key: cord-0945179-3kbg84h1
authors: Akhondzadeh, Shahin; Shamabadi, Ahmad
title: The Requisiteness for not Sacrificing Medical Biotechnology in the Coronavirus Era
date: 2021
journal: Avicenna J Med Biotechnol
DOI: 10.18502/ajmb.v13i2.5516
sha: 8ac85f353dbd0e2d374c71530836000ecac9cbe0
doc_id: 945179
cord_uid: 3kbg84h1

nan

possible today 4, 5 .

Medical biotechnology is a type of applied science that produces or creates products that improve human health, mainly through genetic engineering and tissue culture, using biological systems or living organisms 5, 6 . However, this area of science can also be harmful through studies' unintended consequences, the production of products without genetic diversity, and deliberate biological manipulation. In medical biotechnology, using basic sciences such as biochemistry, biology, and genetics, and by modifying cells or cell subsets, the prevention of diseases-including the production of vaccines-and the treatment of diseases, especially by creating novel agents, are studied [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] . It should be noted that the background of these lofty goals has been years of basic science studies, many of which have not reached a positive conclusion or have been rejected by more recent research. Even they more often lead to more questions instead of answers 4 .

In other words, the passing of many years and spending on scientific and research projects has enabled human beings today to create advanced products for fighting pathogens and improving society's health. The development of insulin, the production of advanced monoclonal antibodies, and vaccines' production against an RNA virus are some of the notable novel products 6, 7 .

Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, many ways have been suggested to prevent and treat the disease. Today, after more than a year and the reported deaths of nearly two million people from COVID-19, the highest hopes for overcoming the disorder are with the proposed vaccines 1, 11 . Science achieves patients' treatment through basic studies 4 , so the right decision is a decision that, while meeting the need, does not disrupt the long-established science and research system. We can see that the time and money spent in the past is helping all sections of society today with the production of the coronavirus vaccine, and if those studies had not been done in the past for whatever reason, today we were a few steps behind. Likewise, suppose today, for any reason, even the allocation of all time and budget to the emergency situation, the pace of progress in this area slows down. In that case, it may have detrimental effects on all society in the future.

World Health Organization. COVID-19 Weekly epidemiological update-29

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