Roslin Institute achieves production of Viragen protein-drug in transgenic chickens

Scientists at the Edinburgh, Scotland-based Roslin Institute have succeeded in breeding transgenic chickens that produce medicinal proteins in their eggs and pass on this trait to successive generations.

Data published in the January 15 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America profiles the ability of the so-called OVA system to express two therapeutic proteins in the whites of eggs of genetically-modified hens.

Together with the UK's Oxford BioMedica and US biotechnology firm Viragen, the Roslin Institute is developing OVA as a novel, large-scale biomanufacturing alternative, capable of cost-effectively expressing therapeutic proteins.