Genetically engineered cattle could resist mad cow disease

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renegade

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Genetically engineered cattle could resist mad cow disease!!!!!

“Scientists at a South Dakota biotech company have genetically engineered cattle that appear to be resistant to mad cow disease. I have a paper published in the Monday issue of The Journal Nature Biotechnology, it reports.”

Although similar genetic engineering had been done in mice, this is the first time it has been accomplished in cattle.

The team of scientists first genetically engineered a line of cells in which the gene that produces the infectious proteins of mad cow disease — prions — was disabled. They then used those cells to clone 12 bulls so they were prevented from making the protein that, when "misfolded," causes prion diseases such as mad cow.

Those 12 bulls are now 2 years old and appear to be perfectly normal, says James Robl, president of Hematech Inc. in Sioux Falls, S.D., a biotech firm owned by the pharmaceutical division of Japanese brewing giant Kirin.

Although misfolded prions are not alive in the conventional sense, they can cause other proteins they come in contact with to misfold as well, creating the holes in the brain that characterize bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or spongy brain disease) in cattle and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and other mammals.

When scientists took brain cells from the resistant cattle and mixed them with prions in a test tube, the brain cells did not misfold. Brain cells from normal cattle did.

"That's a pretty good indication that they will not be able to contract the disease, nor would they be able to pass the disease on," Robl says.

Researchers injected mad cow-infected brain cells into the brains of some of the resistant cattle to see whether they develop the disease.

"In 11/2 years we'll have an answer," because prion diseases are so slow to develop, says Jürgen Richt, a co-author on the paper and veterinary microbiologist at the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa.


The bulls appear to be developmentally and reproductively normal and should be able to breed true, creating a line of mad cow-resistant cattle, Robl says.
Because they are still adolescents, they have not yet been bred, but their semen appears to be normal.

The cattle are not meant for human consumption, Robl says. If they prove incapable of getting mad cow disease, they could be used to produce products important to industry, such as blood serum used in making pharmaceuticals and collagen for cosmetics. George Seidel, a reproduction technologies expert at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, calls the research "elegant," but with mad cow disease so rare in North America, it's more a niche market: "There are much easier ways … than to make transgenic cattle."




I was just wondering if anyone else had heard about this and what you all think about it.. I was looking for a topic for my Prepared public speech for an FFA contest and i came along this.  It seems as though it would have been pretty big news. i dont know if i am just out of it or if this is old news but it seems interesting.

P.S. I am still looking for a good topic. Examples are reintroduction of wolves into idaho, geneticly modified organisms,water shortages,avian bird flu,ect.
 

ELBEE

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On the pessimistic side, first red "flag" I see is calling a two year old adolescent. Two year olds should have the capability of having progeny on the ground already. On an issue this monumental I'd think they'd want to breed sooner.
 

knabe

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any of the topics you mentioned are good topics.  i think it would be interesting to put a bunch of things people die from  in one column, including BSA milk, transgenic corn, etc along with hospital visits, car accidents, different types of cancer,etc and have people place where they thought the number of deaths were.  in another column, somehow measure the fear ofthe unknown on some scale for each item.  then give them the answers, and see if they change any of the fear factor.  as usual, the phrase, "but we just don't know", ie fear, agenda etc rules rather than reality and this works its way into policy.  witness the recent proposed law out of congress to mandate shortwave radios with each purchase of a mobile home.  radio costs $30, but there is no law to mandate that the owner turns it on or can't sell it.  amazing.  also amazing is that some of the reason for the foreclosure rate on homes today is that we as a society never taught our kids to know when they purchased something they couldn't afford.  we tell everyone to purchase as much home as we can afford.  this may have been ok when it was routine to put 20% down on a house, but now, you don't have to put anything down, and we are bailing people and corporations out that have no ability to figure out basic math.  we are paying some dude 160,000,000 to leave merrill lynch because he pushed this nonsense.  amazing how gullible we are.

as far as the transgenic cows/bulls go, they will probably not get into the food chain because of the successful labeling of such ventures as frankenfood.  america is far more damaged from high fructose corn syrup than the antibiotic and herbicide resistance genes.  that said, i think something like 70% of soybean and corn is transgenic, alfalfa now is etc. so maybe it's coming for animals.

here's another link on hematech
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/08/13/tech/main518504.shtml

here's a snippet about kirin that is largely unknown outside the biotech arena.
A number of joint ventures with American companies established in the 1980s increased Kirin's participation in the field of biotechnology. In 1984 Kirin completed a 50-50 venture--known as Kirin-Amgen, Inc.--with Amgen Inc., a California-based company, to develop and market a synthetic human hormone to treat anemia. This pharmaceutical, called Erythropoietin, was created to help patients undergoing kidney dialysis. In the past, many patients commonly became anemic and required blood transfusions during treatment. Another potential application was as a drug for cancer patients suffering blood cell reduction from chemotherapy. Kirin also combined its resources with an agricultural biotechnology company, Plant Genetics Inc., to develop synthetic seeds for a variety of agricultural products.

they also developed large growing vats (think beer) except for bacteria for amgen as well.  these guys are huge, and brewing seems only a hobby now.  my former company we had a collaboration with them to find important totipotent genes, ie stem cells.  the fruits of this collaboration at some point will be found, as they found interesting genes in bone marrow. 

