and memorize them:
1) to specialise (v), specialist (n), speciality (n), special (adj)
2) specialization (n), especially (adv)
3) science (n), scientist (n), scientific (adj), scientifically (adv)
4) to include (v), to exclude (v), inclusion (n), inclusive (adj)
5) to derive (v), derivation (n), derivative (adj)
6) to divide (v), division (n), divisor (n), divisible (adj)
7) to define (v), definition (n), definite (adj)
8) to differ (v), difference (n), different (adj), differently (adv) indifference (n),
indifferent (adj).
9) to resemble (v), resemblance (n)
II. Read the following words and guess their meaning:
Special, zoology, organize. Fundamental. Microscope, accumulate, basic, principle, respiration, fact, reproduction, process, temperature, region.
III. Supply the Infinitives of the following verbs:
told, gave, known, made, led, came, thought, taken, called, climbed, put, written, included, defined, saw.
IV. Form adverbs from the following adjectives and translate them:
inclusive, scientific, definite, different, special, certain, common, fundamental, apparent.
V. Give synonyms for the following words:
to exist, immense, to form, to need, same, fundamental, some, common, vital, manner, to call, certain, main, likeness, right, basic, high, to resemble, general.
VI. Translate the sentences into Russian:
1. I like both of these plants. 2. I like both the flowers and the leaves of this plant. 3. Both functions of this organ are important. 4. Both water and air are necessary for the living organisms. 5. General properties of protoplasm are the same both in plants and animals. 6. Both plants and animals cannot live without water. 7. Both these plants are of the same shape and size.
VII. Answer the following questions:
1) What is biology? Define it.
2) What do you call the science of living organisms?
3) What elements does living matter consist of?
4) Are plants and animals similar in their fundamental composition? What are
the differences and similarities?
5) How can biology be difined?
6) What does the word "biology" mean?
7) Do plants and animals depend upon one another?
8) How do plants or animals differ from lifeless things?
VIII. Read the text; guess the meaning of the unfamiliar words from the context:
In external appearance, plants are usually green. Some plants have varied and colourful flowers and others have no apparent blossoms. Among animals there is great variety of sizes, shapes and colours. The basic difference between plants and animals lies in the unit of structure and Junction of each, namely, the cell. Plant cells have a cell wall which is actually nomliving in chemical nature. Animal cells do not have this.
IX. Read the text Biology from the Texts for home reading.
X. Give the main points of all the texts in Russian. Write a breif summary of the texts in English. Be prepared to speak on the topic "Differences and Similarities between plants and animals".
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UNIT2
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is technology based on biology, especially when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity has come up with one of many definitions of biotechnology:
Biotechnology means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.
This definition is at odds with common usage in the United States, where biotechnology generally refers to recombinant DNA based and/or tissue culture tinned processes that have only been commercialized since the 1970s. Thus, in common usage, modifying plants or animals by breeding, which has been practiced for thousands of years, would not be considered biotechnology. This distinction emphasizes that modem, recombinant DNA based biotechnology Is not just a more powerful version of existing technology, but represents something new and different; for instance, recombinant DNA biotechnology allows us to take virtually any gene and express it i& any organism; we can take the genes that make crimson color in plants and put them into guinea pigs to make pink pets, or, we can take the genes that make anthrax spores lethal and put them into wheat or rice. This sort of gene transfer was virtually impossible with historical processes.
There has been a great deal of talk and money poured into biotechnology with the hope that miracle drugs will appear. While there do seem to be a small number of efficacious drugs, in general the Biotech revolution has not happened in the pharmaceutical sector. However, recent progress with monoclonal antibody based drugs, such as Genentech's Avastin (tm) suggest that biotech may finally have found a role in pharmaceutical sales.
Biotechnology can also be defined as the manipulation of organisms to do practical things and to provide useful products.
