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Since the focus of all genetics is the gene, the fundamental goal of laboratory geneticists is to isolate, characterize, and manipulate genes. Although it is relatively easy to isolate a sample of DNA from a collection of cells, finding a specific gene within this DNA sample can be compared to finding a needle in a haystack. In the field of pharmaceutical, Recombinant DNA technology involves using microorganisms, macroscopic organisms, or hybrids of tumor cells and leukocytes to create new pharmaceuticals; to create safer and/or more effective versions of conventionally produced pharmaceuticals; and to produce substances identical to conventionally made pharmaceuticals more cost-effectively than the latter pharmaceuticals are produced. Recombinant DNA technology enables modifying microorganisms, animals, and plants so that they yield medically useful substances, particularly scarce human proteins (by giving animals human genes, for example). In medicine these diagnostic procedures are used in counseling prospective parents as to the likelihood of having a child with a particular disease, and they are also used in the prenatal prediction of genetic disease in the fetus. Also known as genetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology is widely used in agriculture to create genetically-modified organisms that produce genetically-modified crops.