Word: bacteria
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...last month that the government of Zambia rejected a shipment of corn from the U.S. because it likely contained genetically modified kernels. Much of the food grown in the U.S. has been modified with genes from other organisms. For example, some types of corn have a protein from a bacteria that kills insects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not documented that the corn has any toxic effects in humans. Nevertheless, the absence of evidence that the corn is “safe” has led activists to declare it unwelcome...
...rush into the joint and release destructive proteins that chew up the bits and pieces of damaged tissue. This so-called inflammatory process, which is often but not necessarily accompanied by swelling, works well when the body needs to fend off an acute attack--say, from invading viruses or bacteria. But when the problem is chronic, as in osteoarthritis, the white blood cells may overreact, repeatedly releasing so many of their "mopping up" proteins that even healthy tissue is laid waste. In rheumatoid arthritis (see box), the immune-system response is particularly aggressive...
...onset and most severe forms of the disease. Yet not all rheumatoid arthritis sufferers have the marker (and vice versa), which makes scientists wonder whether rheumatoid arthritis is really a single disease. Environmental factors may also play a role, although no one knows whether the trigger is a virus, bacteria or something else...
First, it uses dead E. coli bacteria to deliver the antigen, or disease-causing agent that the body recognizes, to a cell in the immune system known as a macrophage...
Second, Higgins modifies the bacteria to produce a special protein that stimulates the macrophage to produce the desired immune response...