Integrated Genetics Inc

Researchers, announcing a scientific breakthrough, said Monday they have altered the genetic makeup of laboratory mice to produce a human protein that could give rise to an inexpensive treatment for heart attack patients. The genetic engineering technique involved introducing a human gene into the makeup of mice, so that the milk they produced contained the human protein TPA, an anti-clotting agent believed to benefit heart patients.

Researchers, announcing a scientific breakthrough, said Monday they have altered the genetic makeup of laboratory mice to produce a human protein that could give rise to an inexpensive treatment for heart attack patients. The genetic engineering technique involved introducing a human gene into the makeup of mice, so that the milk they produced contained the human protein TPA, an anti-clotting agent believed to benefit heart patients.

A biotechnology company announced it was making available a genetic test to the general public to detect the most common form of muscular dystrophy. Integrated Genetics Inc. of Framingham, Mass., said the test for Duchenne muscular dystrophy will offer thousands of women an accurate way to determine if they are carrying the devastating disease or if their babies inherited it. The test, performed in a doctor's office, will cost from $2,700 to $10,000 depending on the extent of the analysis, company spokesman Peter Lanciano said, but most insurance companies will cover at least 80% of the cost.

If some bioengineers have their way, cows, goats and sheep could become drug factories of the future, producing pharmaceutical products from their milk at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. Integrated Genetics Inc., a leader in this area of research, has already produced the costly drug, tissue plasminogen activator (TPA), in the milk of mice and is now experimenting with goats. If the Framingham, Mass.

Vegetable protein sources have proven effective in reducing cholesterol levels and lowering the risk of arteriosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, according to a recently published report. The findings were discussed this week by researchers from the Wistar Institute at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in Chicago. A team composed of David Klurfeld and David Kritchevsky studied two sets of laboratory animals.

Imagine you work for the water company and you are called on to find the single leaking faucet in the United States. That, says molecular biologist Francis Collins of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, is the magnitude of the task he faced when he set out in 1985 to find the defective gene that causes cystic fibrosis, a fatal disease that is characterized by a buildup of mucus in the lungs.