One aspect of biotechnology is the directed use of organisms for the manufacture of organic products (examples include beer and milk products. For another example, naturally present bacteria are utilized by the mining industry in bioleaching. Biotechnology is also used to recycle, treat waste, clean up sites contaminated by industrial activities (bioremediation), and produce biological weapons.
There are also applications of biotechnology that do not use living organisms. Examples are DNA microarrays used in genetics and radioactive tracers used in medicine.
Red biotechnology isapplied to medical processes. Some examples are the designing of organisms to produce antibiotics, and the engineering of genetic cures through genomic manipulation.
White biotechnology, also known as grey biotechnology, is biotechnology applied to industrial processes. An example is the designing of an organism to produce a useful chemical. White biotechnology tends to consume less in resources than traditional processes used to produce industrial goods.
Green biotechnology is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes. An example is the designing of transgenic plants to grow under specific environmental conditions or in the presence (or absence) of certain agricultural chemicals. One hope Is that green biotechnology might produce more environmentally friendly solutions than traditional industrial agriculture. An example of this is the engineering of a plant to express a pesticide, thereby eliminating the need for external application of pesticides. An example of this would be Bt com. Whether or not green biotechnology products such as this are ultimately more environmentally friendly is a topic of considerable debate.
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Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field which addresses biological problems using computational techniques. The field is also often referred to as computational biology. It plays a key role in various areas, such as functional genomics, structural genomics, and proteomics, and forms a key component in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector.
The term blue biotechnology hasalso been used to describe the marine and aquatic applications of biotechnology, but its use is relatively rare.
Exercises
Comprehension
I. Answer these questions.
1. What does the term biotechnology mean?
2. In what spheres of life can biotechnology be applied, using living organisms?
2. How many branches of biotechnology do you know? Characterize each of them.
II. Agree or disagree with these statements.
1. Modifying plants or animals by breeding can be considered biotechnology.
2. Biotechnology is used to recycle, treat waste, clean up sites contaminated by industrial activities (bioremediation), and produce biological weapons.
3. White biotechnology is applied to medical processes.
4. Green biotechnology is applied to industrial processes.
5. Red biotechnology is applied to agricultural processes.
6. The term blue biotechnology describes the marine and aquatic applications of biotechnology.
III. Summarize the text, using vocabulary from Exercise4.
B.Vocabulary
IV. Give Russian equivalents of the following expressions: efficacious
| breeding | guinea pig | DNA (desoxyribonucleic acid) |
| derivative | Bioleaching | be at odds |
| genomic | computational technique | crimson color |
| eliminate | Application | Cure |
| tissue culture |
V. Find synonyms of these expressions among the words and word combinations in the previous exercise:
1) treatment; therapy; medicine; medication;
2) to abolish; remove; get rid of; do away with;
3) reproduction; procreation;
4) offshoot; spin-off; result; product;
5) be in conflict; be in disagreement; be fighting;
6) pink; cherry; red;
7) gene; chromosome; genetic material; RNA;
8) mass of sells and cell products;
9) effective; efficient; successful;
10) use; relevance; appliance.
VI. Translate the given words and expressions into English:
1) ( ); 2); 3) ; 4) ; 5), ; 6)- ; 7) ; 8), ; 9); 10), ; 11); 12); 13) ; 14) .
Find the sentences in the text, where these words and expressions are used. Translate them into Russian.
Reading, Writing and Discussion
VII. Read the text carefully, without a dictionary. While reading, pay special attention to the words that you dont know: look carefully at the context and see if you can get the idea of what they mean. After reading name the disciplines of biotechnology that are mentioned in the text and their public benefit. Write a summary of the text.
Generally, any technique that is used to make or modify the products of living organisms in order to improve plants or animals, or to develop useful microorganisms. In modem terms, biotechnology has come to mean the use of cell and tissue culture, cell fusion, molecular biology, and in particular, recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology to generate unique organisms with new traits or organisms that have the potential to produce specific products. Some examples of products in a number of important disciplines are described below.
