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| News Around World |
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| Medicine From Milk: Gene Therapy Could Transform Goats Into Pharmaceutical Factories |
University of Pennsylvania researchers have managed to reach a significant
milestone in drug development using gene therapy to reduce the time
it takes to breed large animals capable of producing therapeutic proteins
in their milk. As current methods involve cloning, which takes more
time and generally costs more, the advance is valuable for pharmaceutical
development and biology research but also can be used to bolster the
food supply by eliminating genetic disorders in animals over several
generations. |
| A
research breakthrough at McGill University has the potential in the
development of new anti-viral therapies in humans which may potentially
allay fears about new viral pandemics, such as avian influenzas. The
breakthrough allows researchers to boost an organism’s natural
anti-virus defences, effectively making its cells immune to influenza
and other viruses by knocking out two genes in mice that repress production
of the protein interferon, the cell’s first line of defence against
viruses. |
| Cutting onions will not be a tear-jerking moment anymore if research by New Zealand and Japanese scientists would be able to be developed for the market. Using biotechnology, researchers from the New Zealand research institute, Crop and Food, were able to switch off the gene behind the enzyme in onions that makes us cry. The project started in 2002 after Japanese scientists located the gene responsible for producing the agent behind the tears. However, despite the excitement about the prospect of "no tears'' onions in every home, it would be 10 to 15 years before this happened. |
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