Biology

Answer:

I chose vaccine development as a specific biotechnology application. Vaccines consist of a weakened or dead form of a targeted pathogen or an antigenic protein from the targeted pathogen. When administered to the body, the weakened pathogen stimulates the immune system, without causing the person to become sick from the disease itself. Vaccines act as a preventive measure to protect an individual from falling ill from an infectious disease, as well as to prevent the spread of the disease from person to person.

The benefits of using vaccines include the prevention of infectious diseases, increased safety of communities, and the prevention of future generations from suffering from the same diseases. Vaccines are also considered cost-effective, in that they prevent against potentially serious illnesses that require expensive treatments.

There are some concerns associated with vaccine development. Vaccines have the potential to cause mild side effects such as fever and soreness at the injection site. In rare cases, there have been more serious side effects including allergies and anaphylaxis. There have also been ethical debates surrounding the use of vaccines, particularly once derived from fetal or embryonic cell lines, as well as debates surrounding mandated vaccinations.