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Cow Clones With Human DNA

Posted by timothy on from the only-fair-considering-the-post-office dept.

Valt writes "Over at Salon they have a interesting article on cow clones having human DNA. The cows are being genetically engineered to produce certain medicines in their blood and milk. Currently they produce 'immunoglobulins' ( disease-fighting human proteins), which are currently used to treat such maladies as tetanus and rabies. Nothing like a nice milk shake to cure a bad case of the rabies."

21 comments

  1. Script kiddies at Salon? by mselmeci · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Other scientists have already spliced human genes into animals in the burgeoning field of molecular pharming.
    1. Re:Script kiddies at Salon? by GodlikeDoglike · · Score: 1

      IIRCn pharming is an industry slang term for farming genetically altered product.

    2. Re:Script kiddies at Salon? by uncoveror · · Score: 2

      Cows with human genes are insignificant compared to Meat that grows on trees, which is now being shipped to stores.

      --
      The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
    3. Re:Script kiddies at Salon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you have ventured too far out of your area of expertise here -- this is biotech slang, referring to the production of pharmaceuticals in farm animals (cows, sheep, etc)

  2. Mad Cow anyone? by Domini · · Score: 2

    Perhaps care has to be taken not to promote Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Since this usually comes about when an animal eats it's own, and previously because they were feeding cow to cow. This time they may be feeding human to human, since the cows will contain human DNA?

    Not that they plan to use the cows for human food, of course... but what if an accident happened, and somehoe they got nitroduced into general cow populations?

    I know very little of this, but perhaps soneone in genetics can enlighten?

    1. Re:Mad Cow anyone? by Jackazz · · Score: 1

      Do you drink milk? Have you gotten Mad Cow Disease?

      Obviously the answer is no. Mad Cow and the related diseases in humans are thought to be caused by prions, simple proteins that are produced by your own cells machinery through alternative splicing of the RNA transcript. The prion is a promoter of the incorrect alternative splice and therefore, if you eat the brains of the infected person, you eat the prion and incorrect splicing begins in your brain too.

      So milk (or blood for that matter) with human proteins could be entirely harmless. It is *possible* to make proteins that would be harmful, but there are so many FDA tests and requirements that a drug must pass that it is unlikely there would be negative accidental consequences. The proteins they are harvesting from the milk are immunoglobulins, commonly known as antibodies, and are basically completely harmless to you anyway. later

    2. Re:Mad Cow anyone? by Jackazz · · Score: 1

      some tasty Mad Cow links:
      http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/prion_evol.html
      http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/madcow/prions.html

      enjoy!

    3. Re:Mad Cow anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are laws now banning the brains of cattle (or other feed animals) from being used. England started them in the late 80's after large epidemics of mad cow disease (BSE).
      Domini, there is a book I have been reading called 'Genome - the autobiography of a species in 23 chapters' by Matt Ridley 14.00 USD at Barnes and Nobel. Great book for those of us new to genetics.
      (Chapter 20, ironically, deals with prion based illnesses, CJ and BSE)

    4. Re:Mad Cow anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a PhD geneticist, I can vouch that Jackazz is on target; the risk of Mad Cow from this is zero. Any products made from these cows will be produced in their milk (that's the point of using the cow, so it's easy to continue to harvest the product by milking the cow) AND highly purified just as any drug product would be before human use. I expect the products will be so carefully "cleaned" that even those with milk allergies will have no problem using them for treatment. Also, consider the scale of investment that these companies are making with these cows -- these may be the healthiest, best protected cows ever, to insure they grow up and make as much milk as possible. Finally, there is no evidence that any cows anywhere in the Americas have the "mad cow" prion, so it's vanishingly unlikely that these cows would ever get infected.

  3. Happening in NZ too... by kroniqnz · · Score: 1

    There is currently a trial about this sort of thing happening over here in New Zealand.

    From what I know they are doing stuff with human genes and cows already, and are wanting the go-ahead to start using genes of other animals.

    There's a whole heap of crap about it here: http://http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ge

  4. Ho-hum...I want it the other way around by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    How about some humans with cow dna? I hate it when I need to run to the store to get milk.

    And it would make women even more desireable.

  5. Will this make it easier... by dpilot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    for diseases to jump the species barrier?

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    1. Re:Will this make it easier... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is like asking, "will drinking beer give me a yeast infection?"

      In a word, no.

  6. no milkshakes by tongue · · Score: 2

    They won't be making any milkshakes out of this milk. They'll be processing it to take the proteins out and put them into a medicine; this is just a cheaper way to produce the proteins than whats currently there.

    1. Re:no milkshakes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a good thing too. Since about 3/4 of the human population can't drink milk due to lactose intolerance, milk makes a horrible distribution system. Unless, of course, the genetic freaks out there are trying to wipe out the rest of the planet.

  7. Prescription drugs by Izanagi · · Score: 1

    Viagra in milk, but how would this affect the cows??

    --
    SCO (noun.)- A Slimy Corporate Ogre. Often seeks free money.
  8. Re:SLASHDOT POSTER CAUGHT HAVING GOAT SEX!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

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  9. No doubt by weirdoh · · Score: 1

    Be endless ways to fuck the man with this.

    --
    Bad Cops