- TRANSGENIC ANIMAL ROUNDUP
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- Germline engineering
and cloning of mammals is underway
at biotech companies and
universities around the world. During the past
few months, researchers
in the US, Canada, the UK, Japan, and China have
announced the birth of
cloned or genetically modified (transgenic) goats,
sheep, pigs, cows,
mice, monkeys, and rabbits.
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- Some of this work is aimed at medical applications,
including
production of human proteins in the milk of transgenic
animals, and xenotransplant-
ation. Some is intended for strictly
commercial uses: for example, more
efficient production of meat or
super-strong fibers. A collaboration between
an artist and genetic
scientists has produced a transgenic rabbit that
glows in the dark for
a museum exhibit. (See below.)
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- Skeptics have raised a variety of concerns about many
of these intended applications and some of the methods used to produce
transgenic animals. Areas of concern include threats to human health,
animal
welfare, and environmental integrity; the patenting of animals;
further
corporate concentration in our food systems; and ethical and
cultural objections
to the technological transformation of
animals.
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- Focusing as we do on human genetic technologies, we note
that
many of the techniques being developed are similar to those that could
be used for human germline engineering and reproductive cloning. We hope
that the production of genetically altered mammals will not foster
acceptance
for genetically modified human beings.
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- 1. Transgenic Goats May
Secrete Spider Silk;
Cloned Goat Dies
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- One of Canada's leading animal transgenic companies,
Nexia
Biotechno- logies, announced in late August that it is "on the
verge" of producing goats that secrete spiders' silk in their milk.
The announcement came as Nexia prepared to breed two male transgenic goats
with a herd of unmodified females. Nexia scientists expect the offspring
to produce milk containing the spider silk protein, which Nexia will use
to manufacture a material lighter and stronger than steel. Anticipated
uses include "aircraft, racing vehicles and bullet-proof
clothing,"
as well as "sutures for eye- or neurosurgery"
and "artificial
tendons, ligaments and limbs." See Lin
k.
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- Nexia is being targeted by the Bioengineering Action
Network of
North America. See Link.
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- Two cloned goats were
born in Xian, China in June, but
one died after 36 hours because of
abnormal lung development. The researchers
expect the birth of a cloned
ox before the end of the year. Chinese scientists
say they want to use
cloning to save endangered species such as the giant
panda and the
white flag freshwater dolphin. See Link.
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- 2. New Method Sets Stage for Commercialization of
Cow Cloning
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- At the end of August,
University of Tennessee researchers
announced the birth of the world's
first cloned Jersey calf, the third
cow cloned from adult cow cells.
The other cloned cows were produced at
Texas A&M and the University
of Connecticut within the past year.
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- The Tennessee scientists
described their method as a
simplified version of the somatic cell
nuclear transfer technique developed
by the Roslin Institute. "We
basically were able to use routine cell
culture methods in the
laboratory," which could make cloning on a
commercial basis more
affordable, said team leader Dr. Lannett Edwards.
See Link.
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- 3. First In Utero Gene Transfer in
Monkeys
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- Researchers at Children's
Hospital in Columbus, Ohio
announced in May the transfer of foreign
genes into rhesus macaques monkeys
fetuses. The researchers injected 14
macaque fetuses with two retroviral
vectors that carried a fluorescing
marker gene derived from jellyfish.
All the infants were reportedly
healthy and normal, and expressed the fluorescing
gene in every cell of
their bodies for about a month. After that, the expression
of the
marker gene stopped. The lead researcher speculated that the monkeys
may have mounted an immune response to the foreign protein. See Link
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- 4. Gene Targeting Produces Transgenic
Sheep
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- Scientists at PPL Therapeutics
announced in the June
29 issue of Nature that they had produced two
cloned sheep with a specific
gene modification. Their method involved
adding a human gene at a pre-selected
location on the chromosomes of
sheep cells, and then transferred the nuclei
of those cells to
enucleated sheep eggs. This was the first time such "gene
targeting" methods had succeeded in any mammal besides mice.
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- With other methods of
producing transgenic animals, the
foreign genes are incorporated into
the animal's genome at a random location.
The results are
unpredictable, and often disastrous for the developing
animal. PPL
research director Alan Colman called the ability to reliably
control
the genetic manipulation of mammals "a sort of the Holy Grail."
