Cancer is an epic issue throughout the world with millions of people dying from it per year as a cure is yet to be found. It’s so common that if you personally haven’t had cancer, you know someone who has. Yet researchers have developed a new method in an attempt to producing a faster and cheaper way for manufacturing anticancer drugs. By genetically engineering chickens to lay eggs full of cancer-fighting proteins which target and destroy specific tumor cells, researchers will attempt to create a mass production of this anticancer protein.
The foundation for this idea with chicken eggs has been in the grinder for many decades yet has only just become a reality. Researchers at the Roslin Institute in the UK have successfully engineered five generations of chickens who are able to produce these life saving proteins within their eggs. Previous attempts on similar projects with goats resulted in being to expensive yet researchers are hopeful that they wont be stopped by the same problem. Although work is still needed on the project, it is estimated that is will approximately five or more years until drug companies will beginning using chickens to mass produce the anticancer proteins.
More tests will have to be done to ensure the chickens are not under any danger and for the safety of human use. Because it’s dangerous if the proteins are produced anywhere else in the chicken’s body, researchers still have work to do before this product can be made commercial. Only time will tell.
Written by 41534441
Primary Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6261427.stm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/25623.php
Secondary Source:
http://thedrugnerd.blogspot.com/2007/01/anti-cancer-chicken.html
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Anticancer-Anitviral-Proteins-Produced-in-Transgenic-Chicken-Eggs-44458.shtml
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment