Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 13, 1990 TAG: 9007130263
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The protein - known as Protein C - prevents the blood from clotting.
The protein could be used to treat people with certain illnesses, including heart attack victims and children with rare blood disorders.
If the pig trial is successful, scientists hope to use the same process to raise dairy cows with the human gene, which could produce large quantities of the protein in their milk.
The research was explained Thursday afternoon to those attending Agri-Tech, Virginia Tech's annual showcase of its agricultural programs.
Tracy Wilkins, a Tech microbiologist helping lead the transgenic pig research, said as many as 1 million people a year could be helped by treatment with the protein, which is a naturally occuring component in blood plasma.
Wilkins explained that researchers combined a mouse gene with the human gene in the lab before injecting it into the single-celled pig embryo.
The mouse gene causes the human gene only to function in the pig's milk glands.
The researchers have a female pig that they hope will produce the protein once she bears young and begins making milk.
The pig's name is Genie and she's being guarded like a baby at the Tech lab, they said.
If Genie produces the protein, a small percentage of her offspring also can be expected to produce it.
Wilkins said the researchers plan to milk the pigs, which can give up to 1 gallon of milk a day, and may not need to take the next step to dairy cows.
But it's estimated that if cows are used for the process, no more than 1,200 would be needed to produce all the protein required to treat the people who need it.
The value of the protein from a single cow could run up to $1 million yearly, Wilkins said.
Bill Velander, a chemical engineer and Wilkins' fellow researcher, said the same process could be used to produce large quantities of other human proteins that could be used to treat different diseases.
One such protein is Factor VIII, which is lacking in the blood of hemophiliacs, people whose blood does not clot properly.
Another Agri-Tech speaker, Charles Hess, said the agricultural research going on at Tech and in other institutions around the country is essential if the United States is to maintain its competitiveness in the global marketplace and to farm its land in environmentally sensitive ways.
Hess, an assistant U.S. secretary of agriculture for science and education, said the Senate version of a new farm bill making its way through Congress worries him.
The Senate bill sets guidelines for agricultural research, requiring that federal money be directed at improving the social and economic condition of rural America.
"I have serious concerns that this . . . regulation of research may constrain the freedom of inquiry," Hess said.
"Once you start down the path of regulating what research we can or cannot do, we are on the road to a return to the Dark Ages," he said.
Agri-Tech continues at Blacksburg today with Hess' boss, Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter, scheduled to speak at 11 this morning at the animal science farm.
by CNB