Although cells do different jobs, all cells share common features.6. All cells are alive, they reproduce, and they die.6 A thin cover, called the cell wall, encloses each cell.6 Tiny structures are embedded in a jelly-like substance within the cell.6 One of these structures is the nucleus.6 The nucleus contains the cell 's genetic program, a master plan that controls …show more content…
In the process of genetic engineering, scientists add or delete whole sections of DNA in cells in order to produce specific, intended changes in living organisms.6 In the early1970s researchers had found ways of splitting apart a DNA molecule and recombining it with DNA from an entirely different molecule.2 Molecular biologists could create genetic combinations that had never been seen in nature.6 This was called recombinant DNA.2 This caused quite a bit of controversy when it was first introduced to the public.2 However, the discovery of recombinant DNA in nature a decade later helped to quiet some of the unrest.2 After the United States Supreme Court issued a decision that "a live, human-made microorganism is patentable subject matter," the public became even less hesitant to embrace the technique.2 The Court’s decision effectively meant that forms of life can be patented if there is a man-made element to them.2
What had once been viewed as dangerous became a way to make money.2 Genentech, the first company based on recombinant DNA technology, was valued at $200 million went it went public, turning the biologists who founded it into millionaires.2 Genentech was only the first of many new companies based on genetic engineering to be founded since, and genetic engineering now represents a large percentage of the research in the pharmaceutical