Library: Genetic Engineering: Home

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Welcome! This guide will serve as a starting point for Shippensburg University students wishing to conduct research on various aspects of the national debate over genetic engineering. You will find sources that introduce you to your topic and keep you up-to-date with links to news articles, research websites, journal articles, and research reports concerning genetic engineering.

Search Terms

Keywords and Search Terms

Main Term(s): genetic engineering, human reproductive technology
Related Terms: animal culture, bioethics, bioinformatics, biotechnology, genetic engineering in art, genetic engineering ethics, human gene mapping, Human Genome Project, sex preselection, surrogate motherhood, transgenic organisms
Broader Terms: genetic recombination, genetics
Narrower Terms: animal genetic engineering, cloning, fertilization in vitro, gene delivery techniques, gene therapy, genetic models, genome editing, human genetic engineering, microbial genetic engineering, molecular cloning, pharming (genetics), protein engineering, recombinant DNA, transplantation of cell nuclei

For genetic engineering in agriculture and plant genetic engineering, see Genetically Modified Food

Background

Background Sources

Additional Sources

Genetics (Guardian US)

Genetic Engineering - Selected Book Sources

GMO Food : A Reference Handbook

Books & Reference Books

Reference Books & Ebooks

Biotechnology in Context by Galè
Call Number: Gale Virtual Reference Library Ebook
Publication Date: 2012
This introductory encyclopedia has a dozen or more different articles on various aspects of reproductive technology. Articles include an introduction, historical background section, definitions of key terms, and brief analysis of "impacts and issues", and a selective bibliography of books and websites. Some articles reproduce magazine articles and other sources to connect the reader to research in the field.
Cloning: A Reference Handbook by David E. Newton
Call Number: EBL E-book
Publication Date: 2015
The history of cloning experiments dates back more than a century, but advances in technology in recent decades have multiplied the potential applications of cloning and expanded the controversies surrounding these possibilities. This book provides an accessible description of the development of plant and animal cloning from the early stages of human civilization to the present day and coherently covers the science and technology involved. It reviews the essential controversies that have arisen about cloning particularly applications involving human DNA as researchers have advanced and extended the tools for cloning organisms. Additionally, the book discusses public opinion about cloning and the legislative and administration actions that have been taken with regard to the practice.
DNA Technology: A Reference Handbook by David E. Newton
Call Number: QH442 .N465 2010
ISBN: 9781598843286
Publication Date: 2009
A concise, authoritative source that explores the latest advances and potential uses of DNA, as well as the ethical dilemmas surrounding the altering of genetic material. * Includes a range of primary sources including tables on genetically modified crops, position papers written by nongovernmental organizations, laws, and regulations in the United States and elsewhere in the world * Offers a listing of the most important terms used in a discussion of DNA technologies
Genetic Engineering: A Reference Handbook by Harry LeVine
Call Number: TP248.6 .L4 2006
ISBN: 9781851098606
Publication Date: 2006
From Dolly the sheep to Frankenfood, life-saving medicines, and beyond, this insightful work describes the technology and controversy behind genetic engineering. * Includes an expert guide to print and online resources on genetic engineering and related areas * Features a comprehensive glossary designed for the general reader
Genetic Engineering: Principles and Methods by Jane K. Setlow (Editor)
Call Number: EBL E-book
ISBN: 9780387258560
Publication Date: 2006
Genetic Engineering: Principles and Methods presents state-of-the-art discussions in modern genetics and genetic engineering. Recent volumes have covered gene therapy research, genetic mapping, plant science and technology, transport protein biochemistry, and viral vectors in gene therapy, among many other topics. Key features of Volume 27 include: - Identification and Analysis of Micrornas - Dormancy and the Cell Cycle - Long distance peptide and metal transport in plants - Signaling in plant response to temperature and water stresses - Nutrient transport and metabolism in plants - Salt Stress Signaling and Mechanisms of Plant Salt Tolerance - Gene cloning and expression - Assisted folding and assembly of proteins

