Genetically modified chickens lay drugs in eggs

British scientists have succeeded in producing multiple generations of genetically altered, or transgenic, hens that produce functional pharmaceutical proteins in the whites of their eggs.

To transfer drug-making genes into chickens, Dr. Helen M. Sang from the Roslin Institute in Scotland and her associates used a lentivirus carrier from which all viral coding sequences were deleted. The genetic material was replaced with the gene regulating ovalbumin production combined with genes for making human interferon or an antibody targeting malignant melanoma.

“This construct is used to incorporate new protein genes into the chicken chromosome,” Dr. Sang told Reuters Health.