Edinburgh scientists plan cancer drugs from transgenic chicken eggs

The Roslin Institute announced a joint project with United States biotechnology company Viragen to begin a development programme which should see an antibody to skin cancer produced in a chicken egg within a year. The use of genetically altered chickens - dubbed Britney by the scientists - aims to speed up the process and reduce costs in producing the required proteins which are currently extremely expensive.

The Roslin Institute has produced transgenic chickens before but this will be the first time that this technology has been applied to produce therapeutic drugs. Helen Sang, leading the research team, said: "Technology used to create Dolly has allowed the production of valuable proteins needed for drug development in the milk of mammals.

"We now intend to take this technology a step further and develop transgenic chickens to produce eggs rich in protein-based drugs to treat cancer and other serious diseases," she said. Many current anti-cancer treatments being developed are protein-based such as Interferon. These drugs are complex, difficult to produce in large quantities, very expensive and in limited supply.

Chicken eggs promise much higher volumes, faster production times, unlimited capacity and lower costs. "While animals such as cows, sheep, goats and rabbits are being developed to produce proteins in their milk, avian technology promises a much faster, cheaper and virtually unlimited production process marked by the chicken prolific egg-laying capacity," Sang said.

Bill Stimson, a director of Viragen, said: "This system will allow the realisation of modern biotechnology because it will ensure that sufficient quantities of protein drugs are available for patient treatments. "The only way they can be produced today is by bacterial fermentation and we end up with milligram quantities - quite diluted. Whereas with the egg we are talking about hundreds of milligram per egg, perhaps up to half a gram."

The first genes to be given to the Roslin Institute by Viragen will be used to produce an antibody to melanoma - skin cancer. The next gene from Viragen to be developed by the research team should provide a protein drug against a number of cancers including lung and intestinal cancers.

(la/dpa)