Word: gene
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...special trick to make the experiment work," Gilbert says. The insulin gene is inserted into a plasmid at a site before the end of another gene, which codes for a protein known as penicillinase. The insulin and penicillinase proteins are synthesized in a fused form when the genes are read together...
...California groups, led by Howard Goodman and Bill Ruggers, inserted the insulin gene already in bacteria last year but they have been unsuccessful in getting the E. coli to read it, according to Gilbert. The other West Coast project, run by Genentech Inc. and an organic chemist, Dr. Keiichi Itakura, announced in September that it had successfully produced human insulin using E. coli bacteria...
Itakura and his associates reported that, "Artificial genes that 'command' laboratory bacteria to manufacture human insulin have been synthesized." Rather than using natural animal genes for insulin, this group built an artificial copy of the human insulin gene in two short segments and inserted these separately into E. coli plasmids...
...They have managed to (produce human insulin), but it is inefficient," Gilbert said of the recent announcement. He said that the California artificial gene method was only applicable for a small gene such as insulin...
Work marches to the speed of a different drummer for Helga Doty, a senior research associate in Biochemistry, and her coworkers, who have also begun working in the P-3 laboratory at the Biolabs. Doty's group is tackling the vast problem of how genes are turned on and off--using gene splicing as a research tool rather than an end in itself. She has been studying RNA--one of the intermediate steps the cell employs in translating the DNA code--for 22 years. Whereas Gilbert has a definite medical goal pushing him on, Doty must stab in the dark...