Insulin Production

By;
Katie B.
Daeun C.
Period 7

Insulin is a hormone that is used to regulate glucose levels in the blood. In the case of those that have type one diabetes, the cells of the pancreas gets rid of all of the pancreatic insulin cells. For those that have diabetes, they have to take insulin shots. In an older age, they would use insulin from  pigs and cows, but this created allergic reactions in some of the patients. Now they have a different way of getting insulin. They first take plasmid, which is a small piece of DNA, and cut out a section of it. Then they take a human gene for making insulin and replace the extracted part with that. that then goes into a bacteria and multiplies. Then they take the part that is insulin  and separate it from the bacteria. They cure it, and then they put it in shots for people with diabetes to take. The process of making insulin is more time consuming, but has less allergic reactions now. The making of insulin is a concept that is moral because now we aren’t killing animals. The genetic engineering of the insulin to help diabetic patients is a feat that is beneficial in society today.

Interviews;
Kristi Allen- “I have mixed emotions. I am all for technology in medicine, like laser knifes and such. I am uncomfortable with genetic engineering, not because it won’t help, but because you can’t always trust people to do the right thing. There are studies that involve taking the eggs from one person and engineering them so that there are three parents. I don’t want people with a bad moral compass to get involved. For example Hitler wanted to make the master race, and though insulin production is helpful and not to that extreme, things like this open a door for other avenues of genetic engineering. There aren’t a lot of ways to stop it from getting weird. There need to be rules. If I was sure that everyone would do the right thing later on, I would be more open to genetic engineering in insulin.”

Mr. Rash-"

I think Genetically Engineered insulin could help many diabetics, but, if I was a diabetic, would like to know the risks of these genetically engineered insulin before trying them out."

Zhanna Colin-"I think that genetically engineered insulin could be very helpful for people. I hope that there aren’t many risks for taking genetically engineered insulin. Like, I wouldn’t want to be blind or anything."

Lindiana Bojku-"I think it’s a better option than taking it from animals."

Mrs Rosen-"I think it’s ingenious because it’s cost effective and its mass producing insulin. It can only promote treatment of diabetics."