Pharming with Chickens
from the not-quite-Frankenstein-foods dept
The same Scientists that created Dolly the sheep have produced another transgenic animal, a chicken that produces cancer-fighting proteins in its eggs. This is a great method to mass-produce many different disease fighting proteins. The only real worry that I have isn’t that the proteins will be effective (as it’ll probably be one of the best methods of drug production) but whether or not there will be a public outcry (particularly in Europe) about using animals as drug production factories.
Comments on “Pharming with Chickens”
correct me if I'm wrong....
But I think animals have been used for drug production for a while now. Isn’t that how human insulin for diabetics is made these days? And I seem to recall vaccines being engineered into bananas… At some point, the Europeans will have to stop worrying about GM foods and animals. Economics will probably force them to….
Re: You're corrected
I think human insulin for diabetics is made by bacteria– not animals. The polio vaccines were injected into banannas– like putting a toddlers antibiotic pill in ice cream.
In principle, though, expression of recombinant proteins in chicken eggs isn’t much different than expression of recombinant protein in E. Coli. It’s great that someone is working out the details and finally doing something that scientsists have thought possible for a long time.
Re: Re: You're corrected
I’m not wrong about the bananas, though. Check out this article.
Re: Re: Re: You're corrected
And I guess I was confused by “the old way” of getting insulin where you just use beef or pork insulin….