Transgenics

The world shook when Dolly the sheep was cloned. But nary a ripple greeted the news of Rosie the calf. That was so even though the sweet-faced Holstein made its own impressive history earlier in February, becoming the first cow to produce milk with significant levels of a human protein--promising enrichment for infants and elderly alike.

WHEN we last heard from Michael Crichton, he had grown a giant-size petri dish full of controversy with his 2004 novel, "State of Fear," the premise of which was that global warming was a hoax used to justify acts of eco-terrorism. The White House cozied up to Crichton and his ideas; most scientists in the field were unimpressed.

The company that helped create Dolly the sheep reports in today's Nature that it has cloned two lambs from genetically modified cells in a technique that could prove a major step in animal-to-human organ transplants. PPL Therapeutics Plc of Edinburgh, Scotland, inserted new DNA in a specific place in sheep cells, fused the modified cells with sheep eggs from which the nucleus had been removed and produced two lambs, Cupid and Diana, with the genetic change.

The company that helped create Dolly the sheep reports in today's Nature that it has cloned two lambs from genetically modified cells in a technique that could prove a major step in animal-to-human organ transplants. PPL Therapeutics Plc of Edinburgh, Scotland, inserted new DNA in a specific place in sheep cells, fused the modified cells with sheep eggs from which the nucleus had been removed and produced two lambs, Cupid and Diana, with the genetic change.

WHEN we last heard from Michael Crichton, he had grown a giant-size petri dish full of controversy with his 2004 novel, "State of Fear," the premise of which was that global warming was a hoax used to justify acts of eco-terrorism. The White House cozied up to Crichton and his ideas; most scientists in the field were unimpressed.

Sometime this fall, English researchers will take the heart of a genetically engineered pig and implant it in a human whose own heart is dying. It will not be the first time surgeons have attempted to use an animal organ in a human. But it may well be the first time such a transplant succeeds because researchers have given the pig heart human genes that make it less likely to be rejected.

Researchers said they succeeded in genetically engineering goats to produce a human protein used to affect blood clotting, then cloned the goats. The researchers from Framingham, Mass.-based Genzyme Transgenics Corp., Tufts University and Louisiana State University said three cloned female goats were born last fall. It is the first report of a goat being cloned, although goats commonly are genetically engineered to produce human proteins in their milk.

The brave new world of biotechnological engineering moved to the farm this month--via a herd of specially bred goats whose owners say will be capable of producing proteins at a tenth of the cost of current methods. Genzyme Transgenics Corp., which uses specially produced proteins to make prescription drugs and diagnostic products, said last week that it has taken possession of a 166-acre farm in western Massachusetts.

Bad day at the office? Try this: Show up for work late. When you do arrive, help half a dozen of your friends hold the place hostage. Then reveal to the boss and the rest of the world that you're a genetically engineered, bar-coded escapee from a secret Wisconsin laboratory.

The new biotech rush is on. Is it a prescription for disaster? With biotechnology stocks sizzling, start-ups are scrambling to get in on the action. According to Prudential Securities analyst Caroline Copithorne, 11 biotechs have filed already this year to make initial public offerings. That compares with 11 biotech companies for the entire 1999 calendar year. Genomics stocks have led the biotech sector's charge. Affymetrix Inc.

The world shook when Dolly the sheep was cloned. But nary a ripple greeted the news of Rosie the calf. That was so even though the sweet-faced Holstein made its own impressive history earlier in February, becoming the first cow to produce milk with significant levels of a human protein--promising enrichment for infants and elderly alike.

Sometime this fall, English researchers will take the heart of a genetically engineered pig and implant it in a human whose own heart is dying. It will not be the first time surgeons have attempted to use an animal organ in a human. But it may well be the first time such a transplant succeeds because researchers have given the pig heart human genes that make it less likely to be rejected.

If the 20th century was the century of physics, the 21st century will be the century of biology. While combustion, electricity and nuclear power defined scientific advances in the 20th century, the new biology of genome research, which has provided the complete genetic blueprint of a species, including the human species, will define our century. For the first time, we will have a complete description of life at the most fundamental level of the genetic code.

In an escalation of the decades-old debate over the ethics of human genetic research, nearly 200 religious leaders from a broad spectrum of faiths will call today for a halt to the patenting of human and animal life forms for profit. Their stance pits senior leaders of a wide spectrum of Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish denominations, as well as associations of Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims, squarely against biotechnology companies.