NAGA CITY SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET

BIOTECHNOLOGY 8
Quarter 4 Week 1, Date: May 14-21, 2021

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET 4.1.1

Biotechnology in Medicine
Name Grade &
Section

Subject BIOTECHNOLOGY 8 Date

I. Introduction

Medicines have always been a part of human life. Anthropologists and archaeologists have found ancient
evidence of the uses of medicines and healing practices among early humans. Injuries, diseases, and disorders
have always been a part of life, and humans have constantly searched for remedies for these problems.
Traditionally, plant, animal, and mineral products have been used to alleviate symptoms and promote healing.
Although some traditional remedies were effective, most were not. In fact, many of the “cures” and remedies
used by early people actually did more harm than good.
It was not until the first half of the twentieth century that scientists began to truly understand the causes of
diseases. Once the causes were discovered, progress was made in the way diseases and injuries were treated.
Vaccines were invented to prevent diseases, and appropriate treatment measures were developed to care for
the sick and injured. However, as miraculous as modern medicines are, we still live with diseases for which
there are no cures. Each year, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and now the spreading COVID-19 causing the
pandemic we experience still claim millions of lives all over the world. Which makes learning biotechnology
became more relevant than ever.

II. Learning Competency

- Most Essential Learning Competency:
o describe the applications of biotechnology in health.
- Specific Objectives:
o explain the concept of biomanufacturing and pharming.
o discuss the roles of plants and animals in human health.
o create a collage to show applications of biomanufacturing and pharming in human health.

III. Learning Activities

ELICIT

One of the greatest modern tools for treating and curing diseases is the genetic engineering of cells to produce
therapeutic drugs and vaccines through biomanufacturing. Through biomanufacturing, the bacteria producing drugs,
such as human insulin, are grown in a large liquid culture in a device called bioreactor. On the next page is the
schematic diagram of a bioreactor and its parts. Identify the missing labeled parts. Write your answer on the line.

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2. __________________________

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ENGAGE (Knowledge)

Biomanufacturing and pharming are two processes that are used in making therapeutic drugs, vaccines, and
hormones. Biomanufacturing is sophisticated to a relatively new yet expensive method for producing medicines. To
avoid the expense of using cell cultures but keeping the benefit of using eukaryotic cells, researchers came up with
the idea of pharming. To know more about these two methods, read the handout attached and then answer the
activities below.

TRUE or FALSE. Write the word TRUE if the statement is correct and FALSE if otherwise.

_______________1. Hormones, vaccines, therapeutic drugs, and small molecules may all be produced by genetically
engineered cell cultures via biomanufacturing.
_______________2. Pharming is the growing of organisms (usually genetically altered) for the purpose of producing
pharmaceuticals.
_______________3. Pharming is used because it is cheaper than biomanufacturing.
_______________4. Edible plant vaccines work because ingested antigens pass through the mucous lining of the
digestive tract and impact immunity.
_______________5. The advantage of using animal blood or urine for the production of drugs and vaccines is that
these fluids can be used immediately upon birth of the animal.
_______________6. The milk of a mammal is often used in pharming, such as cow, sheep, or goat milk, because their
milk is plentiful and very easy to extract the needed proteins from.
_______________7. Rice is considered as the perfect food for vaccines.
_______________8. Choosing pharm crops with heavy pollen, planting pharm crops only in geographic areas
without wild relatives, and using self-pollinating pharm crop species or those that are unable to
make pollen are all great strategies to prevent gene flow.
_______________9. Pharm crops increase the cost of making human medicines in genetically engineered cells.
_______________10. Biomanufacturing also replaced the traditional processes of extracting hormones from animal
organs that are slow and expensive.
EXPLAIN (Understanding)
Answer the questions below.
1. Why are researchers concerned with gene flow in plants used for pharming? How can they prevent gene
flow?

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2. What are the advantages of using plant cell cultures rather than animal or bacterial cell cultures for
biomanufacturing?
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3. Discuss the main problem with using edible plant vaccines.

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ELABORATE
Watch the YouTube video about Biopharming and write a short summary of the lesson and your learnings.

Biopharming by NIE NTU SINGAPORE

https://youtu.be/d6m3SoKIStQ

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EVALUATE (Doing)
Cut-out pictures related to medical biotechnology specifically about biomanufacturing and pharming
then make a collage that would show how these two methods help in advancing the field of medicine. Write a
one-paragraph explanation of your work. This is worth 20 points.

IV. Rubric for Scoring

Rubric for Essay

5 Answer is unique and excellently written. It reflects complete understanding of the lesson and does not
contain any grammatical errors.
4 Answer is clear and complete. It reflects complete understanding of the lesson and does not contain any
grammatical errors and/or erasures.
3 Answer reflects understanding of the lesson however incomplete. It contains few grammatical errors and/or
erasures.
2 Answer is incomplete and contains many grammatical errors and/or erasures.
1 Answer is not based on scientific facts and has too many erasures and grammatical errors.
0 No answer

Rubric for Collage

Criteria 5 4-3 2 1
Content -all details in the collage -most details in the -some details in the -details in the collage
capture the important collage capture the collage capture the does not capture
information important information important important
-the collage reflects -the collage reflects information information
accurate and relevant accurate and relevant -the collage reflects -the collage reflects
learnings learnings accurate and accurate and relevant
relevant learnings learnings
Layout and -all images are related to -most images are -some images are -images used are not
Design the topic related to the topic related to the topic related to the topic
-the collage is -the poster is attractive -the poster is -no creativity is
exceptionally attractive and creative in terms of somehow attractive shown in the output
and creative in terms of layout and design and creative in
layout and design terms of layout and
design
Quality -quality of work is -quality of work shows -quality of work is -no imagination is
excellent and competent the student’s fair showing little exhibited in the
showing the student’s imaginative ideas imagination poster
imaginative ideas
Explanation -the explanation - the explanation - the explanation is - there is no
provided is align to the provided is align to the not aligned to the explanation provided.
picture diary and is picture diary and is picture diary and is
excellently written with well-written but lacks not well-written.
reflective insights related reflective insights
to the lesson. related to the lesson.

V. References
Herren, Ray V., Introduction to Biotechnology, Cengage Learning

Prepared by:

Annaliza B. Galido
Subject Teacher