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Recombinant DNA technology has opened new horizons in the study of gene function and the regulation of gene action. In particular, the ability to insert genes and their controlling nucleic acid sequences into new recipient organisms allows for the manipulation of these genes in order to examine their activity in unique environments, away from the constraints posed in their normal host. Genetic transformation normally is achieved easily with microorganisms; new genetic material may be inserted into t hem, either into their chromosomes or into extrachromosomal elements, the plasmids. Thus, bacteria and yeast can be created to metabolize specific products or to produce new products.
Genetic engineering has allowed for significant advances in the understanding of the structure and mode of action of antibody molecules. Practical use of immunological techniques is pervasive in biotechnology. See also Antibody.
Few commercial products have been marketed for use in plant agriculture, but many have been tested. Interest has centered on producing plants that are resistant to specific herbicides. This resistance would allow crops to be sprayed with the particular herbicide, and only the weeds would be killed, not the genetic ally engineered crop species. Resistances to plant virus diseases have been induced in a number of crop species by transforming plants with portions of the viral genome, in particular the viruss coat protein.
Biotechnology also holds great promise in the production of vaccines for use in maintaining the health of animals. Interferons are also being tested for their me in ih<- management of specific diseases.
Animals may be transformed to carry genes from other species including humans and are being used to produce valuable drugs. For example, goats are being used to produce tissue plasminogen activator, which has been effective in dissolving blood clots.
Plant scientists have been amazed at the ease with which plants can be transformed to enable them to express foreign genes. This field has developed very rapidly since the first transformation of a plant was reported in 1982, and a number of transformation procedures are available.
Genetic engineering has enabled the large-scale production of proteins which have great potential for treatment of heart attacks. Many human gene products, produced with genetic engineering technology, are being investigated for their potential use as commercial drugs. Recombinant technology has been employed to produce vaccines from subunits of viruses, so that the use of either live or inactivated viruses as immunizing agents is avoided. Cloned genes and specific, defined nucleic acid sequences can be used as a means of diagnosing infectious diseases or in identifying individuals with the potential for genetic disease. The specific nucleic acids used as probes are normally tagged with radioisotopes, and the DNAs of candidate individuals are tested by hybridization to the labeled probe. The technique has been used to detect latent viruses such as herpes, bacteria, mycoplasmas, and plasmodia, and to identify Huntingtons disease, cystic fibrosis, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It is now also possible to put foreign genes into cells and to target them to specific regions of the recipient genome. This presents the possibility of developing specific therapies for hereditary diseases, exemplified by sickle-cell anemia.
cell fusion ; trait , , nucleic acid sequence ; host ; yeast , ; blood clot ; hereditary disease ; sickle-cell anemia -
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VIII. Retell the text in English, paying special attention to the spheres of biotechnological application and biotechnological process.
?
, , , . . , . , , , , , , ..
, . :
1) , ;
2) , ;
3) , , , ;
4) ;
5) , ;
6) , , .
. , . , . , .
:
1) ;
2) ( ) ;
3) . , , .
IX. Talking points:
1. The definition of biotechnology and its branches.
2. Spheres of biotechnological application.
3. Disciplines of biotechnology.
Unit 3
Biotechnology Medical Products
Traditional pharmaceutical drugs are small chemicals molecules that treat the symptoms of a disease or illness one molecule directed at a single target. Biopharmaceuticals are large biological molecules known as proteins and these target the underlying mechanisms and pathways of a malady; it is a relatively young industry. They can deal with targets in humans that are not accessible with traditional medicines. A patient typically is dosed with a small molecule via a tablet while a large molecule is typically injected.
Small molecules are manufactured by chemistry but large molecules are created by living cells: for example, bacteria cells, yeast cell, animal cells.