See Link.
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- Following the
announcement, PPL revealed that the human
DNA they had inserted into
the sheep was used without the knowledge of
its donor. The disclosure
was prompted by rumors that the DNA had come
from the Maori community,
many of whose members find genetic modification
of animals
"culturally offensive." In New Zealand, "fierce
opposition" to PPL's work is also based on concerns about containing
the
transgenes in the experimental population. See Link<
/A>.
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- 5. New Methods for Cloning
Pigs; New Evidence for
Xenotransplantation Concerns
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- Two groups of researchers, one at the National Institute
of
Animal Industry in Japan and one at PPL Therapeutics, announced in August
details of the methods they'd used to successfully clone pigs. Each method
was a different variation on the somatic nuclear transfer technique
developed
at the Roslin Institute. See Lin
k
.
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- Researchers are eager to perfect the cloning of pigs,
which has
proven more difficult than in sheep, goats, or cows, because
pig organs
are the right size for "xenotransplantation" into
humans. The
pig organs would have to be genetically engineered so that
they were
not rejected by the human immune system.
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- The Campaign for Responsible
Transplantation argues that
xenotransplant- ation should be banned. CRT
points to the threat of human
epidemics that might be caused by porcine
retroviruses, and describes other
approaches could solve the organ
shortage. A study at the Scripps Institute
in La Jolla, California,
published in August on the Nature magazine web
site, provides new
evidence that these safety concerns are well-founded.
The Scripps
researchers found that mice given pig tissue transplants became
infected with pig viruses, as did human cells in culture with the pig
retroviruses.
See <www.crt-online.org and (additional)
Link
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- Following the announcement of the Scripps findings, Geron
BioMed, the California company that last year purchased the patent for
the cloning technique developed at the Roslin Institute, withdrew its
funding
for the xenotransplantation project at PPL Therapeutics. Roslin
also announced
that it will stop its xenotransplantation work, but
insists that this decision
is based on "purely commercial"
considerations. PPL has pledged
to continue its xenotransplantation
project. See <Link
- and
- http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000817/sc/pigs_dc_2.html.
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- Meanwhile, a Georgia biotech start-up, ProLinia, Inc.,
has
drawn up a business plan for cloning livestock on a commercial basis
when the technology is developed. ProLinia plans, for example, to sell
farmers cloned pigs that will produce leaner bacon and meatier pork chops.
According to the Washington Post (Terence Chea, "Going Whole Hog for
Cloning," August 5, 2000), Smithfield Foods Inc., one of the world's
largest pork producers, has invested $1 million in ProLinia on the basis
of its cloning plans.
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- 6. Jellyfish
Genes in Rabbits: For Art's Sake?
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- Eduardo Kac, a
professor at the School of the Art Institute
of Chicago, has teamed up
with French geneticists to produce a rabbit that
glows in the dark by
injecting rabbit zygotes with a fluorescent protein
gene derived from
jellyfish.
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- Kac has stirred controversy since he announced a plan
to create
a trans- genic dog at an Ars Electronica gathering in Austria
last
September (Lori Andrews, "Weird Science," Chicago, Aug 2000).
Some other artists were appalled by the plan. "It's one thing for
an artist to experiment on a canvas, but it's entirely different to
experiment
on a living creature," said Ellen Ullman, author of
"Close to
the Machine." Ullman pointed out that the harm
isn't limited to the
modified creature. "What does it do to a
society to casually create
fluorescent dogs?" (Tom Abate,
"Artist Proposes Using Jellyfish
Genes to Create Glow-in- the-Dark
Dogs," San Francisco Chronicle,
October 18, 1999.)
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- Many other artists
are exploring biotechnology and its
social meaning (without producing
transgenic animals). A show called "Paradise
Now: Picturing the
Genetic Revolution" is at the Exit Art gallery
in Manhattan
from September 9 until October 28. An exhibit called "Unnatural
Science" will be at MassMOCA until April 15, 2001. See <Link.
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- Other shows
are planned at the Santa Barbara Museum of
Art, the International
Center of Photography in New York, and the University
of Washington's
Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. (Jordan Lite, "Artists
Mine Genomic
Issues," Wired News, May 13, 2000 http://www.wi
red.com/news/print/0,1294,36288,000.html.)
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