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Issues regarding modern biotechnology, specifically
genetic engineering techniques and the safety of such applications, tend to
reach the Trinidad and Tobago public only through reporting from foreign
sources, and these are mainly in terms of the negative impact and shortfalls
in use of the technology. The Gene Scene
- focuses on these issues in order to create a more balanced picture
of modern biotechnology and its potential for creating new development
opportunities, greater employment and improvements in the standard and
quality of life in Trinidad and Tobago, with implications for the wider
Caribbean.
The Gene Scene aims to sensitise the public to the
importance of modern biotechnology in their lives. It also hopes to enhance
public knowledge about the issues surrounding biotechnology and its safety
in order to support public inputs into to policy-making and personal choices
about applications in food and medicine among other evolving uses.
Biosafety - Biosafe Rather Than Sorry
Several national and regional institutions are engaged in utilizing biotechnology and are
expanding their research and its application to solving regional problems of
food and water security, and environmental degradation. Among them are the
three campuses of the University of the West Indies, CARDI, and the Ministry
of Agriculture, Land & Marine Resources. Some of the research would
inevitably lead to the production of genetically modified organisms and
their released into the environment. These developments raise concerns of an
ethical nature as well as the risk of potential negative impacts on the
environment and human health. Such concerns and risks can, however, be
addressed and considerably reduced once effective biosafety regulations and
monitoring measures are put in place.
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Article >> Gene-Generated Cures
The use of biotechnology to understand the genetic make
up of humans, plants, and animals, is providing us with opportunities to
develop new, more effective medicines for many diseases. It is estimated
that millions of people around the world are benefiting from advances in
genetic engineering that have led to the development of medicines for a
range of human ailments such as diabetes, cancers, anaemia, malaria, and
dengue. In this research, too, lies hope for discovering a cure for
Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases; asthma and other respiratory diseases;
and for HIV – the virus that leads to AIDS, which is decimating large
numbers of the world’s population.
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>> DNA could do you or damn you
Eyewitness testimony has for long been the basis for the
justice system in crime fighting. This has been supplemented with scientific
methods, such as blood analysis, hair follicle analysis, and fingerprinting
to determine the identity of a criminal. For
years, the fingerprint left at the scene of a crime, or on evidence related
to a crime, was the most reliable means of confirming the presence of a
person at the scene, since no two individuals, even identical twins, have
identical fingerprints. However, it is not always possible to obtain clear
fingerprints from a crime scene; further, it is possible to alter one’s
fingerprint by plastic surgery and other surgical techniques.
Read Full Article>>> Genes for a Clean Scene
Foul air, murky water, dusty and greasy landscapes seem
to be the price we must pay for improving standards of living. The
suffocating scent of sewage, mixed with the odours of chemical wastes from
factories; high levels of lead pollution from vehicular exhaust fumes;
polluted rivers; and denuded hills of the Northern Range, decimated by slash
and burn, forest fires, and other forms of deforestation, seem to seal that
fate.
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Full Article>>>
Food for all
There are more than six billion people in the world
today, all of whom must be fed. In the developing world, more than 1.2
billion people, mainly women and children, are living in extreme poverty.
Producing sufficient food to go around is becoming a major challenge, as
land is needed not only for producing food, but also for housing and
industrial purposes. At the same time, changes in climatic conditions are
causing more land to become less fertile, prone to drought conditions or the
soils to become salty.
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Full Article >>> |