Modern biotechnology Is often associated with the use of genetically altered microorganisms such as E. coli or yeast for the production of substances like insulin or antibiotics. It can also refer to transgenic animals or transgenic plants, such as Bt corn. Genetically altered mammalian cells, such as Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells, are also widely used to manufacture pharmaceuticals. Another promising new biotechnology application is the development of plant made pharmaceuticals.
Biotechnology is also commonly associated with landmark breakthroughs in new medical therapies to treat diabetes, hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Cancers, Arthritis, Haemophilia Bone Fractures, Multiple Sclerosis, Cardiovascular as well as molecular diagnostic devices than can be used to define tin- patient population. Herceptin, is the first drug approved for use with a matching diagnostic test and is used to treat breast cancer in women whose cancer cells express the protein HER2.
Antibiotic
An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. They have no effect against viruses, fungi, or parasites. Antibiotics are one class of antimicrobials, a larger group which also includes anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-parasitic drugs. They are relatively harmless to the host, and therefore can be used to treat infections. The term, coined by Selman Walksman, originally described only those formulations derived from living organisms, in contrast to chemotherapeutic agents, which are purely synthetic. Nowadays the term antibiotic is also applied to synthetic antimicrobials, such as the sulfa drugs. Antibiotics are generally small molecules with a molecular weight less than 2000. They are not enzymes. Some antibiotics have been derived from mold, for example the penicillin class.
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Unlike previous treatments for infections, which included poisons such as strychnine and arsenic, antibiotics were labeled magic bullets: drugs which targeted divM.se without harming the host. Conventional antibiotics are not effective in viral, fungal and other nonbacterial infections, and individual antibiotics vary widely in their effectiveness on various types of bacteria. Antibiotics can be categorised based on their target specificity: narrow-spectrum antibiotics target particular types of bacteria, such as Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacteria, while wide-spectrum antibiotics affect a larger range of bacteria.
The effectiveness of individual antibiotics varies with the location of the infection, the ability of the antibiotic to reach the site of infection, and the ability of the bacteria to resist or inactivate the antibiotic. Some antibiotics actually kill the bacteria (bactericidal), whereas others merely prevent the bacteria from multiplying (bacteriostatic) so that the hosts immune system can overcome them.
Oral antibiotics are the simplest approach when effective, with intravenous antibiotics reserved for more serious cases. Antibiotics may sometimes be administered topically, as with eyedrops or ointments.
Antibiotics can also be classified by the organisms against which they are effective, and by the type of infection in which they are useful, which depends on the sensitivities of the organisms that most commonly cause the infection and the concentration of antibiotic obtainable in the affected tissue.
At the highest level, antibiotics can be classified as either bactericidal or bacteriostatic. Bactericidals kill bacteria directly where bacteriostatics prevent them dividing. However, these classifications are based on laboratory behaviour; in practice, both of these will end a bacterial infection.
Since the first pioneering efforts of Florey and Chain in 1939, the importance of antibiotics to medicine has led to much research into discovering and producing them. The process of production usually involves screening of wide ranges of microorganisms, testing and modification. Production is carried out using fermentation.
Exercises
A. Comprehension
I. Answer these questions.
1. How do traditional pharmaceutical drugs differ from biopharmaceuticals?
2. What is modern biotechnology associated with?
3. What is an antibiotic?
4. How can antibiotics be categorized?
5. What does the effectiveness of an antibiotic depend on?
6. What classes of antibiotics do you know?
II. Agree or disagree with these statements.
1. Biopharmaceuticals are small chemicals molecules that treat the symptoms of a disease or illness one molecule directed at a single target.
