The Use of Recombinant DNA I agree that recombinant DNA only benefits humans to a certain extent. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a series of independent discoveries made in rapid succession gave rise to a new technology through which humans have the ability to manipulate and direct the very evolution of life. This is accomplished through the process of gene-splicing (recombinant DNA). The process has four essential elements: a method of breaking and assembling DNA molecules from different sources, a gene carrier capable of replicating itself and the foreign DNA, a means of introducing the DNA foreign into a functional bacterial cell and a method of selection from a In a large population, cells that carry the foreign DNA. Using procedures such as recombinant DNA, many human genes have been cloned into E. coli or yeast. This made it possible for the first time to produce unlimited quantities of human proteins. Cultured cells (E. coli, yeast, mammalian cells) transformed with the human gene are used to manufacture: insulin for diabetics, human growth hormone (GH). GH from domestic mammals like cows and pigs does not work in humans. Thus, for many years, the only source of GH for therapeutic purposes was that extracted from the glands of human corpses. But that supply was cut off when several patients died from a rare neurological disease attributed to contaminated glands. Now, thanks to recombinant DNA technology, recombinant human GH is available. Although it represents a great benefit to patients with GH deficiency, there has also been pressure to use it to stimulate growth in young people who do not have GH deficiency but whose parents want it they grow, erythropoietin (EPO). People with kidney failure can be kept alive by dialysis. But dialysis only cleans the blood of waste. Without a source of EPO, these patients suffer from anemia. Now, thanks to recombinant DNA technology, recombinant human EPO is available to treat these patients, to treat anemia, tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) to dissolve blood clots, angiostatin and endostatin for cancer trials.