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Asked by ibrahimabdelaal to Jack, Jon, Tom, Yalda on 19 Mar 2013.
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Jack Heal answered on 19 Mar 2013:
A lot of drugs are made using bacteria. This is how I make proteins (which could later be used as drugs) in the lab. We give the bacteria a bit of DNA which tells them to make a specific protein. Then we put them in warm and nutritious environments so that they grow happily and make lots and lots of that protein. Then we kill the bacteria (nasty isn’t it?) and take just the protein we want. So bacteria are used to make lots of drugs. We harness their machinery to make our protein.
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Yalda Javadi answered on 19 Mar 2013:
Jack is right that we can use bacteria to make proteins. The bacteria acts as a vessel…. and once we have our protein, we pull the protein out of the bacteria and kill the bacteria because we don’t need it anymore. The protein can then be used, not the bacteria, as a drug.
But if you want to know about which drugs are made from actual bacteria… the most common ones are probiotics. These are microorganisms that include some bacteria, which can be used to treat some tummy upsets, like irritable bowel syndrome. They are called friendly bacteria because they are nice and helpful in digest food. You can buy them in most supermarkets, and I’ve had them before…some are quite delicious!
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Tom Branson answered on 19 Mar 2013:
I’ve made lots of protein from bacteria, and killed billions of bacteria – Yalda, Jack and I are probably all mass murderers, but luckily nobody really cares about the lives of bacteria. We just use them as little factories making things for us.
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anon answered on 19 Mar 2013:
Vaccines are one type of medicine made from bacteria (or viruses or other microbes). When you get an infection your body’s immune system recognises the foreign bugs (called pathogens) and produces specialised cells (called white bloood cells) to kill them. It takes a while for this to happen though.
When you get immunised, you are injected with a weakened form of the pathogen, which your body recognises as not belonging inside you & develops white cells to get rid of it. You could think of it vaccination as giving your body a little first aid kit of specialised white cells – so that when you get infected it can just pull out the white cells & make you better sooner.
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