Q.What are the effects of biotechnology with relation to human health?

Biotechnology has transformed human healthcare through recombinant drugs, engineered vaccines, gene therapy, and advanced diagnostics.

Biotechnology's impact on human health is wide-ranging. Recombinant DNA technology allows bacteria or other host cells to be engineered to mass-produce human therapeutic proteins that were previously scarce or had to be extracted from cadavers/animals — most famously recombinant human insulin for diabetics, and human growth hormone for growth disorders, both now produced cheaply, safely and in essentially unlimited quantity. Genetically engineered (recombinant) vaccines, such as the hepatitis B vaccine produced using yeast expressing a viral surface antigen, are safer than traditional attenuated-pathogen vaccines since they contain no live infectious agent. Gene therapy offers the prospect of directly correcting the underlying genetic defect in inherited disorders by inserting a functional copy of a gene into a patient's cells. Molecular diagnostic techniques, especially PCR-based tests and ELISA, allow rapid, highly sensitive and specific detection of pathogens (bacterial, viral) and genetic mutations, enabling earlier and more accurate diagnosis than older methods. Monoclonal antibodies, pr …