[extropy-chat] Genetically altered piglets will produce a protein helpful in fighting cancer

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

Looks like another big step toward advanced biotech applications by South 
Korean scientists.
Forbes <http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/08/25/afx2191352.html>: A 
team of South Korean scientists said that they had succeeded in
cloning genetically
altered piglets that will produce a protein helpful in fighting cancer. 
Professor Park Chang-Sik at Chungnam National University said his team had 
created four female piglets that will produce milk containing GM-CSF, a kind 
of protein that stimulates production of white blood cells.
GM-CSF, or cytokine granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor, is 
prescribed for sufferers of leukemia and anemia or patients who have low 
white blood cell counts during cancer treatment.
But it is prohibitively expensive, fetching 600,000 usd per gram because 
production is limited. 'We have cloned piglets that will produce milk 
containing a high level of GM-CSF within a year,' Park told Agence 
France-Presse. To clone the piglets, the team said it used virtually the 
same method as the one that produced the world's first cloned animal, Dolly 
the Sheep. The piglets are capable of reproducing and their offspring will 
also carry GM-CSF in their bodies, Park said.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20050825/5c6e8ccd/attachment.html>