feature of this growth is changing emphasis. Initially it was description of life forms, identification, nomenclature, classification of all recorded life forms. In recent years,Physics and Chemistry have been applied to biology and the new science of Biochemistry and Biotechnology have become the dominant faces of Biology. Medicinal practice, green revolution and the advancement in biotechnology has made the presence of biology felt by the common man

The key to success in Biology is hard work. It means management of time and energy. Biology is a vast subject which requires a great and clear-cut understanding of each topic. Trying to cram notes will never lead to success unless rigorous effort is made in comprehending them. Being a very vast subject, developing interest in it is very important for success. One must have a passion for nature, to understand how things have developed and marvel at the beauty of nature.

To do well at biology, both the quantity and quality of time spent on it are important. A substantial time commitment is required to understand the subject in its entirety. Many students are discouraged when they get unsatisfactory even after spending hours studying for tests,. This may happen when the studies done by them do not lead to comprehension but only cramming effort. The test requires one to integrate concepts from different lectures, and to apply these principles of biology covered in class to evaluate new situations during the test. High-quality work entails preparing for such questions. Preparing entails organizing the mass of new information in such a way that it helps you understand the way the concepts are related to each other

To be successful, a student must carry out lecture follow-up activity i.e. rewriting their lecture notes. This could be done by re-organizing the information studied during the session in a way that conforms to your mental "landscape." Better than rewriting your notes, it helps you to discern the patterns and relationships between concepts leaving no doubts.

The lecture follow-up activity would involve the following:

1. Make a list of the important concepts from the lecture.
2. Rank the concepts from most general to most specific.
3. Circle the concepts that are linked with a solid line.
4. Label the line with a linking phrase.
5. Work down the page, adding increasingly specific concepts and looking for crosslinks, which should be drawn with dashed lines.
6. Do a second version for all the concepts with the goal to add formerly unnoticed crosslinks and to organize the map so that it flows as logically and as clearly as possible.

7.      Often students are not able to organize themselves in the correct manner and are not able to do well despite their best efforts. At this time, it is best to get expert help which can help the student put things in order. 

8.      To sum up all, the mantra to excel in biology is hard work and practice. The combination of these two can do wonders if done properly. The emphasis should always be on the deep understanding of the concepts. Further practice will enable development of right kind of approach required to answer questions during the exam. Amalgamation of a good understanding with a good approach to answer questions would lead to the path of - "SUCCESS".

For more important tips and updates follow Karl Kjer blogs and official website. Karl Kjer is a man who really wants to utilize his experience with people via online communities.

Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in The Light of Evolution- Karl Kjer

A number of changes in flora and fauna have occurred over millions of years on the earth. The study of history of life forms on the earth is Evolutionary Biology.

There have been many theories of evolution out of which some were deemed important. Lamarck's theory of evolution was the theory of acquired characters or the theory of use and disuse of organ. This theory had four postulates - 

Internal forces tend to increase the size of the body. 

Formation of new organs is the result of the need or want continuously felt by organisms -Doctrine of appetency/desires. 

Development and power of action of an organ is proportional to its use. 

All changes acquired by the organism during its life are transmitted to the offsprings by the process of inheritance. 

Lamarck's theory was however discarded on the basis that physical changes acquired by an organism are not transmitted to the progeny.

Darwin's theory gained critical acclaim im the biological world later. Charles Darwin put forward "natural selection "as the basis for evolution. The source of variations according to Darwin was mostly mutation, also recombination and intermingling of populations. Darwin's theory was found weak based on the fact that he could not explain discontinuous variations.

Interestingly, 60 years before Charles Darwin's theory was presented his grandfather Erasmus Darwin wrote about evolution. 

Next in line we have the Mutation theory proposed by Hugo de vries on the basis of observations on the wild variety of evening primrose Oenothera lamarckiana.according to this theory evolution on a grand scale is macroevolution , at genetic level he called it macroevolution, units of evolution were populations and the units of natural selection -individuals. 

A very important and logical explanation for evolution was given by Hardy-Weinberg,it's called the Hardy-Weinberg principle. According to them variation at genetic level is caused by 5 processes

• Mutation
• Recombination
• Gene migration
• Natural selection

They gave an equation to elucidate their proposition -

• (p+q)square =(p)square + 2pq + (q)square.
• For a gene with 2 alternative alleles, called A and a,
• the frequency of allele A can be expressed as p and that of a as q.
• since they're only 2 alleles their sum must be equal to one.

There are many more theories for evolution, even after millions of years we are only trying to find out the reasons. We are closer to the truth but still have a long way to go. 

Liquid Phase Peptide Synthesis- Karl Kjer

There have been new developments in the field of medical science and usage of organic chemistry. The synthetic methodology used in the process of preparing organic compounds is one of the most important discoveries and innovation taken place in the recent decades. It's very objective in the modern times is to provide better medicines and cure through new and possible drugs for different diseases.

In this regard there is no doubt a lot of interest is shown towards the implementation of new processes and synthetic strategies towards the development of peptides. Particularly, much of attention is focused towards the new process - Liquid phase organic synthesis (LPOS) on soluble polymers. Since many peptide syntheses methods/process with which peptides can be procured, however, liquid phase peptide synthesis is well known in the research domain. 

Since soluble polymers combines the benefits of classical homogeneous solution methodology with those of solid phase organic synthesis (SPOS); 

1- it uses excessive reagents, easy isolation and purification of the final product with a higher stability of the system polymer-supported molecule. 

2- Polyethylene glycol (PEG) with Mw=5000Da, is by far the most widely soluble support employed. Polyethylene glycol is one of the expensive polymer and ideal support for liquid phase combinatorial synthesis because it is easy to functionalize and also resistant to drastic operative conditions. 

4- Furthermore, Polyethylene glycol dissolves easily in many organic solvents such as CH2CI2, CHCI3, tetrahydrofuran (THF), CH3OH, or H2O within the room temperature and it can be precipitated from solution by adding diethyl ether, tert-butyl methyl ether, propan-2- ol, or hexane. 

5- Because of these features, PEG chemistry has shown a broad based application, which maybe in large part assigned the use of PEG where it conjugates to deliver drug, Oligonucleotides or enzymes. 

6- The liquid phase peptide synthesis method is known for more than 25 years and it has been broadly applied to the synthesis of small organic molecules and combinatorial chemistry. 

7- On the other hand, compound derived from 1, 3, 5 thiadiazinane-2- thiones (THTT) has received specific attention because of its pharmacological properties. It is best known that THTT present antibacterial activities which are obtained in compounds having lipophilic groups at the N-3 and hydrophilic ones at N-5 position that helps in liquid phase peptide synthesis. 

8- It is to be considered that promising results are obtained with antiparasitic bioactivity with THTT derivates which shall be attributed to the interaction of cystenine proteinases, present in most groups of parasitic protozoa, with isothiocyanates, generated by hydrolysis of the THTT ring in protic medium. 

9- Notwithstanding, it shall not be ruled out, it is very much possible that the rleased amino acids or dipeptide attached to N-5 of THTT ring, with other molecular targets, thereby enhances the antiparasitic activity as observed with these derivatives, should not be ruled out. 

In previous studies, it is found that cytotoxicity has remarkable properties of derivatives against HeLa and HT-29 cells were also tested, and there are developed theoretical model to predict the influence of structure on the antitumor activity for this type of compounds which helps in Liquid phase peptide synthesis.