Gene Therapy and Prostate Cancer

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Biology - Genetics / Gene Technology, grade: 4.5, University of Michigan, language: English, abstract: The subject of gene therapy first came up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and is still the latest innovation in the field of medicine. Gene therapy works on the basis of manipulating the basis of human inheritance, the DNA. In a lot of medical conditions, the underlying problem is an abnormality in the gene which is the basic building block of inheritance and transfer of information from generation to generation. Gene therapy can be broadly defined as a branch of biomedical engineering which deals with the insertion, withdrawal or alteration of DNA (gene) within specific cells in order to treat a medical condition. Usually, the most common form of gene therapy involves the insertion of an artificially synthesized gene into a specific genetic locus to replace a transformed gene.