Biotechnology

Fast-growing salmon. Pork containing heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. These are two examples of products you might see in your local supermarket soon -- animals developed not through conventional breeding but through genetic engineering. On Jan. 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided how it will regulate genetically engineered animals, for the first time paving the way for such animals or their products to be sold as food and medicine.

They have four legs, fuzzy faces and udders full of milk. To the uninitiated, they look like dairy goats. To GTC Biotherapeutics Inc., they're cutting-edge drug-making machines. The goats being raised on a farm in central Massachusetts are genetically engineered to make a human protein in their milk that prevents dangerous blood clots from forming. The company extracts the protein and turns it into a medicine that fights strokes, pulmonary embolisms and other life-threatening conditions.

When Cyagra Inc. holds an office potluck, no one's stomach churns when the lasagna, meatloaf or tacos are made with cloned beef. The cutting-edge ingredient was produced on the company's Pennsylvania farm for the Food and Drug Administration, which spent seven years evaluating the safety of meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring. "We had leftovers," so we used them, said Steve Mower, director of marketing for the Elizabethtown, Pa.-based company.

A Vatican bioethics document Friday condemned artificial fertilization and other techniques used by many couples and also said human cloning, embryonic stem-cell research and "morning after" drugs were immoral. The long awaited document from the Vatican's doctrinal body marks a major step by the Vatican into biotechnology, an area in which many governments are struggling to formulate legislation.

WE count on them to be strong and supportive, flexible and accommodating, willing to go the extra mile even when we load them down more than we should. Our knees. We put them through their paces, so to speak, every day. No wonder that, every now and then, they fall down on the job. Treatments for needy knees generally fit into three categories, says Dr.

A federal judge Monday overturned the Bush administration's 2005 approval of genetically engineered alfalfa seeds and stopped their sale for now, in what activists hailed as the first ban on selling such crops. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to adequately conduct an environmental impact study before approving them for sale.

Kevin Sharer has a thing for maverick war heroes. In his sunlit office in Thousand Oaks, a massive portrait of the often-flamboyant Gen. George Armstrong Custer hangs across from his desk. It complements one of English naval great Horatio Nelson, renowned for defying orders. Sharer has a military background himself, gained as an engineer on fast-attack Navy nuclear submarines during the Cold War. These days, at troubled Amgen Inc., he's emulating his risk-taking heroes more than ever.

Donkey meat with garlic juice and deep-fried duck bills aren't Dajun Yang's favorite fare. But while accompanying two U.S. colleagues on a recent trip to Beijing, he made sure they were exposed to cuisine they couldn't find back home. Culinary tour guide is just one of Yang's many unofficial jobs. As the head of the China subsidiary of San Diego-based Ascenta Therapeutics Inc.

U.S. biotech crop companies unveiled a plan for new industry standards at a time when the sector faces unfavorable court rulings and concerns that lax government oversight is allowing contamination of crops used in food and animal feed. Leaders of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and executives at Monsanto Co. and DuPont Co.

Genentech Inc. reported Monday that its third-quarter profit rose nearly 21% from a year earlier, beating Wall Street expectations by a penny a share, thanks to strong sales of the cancer-fighting drug Avastin. The world's second-largest biotechnology company by revenue reported net profit of $685 million, or 64 cents a share, compared with $568 million, or 53 cents, in the same period in 2006. Revenue increased 22% to $2.91 billion.