2. Large molecules are created by living cells.
3. Antibiotics are rather effective against viruses, fungi, or parasites.
4. Antibiotics are generally small molecules with a molecular weight less than 2000.
5. Nowadays the term antibiotic is applied only to purely synthetic chemotherapeutic agents.
6. Antibiotics may sometimes be administered topically, as with eyedrops or ointments.
7. Bacteriostatics kill bacteria directly.
III. Summarize the text, using vocabulary from Exercise 4.
B.Vocabulary
IV. Give Russian equivalents of the following expressions:
| pathway | to resist | disease |
| to inject | Target | accessible |
| malady | Cancer | mold |
| ointment | Breakthrough | relatively |
| harmless screening | to divide | to carry out |
V. Find synonyms of these expressions among the words and word combinations in the previous exercise.
1) advance; step forward; innovation, revolution; invention;
2) object; aim; goal; objective;
3) cream; gel; salve; liniment;
4) to breakup; part; split; separate;
5) easy to get to; available; easily reached; within reach;
6) accomplish; do; perform; fulfil; achieve;
7) to oppose; refuse to accept; defy; Stand firm;
8) sickness; virus; infection; syndrome;
9) ill health; infirmity;
10) (chronic) desease;
11) select ion; test;
12) inspection;
13) sale; risk-free; undamaging; not dangerous; nontoxic; undisruptive.
VI. Translate the given words and expressions into English:
1); 2); 3); 4); 5), , 6); 7), ; 8); 9) ; 10); 11), ; 12); 13)(): 14), ; 15), .
Find the sentences in the text, where these words and expressions are used. Translate them into Russian.
C.Reading, Writing and Discussion
VII. Read the text and answer the question: What is the origin of antibiotics?
Penicillin
Many ancient cultures, including the ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks and ancient Chinese, already used moulds and plants to treat infections. This worked because some moulds produce antibiotic substances. However, they couldnt distinguish or distil the active component in the moulds.
Modern research on antibiotics began with the discovery of Penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. More than ten years later, Ernst Chain and Howard Florey became interested in his work, and came up with the purified form of penicillin. The three shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Antibiotic was originally used to refer only to substances extracted from a fungus or other microorganism, but has come to include also the many synthetic and semi synthetic drugs that have antibacterial effects.
VIII. Read the text carefully, without a dictionary. While reading, pay special attention to the words that you don't know: look carefully at the context and sif you can get the idea of what they mean. After reading speak on: 1) disease causing organisms; 2) the problem of their treatment; 3) the variety of treatment products; 4) classes of antibiotics and their application. Write a summary of the text.
Humans, and our domestic animals, can serve as hosts to a wide variety of disease-causing organisms (pathogens):
bacteria;
viruses;
fungi;
protozoans;
helminths (worms).
This page will examine only those chemical agents that are used to combat bacterial pathogens.
The Problem
There are many chemicals that are lethal to bacteriacyanide does a good job but they cannot be used to cure infections because they are lethal to the host as well. The problem, then, is to find substances that attack a metabolic pathway found in the bacterium but not in the host. This is not an insurmountable problem for bacterial pathogens because they differ in many respects from eukaryotes.
The Solution
Natural products. A number of natural products, penicillin for example, have been discovered that are antibiotics suitable for therapy. They were originally discovered as secret ions of fungi or soil bacteria. Soils are complex ecosystems, and it is not surprising that its inhabitants have evolved chemical defenses against each other.
Semi-synthetic products. These are natural products that have been chemically modified in the laboratory (and pharmaceutical facility) to
improve the efficacy of the natural product;
reduce its side effects;
circumvent developing resistance by the targeted bacteria;
expand the range of bacteria that can be treated with it.
Completely synthetic products. The sulfa drugs are examples.
Although there are well over 100 antibiotics, the majority come from only a few types of drugs. These are the main classes of antibiotics:
Penicillins such as penicillin and amoxicillin;
Cephalosporins such as cephalexin (Keflex);
Macrolides such as erythromycin (E-Mycin), clarithromycin (Biaxin), and azithromycin (Zithromax);
Fluoroquinolones such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro), levofloxacin (Levaquin), and ofloxacin (Floxin);
Sulfonamides such as co-trimoxazole (Bactrim) and trimethoprim (Proloprim);
Tetracyclines such as tetracycline (Sumycin, Panmycin) and doxycycline (Vibramycin);
Aminoglycosides such as gentamicin (Garamycin) and tobramycin (Tobrex).
