Biotechnology, a necessary science
Sebastian Montemayor | August 05, 2024
About 100 years ago, people who had diabetes didn’t have many options outside of going on a very strict diet to live for a few more years at most. Then with the discovery of insulin, initially extracted from cattle and pigs, diabetes patients who could afford the miracle medicine could live functionally normal lives.
The first synthetic human insulin, however, came out only in 1978 when it was synthesized from human DNA, and produced using bacteria. This method would drastically reduce the cost of insulin and make it much more affordable.
“This is the power of biotechnology,” said Dr. Reynante Ordonio, in one of his presentations, to emphasize how one biotech invention has saved millions of lives over a hundred years since its discovery. It allows people with a life-threatening disease to live normal lives for additional decades.
Recently, he noted that doctors in Shanghai have achieved a medical breakthrough by curing diabetes. Using cell transplant technology, doctors allowed a diabetes patient who required daily insulin injections to live insulin-independent for 33 months as of June 2024.
“Now, pending further study, we will soon be able to fully cure diabetes,” said Ordonio, a senior science research specialist at the Department of Agriculture Crop Biotechnology Center.Through biotechnology and genetic engineering, mankind can overcome challenges we continue to face the beginning of our species.
