Biotech Values

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More on the Oxford/Viragen chickens:

http://www.talentscotland.com/view_item.aspx?item_id=1927&list_id=list1-4&list_index=7

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Research Trio Hatch Plan for Transgenic Chickens

22 June 04

A JOINT project between Oxford Biomedica, Viragen and the Edinburgh-based Roslin Institute has announced further progress with plans to develop transgenic chickens whose eggs contain proteins used to treat cancer and other diseases.

An article in the forthcoming EMBO trade magazine shows that the use of Oxford Biomedica's gene transfer technology has proven 10 times more effective in producing transgenic chickens than was previously possible. This is the first major hurdle in the ultimate goal of producing potentially life-saving proteins in the whites of eggs laid by these chickens.

US-based Viragen, which is working on the project through its research facility at Edinburgh's Pentlands Science Park, holds an exclusive 10-year licence to commercialise the avian transgenic technology developed at the Roslin Institute.

The institute's Dr Helen Sang is leading the project, with Oxford Biomedica supplying the technology to get new genes into chickens with a high rate of efficiency. Viragen, which has struggled with financial problems in the past, is in the final stages of completing an £11m fundraising.
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