Most antibiotics have 2 names, the trade or brand name, created by the drug company that manufactures the drug, and a generic name, based on the antibiotics chemical structure or chemical class. Trade names such as Keflex and Zithromax are capitalized. Generics such as cephalexin and azithromycin are not capitalized.
Each antibiotic is effective only for certain types of infections, and your doctor is best able to compare your needs with the available medicines. Also, a person may have allergies that eliminate a class of antibiotic from consideration, such as a penicillin allergy preventing your doctor from prescribing amoxicillin.
In most cases of antibiotic use, a doctor must choose an antibiotic based on the most likely cause of the infection. For example, if you have an earache, the doctor knows what kinds of bacteria cause most ear infections. He or she will choose the antibiotic that best combats those kinds of bacteria. In another example, a few bacteria cause about 90 % of pneumonias in previously healthy people. If you are diagnosed with pneumonia, the doctor will choose an antibiotic that will kill these bacteria.
IX. Read and discuss the following articles, express your attitude to the problems raised by the author, giving your own arguments on the nece.vnity of antibiotics application.
Side Effects
Possible side effects are varied, and range from fever and nausea to major allergic lead ions. One of the more common side effects is diarrhoea, which results from the antibiotic disrupting the normal balance of intestinal flora. Other side efforts can result from interaction with other drugs, such as elevated risk of tendon damage from administration of a quinolone antibiotic with a systemic corticosteroid.
It is a common assertion that some antibiotics can interfere with the efficiency of birth control pills. Although there remain few known cases of complication, the majority of antibiotics do not interfere with oral contraception, despite widespread misinformation to the contrary.
Use or misuse of antibiotics may result in the development of antibiotic resistance by the infecting organisms, similar to the development of pesticide resistance in insects Evolutionary theory of genetic selection requires that as close as possible to 100 % of the infecting organisms be killed off to avoid selection of resistance; if a small subset of the population survives the treatment and is allowed to multiply, the average susceptibility of this new population to the compound will lie much less than that of the original population, since they have descended from those few organisms which survived the original treatment. This survival often results from an inheritable resistance to the compound which was infrequent in the original population but is now much more frequent in the descendants thus selected entirely from those originally infrequent resistant organisms.
Antibiotic resistance
An abscess caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MKSA).
Antibiotic resistance has become a serious problem in both the developed and underdeveloped nations. By 1984 half of the people with active tuberculosis in the United States had a strain that resisted at least one antibiotic In certain settings, such as hospitals and some child-care locations, the rate of antibiotic resistance is so high that the normal, low cost antibiotics arc virtually useless for treatment of frequently seen infections. This leads to more frequent use of newer and more expensive compounds, which in turn leads inexorably to the rise of resistance to those drugs, and a never-ending ever- spiraling race to discover new and different antibiotics ensues, just to keep us from losing ground in the battle against infection. The fear is that we will eventually fail to keep up in this race, and the time when people did not feat life-threatening bacterial infections will be just a memory of a golden era.
Another example of selection is Staphylococcus aureus, which could be treated successfully with penicillin in the 1940s and 1950s. At present, nearly all strains are resistant to penicillin, and many are resistant to nafcillin, leaving only a narrow selection of drugs such as vancomycin useful for treatment. The situation is worsened by the fact that genes coding for antibiotic resistance can be transferred between bacteria, making it possible for bacteria never exposed to an antibiotic to acquire resistance from those which have. The problem of antibiotic resistance is worsened when antibiotics are used to treat disorders in which they have no efficacy, such as the common cold or other viral complaints, and when they are used widely as prophylaxis rather than treatment (as in, for example, animal feeds), because this exposes more bacteria to selection for resistance.
X. Retell the text in English.
( ), . , (, .) .
, . ( , , ) ( ) .
, , , . , , . , , , , .
