AN-NAJAH NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Science-Department of Biology and Biotechnology
Biotechnology Course Outline
Dr. Raed Alkowni
Course Objectives:
This course will focus on the biotechnology’s concepts and use to resolve problems of food,
health and ecology. The biotechnological applications in agriculture, medicine, industry, mining
and environment, genotypic diagnosis (direct and indirect strategies), gene therapy, molecular
phylogeny and forensic medicine, biotechnology and ethics (DNA and predictive medicine,
society and laws), mutagenesis and applications, environmental applications such as waste
treatment and management, environmental and ecosystem safeguards and other topics In addition
to that the lectures will discuss the use of biotechnology for energy production, genetically
modified food (GMF), plant and animal transgenesis, genetic markers, fermentation, bioprocess
technology, bio-reactors and their applications.
The second part of the course will be a discussion of selected topics and recently released
research papers in applied biotechnology to keep the student updated with this issue. In this
course we will try to explore the past and future directions of biotechnology researches
Lectures textbooks:
The lectures context will be from different books and references and it will be distributed to the
students during the lectures.
Selected Reading Books:
 Thieman, W. J. and Palladino M.A. (2004). Introduction to biotechnology. Pearson.
 Borem, A., Santos, F. R., Bowen D. E., (2003). Understanding Biotechnology. Prentice Hall.
 George Acquaah. Understanding Biotechnology: An Integrated and Cyber-Based Approach.
 Glick, B.R. and Pasternak, J.J. ASM Press, Washington DC. (2003). Molecular
Biotechnology: principles and applications of recombinant DNA (3rd Ed). Prentice Hall,
ISBN: 0-13-094500-5. (2003).
 Seidman, L. and Moore, C., (2000). Basic Laboratory Methods For Biotechnology: Textbook
and Laboratory reference. Prentice Hall
 Biotechnology by Smith, Cambridge Press.(1997)
Exams:
The evaluation of student understanding of the course will be through
Lectured part 75% as:
 First Exam
20 points
 Second Exam
20 points
 Final Exam
35 points
Practiced part 25% distributed as:
 Research assignment
 Midterm exam
 Final Exam
10 points
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Course Outline:
Lectured part:
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Introduction to the biotechnology:
o What is Biotechnology? Review of the terminology, The History from Biology to Biotechnology
Genetic Engineering (Gene technology):
o review the tools and methods used for production of GMOs
o Gene Markers and their use in GMOs
Applications of Biotechnology in:
1. Food And Agriculture:
 Breeding and Traditional food biotechnologies, Review and terminology, Gene technology and
food, Genetically modified food (GMF)
 Transgenic Plant: Varieties Resistance to herbicides, Varieties resistance o insects, Varieties with
enhanced Quality
 Transgenic Animal, Veterinary Medicine, Cloning, Animal growth and food regulation
 Biosafety: Regulation of selling GMF.
2. Medicine :
 Early use of medical biotechnology’s
 Cloning of human cells (stem cells)
 Therapeutic cloning: Development of medicines: vaccines, human hormones, and other proteins
 The human genome project and Genetic testing
 Gene therapy:
 Pharmacogenomics
 Biotechnology and Bioethics
3. Ecology:
 ontrol of pest species, Protection of endangered species, Recreation of extinct species
 Bioremediation: Biotechnology in cleaning up the environment
 Preservation of Biodiversity: Germplasms and gene banks
4. Industry:
 Bioprocess and Fermentation Technology: Introduction, principals of microbial growth, the
bioreactors/fermentor, scale-up, media design for fermentation processes, solid substrate
fermentation, technology of mammalian and plant cell culture, downstream processing.
 Enzyme Technology: The nature of enzymes, application of enzymes, genetic engineering and
protein engineering of enzymes, technology of enzyme production, immobilized enzymes.
 Biological Fuel Generation: Photosynthesis - the ultimate energy resource, sources of biomass,
ethanol from biomass, methane from biomass, drogen.
 ingle Cell Protein: The need for protein, the acceptability and toxicology of SCP, SCP derived
from high energy sources, SCP from wastes, from agricultural crops, from algae, and the
economic implications of SCP.
5. Molecular Markers & Forensic Application:
 Molecular markers in biotechnology and their application;
 DNA fingerprinting: RFLP; AFLP; RAPD; and others related techniques.
Practiced part:
Selected topics and research papers that presented by each student in the class, should be printed
as undergrad project thesis. These topics and researches cover different topics in biotechnology’s
fields as: Cloning of animal and plant cells, gene therapy, gene silencing, bioreactors,
transformation techniques, genetic engineering, bioelectronics, transgenic plants and Animals, …
etc
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(upon Lab availability) Some practical trials could be practiced such as:
 Molecular techniques: Immunological diagnostic procedures; polyclonal and monoclonal
Antibodies production and use, probe generation and PCR primer designing; Genome
mapping and DNA sequencing, RFLP, AFLP and RAPD techniques
 Transformation techniques: construct preparation and insertion, genetic markers
 Bioinformatics analysis and phylogenies practicing
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