Purpose of gene therapy

Dr. Farrell

Communications 108 (21163)

By: Ryne Culley

11/10/2016
General purpose: to inform

Specific purpose: after my speech my audience will understand the medical

prospects of genetic modification and understand how it generally works.

Thesis: genetic modification will be used to cure blindness in the near future.

Intro:

A) Use the story of the young child who gains the ability to see while at the

zoo.
B) Explain that gene therapy is what allowed for the young boy to gain the

ability to see.
C) By the end of this speech I hope that you will have gained insight into the

process of gene therapy.

D) First I am going to example how gene therapy works (short version not

very detailed) and then explain in depth the story of the blind child.

Transition: before I start in on the applications of this new technology I am

going to teach you how it works

I: The process of gene therapy is overall simple:

a. First you must identify what gene you are looking to edit.
b. Then you deliver the gene though various delivery methods.

Transition: so why does all of this matter to you, more importantly what can it

do?

II: Blindness caused by genetic imperfections will be a thing of the past by the end

of this century.

c. Story of the young child to reinforce claim.

d. CRISPR being used to prevent the onset of symptoms of

Transition: To restate my claim, genetic modification is going to eliminate most if not

all genetic diseases in the near future.

Conclusion: I hope I have allowed you to learn more about the process of genetic

modification and the applications of it.

 Annotated Bibliography
Bikard, David, et al. "CRISPR interference can prevent natural transformation and virulence

acquisition during in vivo bacterial infection." Cell host & microbe 12.2 (2012): 177-186.

This source states that the CRISPR (short for clustered, regularly /interspaced, short

palindromic repeats) technique can be used to prevent the onset of symptoms for a

bacterial infection. It also states that CRISPR falls apart when antibacterial

resistance is high. I plan to use this information to show that this application of

gene therapy will affect all living people.

Yang, Yiping, et al. "Cellular and humoral immune responses to viral antigens create barriers

to lung-directed gene therapy with recombinant adenoviruses." Journal of virology 69.4

(1995): 2004-2015.

This source talks about how genetic treatment of cystic fibrosis can be conducted

through the use of viruses. It also stated that the mice used in testing had an

immune responses to the gene therapy. I plan to use this viral technique as one of

my delivery methods for the first part of my speech. It also gives me some negative

comments to make about gene therapy which will increase my credibility on this

issue

Lewis, Ricki. The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It. New York:

St. Martin's, 2012. Print.

This book is about how gene therapy works. It tells the history of several people

who received gene therapy. I plan to focus on Corey Haas who was granted vision
from the use of gene therapy. I plan to use the story of Corey to catch my

audiences attention.