Laboratory Protocols in Medical Biotechnology I

Abstract

Medical biotechnology is a science that studies and includes research and development of technology used in the medical and pharmaceutical companies. Medical biotechnology utilizes living cells to do research and manufacture pharmaceutical products which help to prevent and treat diseases in humans. The medical biotechnology field has helped to develop drugs or vaccines to treat diseases. This chapter provides a brief account of medical biotechnology and describes the safety measures used in the medical biotechnology laboratory, preparation of various solutions required to carry out experiments involved in medical biotechnology, and some of the commonly used techniques involved in molecular biology. This chapter also discusses about the sterile methods that are very important for efficiency of results. Good lab practices are an integral part of conducting any research safely and so are in the medical biotechnology laboratory. Engineering controls help to limit exposure to hazards, and personal protective equipment, commonly referred to as “PPE,” minimize exposure to hazards that cause serious workplace injuries, illnesses and can protect a researcher’s body and cover many of the common routes of exposure and contaminations. In a medical biotechnology laboratory, working with biological material can sometimes pose a danger to laboratory staff and the environment. For this reason, the staff must correctly handle material according established standards. These standards comprise four biosafety levels (BSLs) that typically apply to biological materials. Medical biotechnology uses substances and produces by-products and mixtures of substances which can be hazardous to employees, contractors, and other people. Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) is the law that requires employers to control substances that are hazardous to health. One can prevent or reduce workers’ exposure to hazardous substances by finding out what the health hazards are; deciding how to prevent harm to health; providing control measures to reduce harm to health; making sure they are implemented; keeping all control measures in good working order; providing information, instruction, and training for employees and others; providing monitoring and health surveillance in appropriate cases; and planning for emergencies. While working in a laboratory, different concentrated stock and diluted solutions are used. Stock solutions are more stable than working solutions. Stock solutions are used to save preparation time, conserve materials, reduce storage space, and improve the accuracy with which working lower concentration solutions are prepared. Nucleic acids like deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) central to biotechnology and medicine because it provides the basic blueprint for all life; nucleic acid is a fundamental determinant of how the body functions and the disease process. DNA and RNA are also used to help to know different diseases and correcting genetic defects, treating diseases, preventing spread of diseases, and more. For most molecular diagnostic methods, nucleic acids must be isolated in pure form for downstream testing. Isolation of nucleic acids serves several purposes. Assessment of the amount and quality of isolated nucleic acids should be performed prior to testing. Several methods are available; UV spectrophotometry is an excellent method to simultaneously assess the amount and purity of nucleic acids. SDS-PAGE and western blot methods helps to separate and analyze the proteins. Histochemistry is an important technique that is used for the visualization and distribution of various chemical components of tissues through the use of stains, indicators as well as microscopy. Immunohistochemistry is (biology–chemistry) the analytical process of finding proteins in cells of a tissue microtome section exploiting the principle of antibodies binding specifically to antigens in biological tissues. In summary, proper instructions and safety are to be followed in the medical biotechnology laboratory. Appropriate and set protocols provide individual sets of instructions that allow scientists to recreate experiments in the laboratory. They provide instructions for the design, applying different methods and implementation of experiments that include the safety bias, reporting and troubleshooting standards for experiments.