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The British Government seems about to follow the United States into resignation from UNESCO. That will not be the end of the world (or even of UNESCO).
Genetic engineering now allows biological synthesis and large-scale production of several proteins with therapeutic potential. The principal challenge in this sphere is to identify new, medically and commercially significant targets — the province of cell biologists, physiologists and biochemists. In the future, genetic engineering will surely provide invaluable tools for the study of the molecular basis of cellular control and pathophysiology, which will permit biochemists and medicinal chemists to design novel medicines.
The cloning of factor VIII, on which most haemophiliacs depend, is a technical triumph without parallel, but has left important questions unanswered. They rest for others.
