Biotechnology

Biotechnology companies are continuing to produce new products at an impressive rate. Numerous clinical testing procedures for human disorders such as AIDS and hepatitis and for disease-causing organisms such as those responsible for malaria and Legionnaires' disease (a lung infection caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila), are based on diagnostic testing kits that have been developed by biotechnology companies. Many of these assays make use of recombinant antibodies, while others rely on DNA primers that are used in the polymerase chain reaction to detect DNA sequences present in an infecting organism, but not in the human genome.

Trangenic plants are now grown on millions of acres. Many of these plant species have been engineered to produce a protein, normally synthesized by the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which is toxic to a number of agriculturally destructive insect pests but harmless to humans, most other non-insect animals, and many beneficial insects such as bees.