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Philippe Alfroy
Washington, April 28: The prospect of genetically engineered livestock herds mass producing substances for use in medicine or manufacturing came one step closer to reality on Tuesday after announcements made by US and Canadian researchers.
Taking up where Dolly, the sheep, left off, the teams announced separately they had successfully cloned goats, the American ones genetically engineered to produce milk capable of treating disease and the Canadians yielding spider's silk.
In the US case, clinical trials are underway to test the benefits of the goat's milk that contains a human protein, the researchers reported in Nature Biotechnology magazine. The three goats born last year are producing the anti blood-clotting agent Antithrombin III in their milk.
The protein is normally found in the human blood and is used to treat heart disease patients awaiting bypass surgery. ``Antithrombin III is the first transgenically produced protein to be introduced in human clinical trials,'' said Sandra Nusinoff Lehrman,CEO of biotechnology firm Genzyme Transgenics.
The goats were born in October and November 1998 at the firm's farm in Framingham, Massachusetts. ``This successful cloning effort advances our mission to efficiently produce transgenic biopharmaceuticals with the potential to treat a variety of illnesses and diseases,'' she added.
Research team from Genzyme, Tufts and Louisiana Universities introduced the human gene responsible for antithrombin production into the cells of goats embryos, then cloned three identical goats from the modified cells.
Using the same technique, a Montreal-based company has produced three goats capable of producing spider's silk in their milk. Nexia Biotechnologies said the three goats, Danny, Clint and Arnold, born last month, were genetically engineered to carry the silk-producing gene of a spider.
Spiders silk is used to produce Biosteel, a hardy fabric much in demand in aerospace, engineering and medicine.
Cloning goats with the spiders gene has a 100 per cent successrate, the firm said, making the development of herds capable of producing the silk in the milk faster and easier.
The creation of the cloned goats paves the way for a new industry: ``Pharming'' or production of medicine from livestock. Several biotechnology firms in the United States have begun building herds of genetically engineered livestock clones.
In addition to antithrombin, Genzyme Transgenics is planning to ``pharm'' albumin, a substance which boosts blood production, from the milk of cows cloned by another Massachusetts firm Advanced Cell Technologies.
Researchers at PPL Therapeutics, who gave the world Dolly, are hoping to produce the protein -- Facto IX -- used to treat hemophiliacs, from cloned sheep.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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