Books & Ebooks

Advances in Biotechnology by Indu Ravi (Editor); Mamta Baunthiyal (Editor); Jyoti Saxena (Editor)
Call Number: EBL E-book
ISBN: 9788132215547
Publication Date: 2013
The book "Advances in Biotechnology" is about recent advances in some of the important fields that are ongoing in certain biotechnological applications. Biotechnology has been quite helpful in keeping pace with the demands of every increasing human population and in improving the quality of human life. Major biotechnological achievements associated with human welfare have been from the fields like genetic engineering; transgenic plants and animals; genomics, proteomics, monoclonal antibodies for the diagnosis of disease, gene therapy etc.
Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering by Kathy Wilson Peacock
Call Number: TP248.215 .P43 2010
ISBN: 9780816077847
Publication Date: 2010
Biotechnology is the manipulation of a living organism to increase its usefulness. Though it is commonly thought of as a modern practice, it actually began when the early farming civilizations began choosing which crops to plant annually. In recent decades, however, biotechnology has undergone drastic changes due to advances in genetic engineering. Scientists can now alter the DNA of living organisms. Although gene manipulation could address certain health concerns and alleviate the problem of world hunger through engineered crops, some worry about the ethical dilemmas, the possibility of discrimination and eugenics, and unforeseen environmental problems from such radical interference.
God, Science, and Designer Genes by Spencer S. Stober; Donna Yarri
Call Number: TP248.6 .S74 2009
ISBN: 9780313352539
Publication Date: 2009
A biologist and a Christian theologian examine the scientific and philosophical implications and potential impacts of genetic technologies. * A series of chapters combining basic scientific discussions of DNA technologies with ethical discussions of the social issues they are raising * Five hypothetical case studies that provide realistic contexts for exploring specific issues related to genetic technologies * An extensive bibliography of current and significant books, journals and websites with regard to genetic technologies * A comprehensive index
The Material Gene: Gender, Race, and Heredity after the Human Genome Project by Kelly E. Happe
Call Number: EBL E-book
ISBN: 9780814790670
Publication Date: 2013
In 2000, the National Human Genome Research Institute announced the completion of a "draft" of the human genome, the sequence information of nearly all 3 billion base pairs of DNA. Since then, interest in the hereditary basis of disease has increased considerably. Happe considers the broad implications of this development by treating "heredity" as both a scientific and political concept. Beginning with the argument that eugenics was an ideological project that recast the problems of industrialization as pathologies of gender, race, and class, the book traces the legacy of this ideology in contemporary practices of genomics.
Postgenomics: Perspectives on Biology after the Genome by Sarah S. Richardson (Editor); Hallam Stevens (Editor)
Call Number: EBL E-book
ISBN: 9780822375449
Publication Date: 2015
Ten years after the Human Genome Project's completion the life sciences stand in a moment of uncertainty, transition, and contestation. The postgenomic era has seen rapid shifts in research methodology, funding, scientific labor, and disciplinary structures. Postgenomics is transforming our understanding of disease and health, our environment, and the categories of race, class, and gender. At the same time, the gene retains its centrality and power in biological and popular discourse. The contributors to Postgenomics analyze these ruptures and continuities and place them in historical, social, and political context. Postgenomics, they argue, forces a rethinking of the genome itself, and opens new territory for conversations between the social sciences, humanities, and life sciences.
The Recombinant University: Genetic Engineering and the Emergence of Stanford Biotechnology by Doogab Yi
Call Number: EBL E-book
ISBN: 9780226143835
Publication Date: 2015
The advent of recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s was a key moment in the history of both biotechnology and the commercialization of academic research. The Recombinant University draws us deeply into the academic community in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the technology was developed and adopted as the first major commercial technology for genetic engineering. In doing so, it reveals how research patronage, market forces, and legal developments from the late 1960s through the early 1980s influenced the evolution of the technology and reshaped the moral and scientific life of biomedical researchers.

Databases

General

Ship Discovery Search This link opens in a new window
This library database serves as a search engine to search most library databases at the same time, including magazine and journal databases, e-book collections, and the library catalog. News databases are not included in a comprehensive way. Supplement this with direct searching of ProQuest Newstand and Lexis Nexis Academic. Search results default to items that the library owns, either in online or print format. Remove the "Available in Library Collection" limiter to retrieve items available through interlibrary loan.
Access on-campus or off-campus with your ShipID
Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Complete is our most important general database. covering all subject areas. It is useful for research in all classes, as it includes 26+ million newspaper, magazine, and journal articles, with 50% of these immediately available in full-text.
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID.
Contents indexed in Ship Library Discovery Search.
ProQuest Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window
One of the most comprehensive news databases in the world, ProQuest Global Newstream includes access to over 3000 news sources, including 2,200 newspapers, as well as blogs, podcasts, websites and news wire feeds worldwide.
Development note - alt link use stats: (91 total hits, 33 since 7/2012 -- 10 /2012)

Library Guide to Current News Sources
This mobile-friendly guide provide excellent access to the best high-quality new sources.

Westlaw This link opens in a new window
This library database is one of the world's largest full-text databases, including very extensive news, legal, and business information. Along with ProQuest Newstand, it is our primary source of news information.
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID.

