The British Institute that gained global attention for producing the first scientifically- accepted clone – the infamous sheep “Dolly” – may be on the brink of another breakthrough. An effective but expensive, difficult to produce cancer-fighting protein has been produced successfully in engineered chickens.
The therapy is called monoclonal antibodies – artificial antibodies that are designed to clone themselves and attach onto a specific substance. Normally these would have to be produced in costly bioreactors found in few labs worldwide. This process creates chickens which are born with the specific cancer-fighting antibody, ready for extraction.
This new solution involves injecting male chicken eggs with a virus that encodes the genetic “recipe” or the drug into their DNA. The resulting males have been found to have the protein in their sperm, subsequently producing offspring with the genetic mutation already on board.
The institute claims to have several hundred chickens that produce miR24 – a protein designed to attach and destroy some tumors and viruses. The idea of producing medicine within animal bodies is not entirely new, but the lifecycle and reproductive tendencies of the chicken make it the best host yet.
Pharmaceutical companies worldwide are adopting the technique to produce other antibodies and vaccines.
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