Unit 6 Reflection

In this unit we learned about Biotechnology, which is the study of manipulation of living things in order to benefit us, mankind. Going deeper into this unit, we learned about the different fields in Biotechnology which is the understanding of DNA(genomes), proteins(proteomics), and lastly inheritance(which is basically genetics). We also learned about the 4 main applications in Biotechnology, which are Industrial and Environmental(biodegradable plastics, biofuels etc.), Medical(medicines from organisms, vaccines etc.), Agriculture(breeding) and lastly Diagnostic Research(DNA identification). Bioethics is the study of decision - making as it applies to moral decisions that have to be made because of advances in biology. This is important because scientists are always making bioethical questions about different aspects of life that relate to biology. After that, we learned about recombinant DNA and how it can be used to add traits from one organism into another. Recombinant DNA is the process of putting one organism's DNA into another organism. In the last part of this unit, we learned about the Polymerase Chain Reaction, Gel Electrophoresis, and Sequencing. PCR is a procedure to amplify a specific DNA region and is used for paternity testing, to detect diseases and for cloning. Gel Electrophoresis is basically a way to separate DNA fragments. The way that they do this is that they run electricity through a gel, in order to make the dye run so that they can see the distance that the dye travels on the gel. In the process of the dyes running, they separate. Sequencing is the process of determining the exact order of a given DNA sequence. Another thing that we studied was pGLO and how it is used.

We did a lab on pGLO and what we did was we tried to create bacteria that was resistant to ampicillin and also that could glow in UV light due to the arabinose that we added. In this lab I understood the concept of how bacteria can transform. The other labs that we did in this unit were the DNA Recombinant Lab and the Candy Electrophoresis Lab. The DNA Recombinant Lab helped me understand the role of the restriction enzyme and also what a plasmid was. The Candy Electrophoresis Lab helped me understand the whole process in a more detailed way.

http://patwardhanblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/pglo-lab-questions.html
http://patwardhanblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/recombinant-dna-lab-analysis.html
http://patwardhanblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/candy-electrophoresis-lab-questions.html

Something that I would like to learn more about in the Biotechnology unit is about the fields in Biotechnology because we barely scratched the surface of the four fields and I would like to learn more about it.

I have been keeping up to speed with my New Year's Goals because my main goal was to get the understanding of the concepts as we go along in the unit and not just passively go through each unit. I think that I have done a good job so far and as for my second goal, I feel that I am doing alright in that area. My second goal is time management and I am doing well with it, but I think that I can do a much better job.