Specialized

MEDLINE Complete This link opens in a new window
This database, produced by the National Library of Medicine, provides indexing for the world's comprehensive life sciences and biomedical literature. It includes abstracts for 33+ million articles in 5,600+ journals currently published worldwide and provides direct links to 14+ million full-text articles.
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID.
Humanities Source This link opens in a new window
Humanities Source is designed to meet the needs of students, researchers and educators interested in all aspects of the humanities. The collection includes full text for more than 1,400 journals, with citations to over 3.5 million articles, including book reviews. Coverage in Humanities Source includes worldwide content pertaining to literary, scholarly and creative thought.

Find Your Own Sources

Library Background Databases

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Library database that covers the most important and controversial issues of the day. Contains the full text of CQ Researcher, a weekly publication. Each issue provides a comprehensive overview and background essay, data tables and graphs, chronology, pro-con starter, and list of major research and advocacy groups. Includes extensive lists of sources and hot-linked footnotes throughout.
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID.

Quality Web Sources

In-Depth Journalism

ProPublica
ProPublica is a freely available website produced by a major online non-profit news organization dedicated to in-depth investigative reporting about current issues in the public interest. ProPublica features two kinds of reporting: Investigations, which include a series of in-depth articles about a topic (often between 15 and 30 articles - major topics range from dozens to 100+ articles). MuckReads are shorter reports featuring investigative journalism from other news agencies. Major areas of interest include, among others: healthcare and the health industry, fracking, censorship, money and politics, and financial and economic issues.
Reveal: The Center for Investigative Reporting
Reveal is a freely available website and the online media platform for the Center for Investigative Journalism, a major online non-profit news organization, founded in 1977, and dedicated to in-depth investigative reporting about current issues in the public interest. They publish series of investigative reports on a topic (typically between 10 and 20). Major areas of coverage include: criminal justice, the environment, guns, health care, labor and employment, national security, religion, surveillance and privacy, and veterans.
Center for Public Integrity
The Center for Public Integrity is a freely available website produced by a major online non-profit news organization dedicated to in-depth investigative reporting about current issues in the public interest, with a special focus on accountability and fairness, especially in terms of the role and influence of money. Topics featured include politics and elections, national security business, the environment, juvenile justice and health.
National Public Radio (NPR)
NPR is one of the most important freely-available sources of investigative journalism. It includes excellent topical pages but these are not easily browseable on the website. Use the High Quality Web Source Finder search box to locate the topical pages for your issue.
Journalist's Resource
This very high quality web site, located at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and sponsored by leading academic journalism programs, guides journalists and other researchers to find scholarly sources related to many of the most important topics in the news. Whenever the source is not available in full-text, use the discovery layer or library A-Z journal list to get library access to the article or to order it on interlibrary loan.

Newspaper Topic Guides

A number of important national newspapers have topic or issue sections of their website that bring together all the paper's articles on particular topics. The leading example of this is "Times Topics" from the New York Times. Each topic guide/section has a search tool that lets you refine your search.

Unfortunately, these sections are often not easy to browse or locate on the newspaper websites. Use the "High Quality Web Source Finder" search box above to search for your topic. Then choose the Newspaper Topic Guides tab to look for these in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune. If you should hit a pay wall when browsing these newspapers, simply search for articles from any of these three papers using the ProQuest Newstand library database.

Science News

Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS Reports)

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the public policy research division of Congress. It issues detailed research reports on a very wide range of issues. CRS doesn't maintain its own website, but its reports are available through several organizations and libraries.

EveryCRSReport.com
Website that attempts to make all CRS reports easily available to the public. The result of a bi-partisan movement to get Congress to pass a bill requiring open access.
Congressional Research Service Reports (University of North Texas)
The University of North Texas maintains a freely available digital library collection of Congressional Research Service reports, with the goal "to provide integrated, searchable access to many of the full-text CRS reports that have been available at a variety of different web sites since 1990" -- website. Best search tool for finding CRS reports. Update holdings of specific reports through the Federation of American Scientists or through a web search on the name of a report.
Congressional Research Service Reports Archive (Federation of American Scientists)
As a public service, the Federation of American Scientists maintains this free archive of CRS reports.

Web Directories

Public Policy Issues and Groups (Vanderbilt Univ.)
This freely available website produced by the Vanderbilt University Libraries provides an alphabetical topical directory to important websites on some 50 current issues. These guide pages typically include sections for these kinds of web resources: Basic Sites, Government, International, News, Statistics, Interest Groups and Research Centers and Other Educational Sites.

Genetic Engineering