What is Gene Therapy?

a.     In brief describe about this application (what is it all about?)

•      "Gene therapy is an experimental process that uses genes to treat or prevent disease."
•      "Gene therapy is the insertion of genes into an individual's cells and tissues to treat a disease, and hereditary diseases in which a defective mutant allele is replaced with a functional one."
•      "It is an experimental treatment that is still being developed, but it has the potential to restructure treatment for all kinds of genetic conditions." 

b.     What are some benefits of this application?

•      There's a chance of life for people who were born with a genetic disease or is developing cancer.
•      It can be effective when it's delivered to the tissue with the correct procedure.
•      You can avoid the side effects from the drugs used in the process.
•      It fixes the problem; where it is happening.
•      It has the possibility of preventing or even eliminating hereditary diseases.

c.     What are some future improvements which still need to be done to make this application perfect (limitations)?

•      To find a gene that's not functioning right, they need  to see it through genetic screening, and genetic screening created a lot of disagreements and it raised many ethical and legal problems.
•      "If prenatal tests are performed that these could lead to an increase in the number of abortions."
•      Many young couples want to see if their baby has genetic diseases. When they're checking with genetic screening, they will find out the flaws of their babies, which can lead to abortion.
•     It is quite difficult to deliver the genes to the tissue or system.
•     It can be expensive because the process might take time and it's difficult to do.
•     Scientists are unsure of the long term effects of gene therapy.

d.     What issues (social, economic, ethical, political or cultural) are currently related to the use of this application worldwide?

•      Ethical, social and economic issues are currently related to the use of the application of gene therapy.

Bibliography:

- Better Health Channel, (2013). Gene therapy - Better Health Channel. [online] Available at: http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Gene_therapy

- Ama-assn.org, (2014). Gene Therapy. [online] Available at: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-science/genetics-molecular-medicine/current-topics/gene-therapy.page

- Genetics Home Reference, (2014). What is gene therapy?. [online] Available at: http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/therapy/genetherapy

- ScienceDaily, (2014). Gene therapy. [online] Available at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/g/gene_therapy.htm

- Ndsu.edu, (1996). Gene Therapy. [online] Available at: http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~mcclean/plsc431/students/brandi.htm

- Genetherapyinfo.webs.com, (n.d.). Gene Therapy - Advantages vs Disadvantages. [online] Available at: http://genetherapyinfo.webs.com/advantages-vs-disadvantages

 Figure 1: This video explains how gene therapy works in a simple way. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLI1Gfb0ynw

     In Figure 1, this video is talking about the process of gene therapy. It's talking about how the doctors and scientists are basically "hacking" your genes. It also talked about the first human to ever have gene therapy and how gene therapy have been helping kids. According to this video, the man said that gene therapy have also been used to treat dogs who has Type 1 Diabetes. How this works is that the scientists injects two items to the dog's muscles. Then it appears that the gene therapy works; they're still able to live after.