5.14 understand that large amounts of human insulin can be manufactured from genetically modified bacteria that are grown in a fermenter

This is one of the uses of genetic engineering, here's how it works...

- the DNA you want to insert (in this case, the gene for human insulin) is cut out of a human cell using a restricton enzyme.

- The vector DNA (either a plasmid or virus, in this case, plasmid) is cut open with a restriction enzyme.

- the vector DNA and insulin DNA are combined with a mixture of ligase enzymes. The ligase enzymes join the two pieces of DNA together, producing recombinant DNA

- The recombinant DNA is inserted into  a bacterium

- The bacterium is grown in a fermenter


The bacteria cells now make insulin. This is useful to produce insulin on a mass scale for people with diabeties etc.