BRAINCAKEMicroorganisms in Medicine and Bioremediation
Medicine
Antibiotics: penicillin, the first antibiotic, is made by the mould Penicillium chrysogenum. It is produced on a huge scale in fermenters. Many other antibiotics also come from fungi or bacteria.
Insulin: people with type 1 diabetes need insulin injections. Insulin used to be extracted from the pancreases of pigs and cattle. Now the human insulin gene is inserted into bacteria (such as E. coli) or yeast, which then make human insulin in fermenters. This gives a large, reliable supply of pure human insulin, avoids reactions to animal insulin, and removes ethical objections to using animal tissue.
Other products from microorganisms include enzymes, vaccines and some hormones. Because the organisms can be genetically modified, the list of drugs made this way keeps growing.
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All 21 lessons in Cloning and Biotechnology · All OCR A-level Biology topics