the future is bright, no matter how dim I seem sometimes.
 

justme

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when I seen the topic, I knew Knabe would be salivating to get at it! (lol)
 

knabe

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dang, i forgot to mention Erythropoietin is a RARELY transcribed gene and is extremely difficult to obtain by screening libraries.  at my previous company, it took a long time to "refind" it and was used as sort of a postivie control to test the depth of cDNA library screening.  it is also known as EPO and is used by athletes illegally to give extra oxygen in the blood.  it is a tested for substance, most notably used by runners and bicyclists.  the company had projects with both amgen and kirin.  also forgot to mention this

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v12/n6/abs/nbt0694-606.html

basically saying that at some point that embryo's should be able to be routinely tested for a variety of genes before implantation.

can you say sexing, PHA, TH, monkey mouth, dwarfism, tenderness genes, carcass genes, oh this list is long indeed.  an alternative to sexing sperm with the added benefit of being able to test for other genes, as oppossed to just increasing the odds from 50% to something over 80%.
 

shorthorns r us

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knabe said:
dang, i forgot to mention Erythropoietin is a RARELY transcribed gene and is extremely difficult to obtain by screening libraries.  at my previous company, it took a long time to "refind" it and was used as sort of a postivie control to test the depth of cDNA library screening.  it is also known as EPO and is used by athletes illegally to give extra oxygen in the blood.  it is a tested for substance, most notably used by runners and bicyclists.  the company had projects with both amgen and kirin.  also forgot to mention this

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v12/n6/abs/nbt0694-606.html

basically saying that at some point that embryo's should be able to be routinely tested for a variety of genes before implantation.

can you say sexing, PHA, TH, monkey mouth, dwarfism, tenderness genes, carcass genes, oh this list is long indeed.  an alternative to sexing sperm with the added benefit of being able to test for other genes, as oppossed to just increasing the odds from 50% to something over 80%.


several alpine skiers were dqed from the last winter games for using epo
 

knabe

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sorry to hog this one, but got to thinking.  beer is a "sin".  kirin is using the "sin tax" better than the government uses them, ie cigarettes to better mankind to make drugs like epo and other health care related items.  our government is trying to pass the new child care act with financing from cigarette tax.  totally stupid.  so now i have to smoke to save the kids?

typical political slogan, but it's for the kids.  america is weak.
 

dori36

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<<
P.S. I am still looking for a good topic. Examples are reintroduction of wolves into idaho, geneticly modified organisms,water shortages,avian bird flu,ect.>>

How about "Wolves in Idaho, MT, WY to be removed from Endangered Species List.  What now?"
 

knabe

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a magazine called "range" covers introduction of wolves rather extensively from a ranchers perspective, though i gotta admit, i'm a little worried that they do enough fact checking.  they cover it from an angle that some of the "wolves" are not wolves at all, but are crossbreds, and that ranchers can't kill these either without getting the feds all upset.

here's bill richardson's response to range magazine on his blog, he's running for president, and i definately do not endorse him, but he has an opinion.
http://action.richardsonforpresident.com/page/community/post/heartofthewolf/CLJ8

he points out that two things that are diametrically oppossed can be equally true.

here's some range articles
http://www.rangemagazine.com/archives/stories/winter02/wolf.htm
http://nbarranch.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=b5d0688424c924bb044aac7cca2df997&topic=239;prev_next=next
http://wolfcrossing.org/blog/2007/05/22/range-magazine-special-report-land-in-crisis/
http://www.heartofthewolf.org/RangeResponse.htm
http://sinapu.wordpress.com/2007/05/11/conservationists-request-suspension-of-mexican-wolf-killing-%E2%80%9Cpredator-control%E2%80%9D-policy/





 

itk

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One of the best meetings I ever went to in my life was called "Killer Tomatoes." The idea behind the meeting was that everyone who eats a tomato at any point in their life will eventually die. I know that all of us on this board have eaten a tomato at sometime during our life, and eventually we will all die so there has to be a correlation right? Basically the meeting put into scientific data all of the things that the media gets so worked up about that in reality are fractions of fractions of the truth. I feel that mad cow is sort of the same thing. Yes it is a horrible disease but the number of animals that are effected out of the entire bovine population is almost non-existant. However the media gets ahold of video of a down cow at a processing plant and mad cow turns into an epidemic. The science behind the resistant cattle is indeed cutting edge but I don't forsee them being relevant in the larger picture of the cattle industry. In theory if we all follow the feed ban that has been in place for years the disease should eradicate itself as all of the diseased cattle die off and are not allowed to enter back into the food chain.
 

shortyisqueen

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Or we could just skip a step and geneticallly engineer people to be resistant to mad cow instead. Then, even if they ate mad-cow infected beef, they'd still be safe
;D  (dog)
 

dori36

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knabe said:
dang, i forgot to mention Erythropoietin is a RARELY transcribed gene and is extremely difficult to obtain by screening libraries.  at my previous company, it took a long time to "refind" it and was used as sort of a postivie control to test the depth of cDNA library screening.  it is also known as EPO and is used by athletes illegally to give extra oxygen in the blood.  it is a tested for substance, most notably used by runners and bicyclists.  the company had projects with both amgen and kirin.  also forgot to mention this

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v12/n6/abs/nbt0694-606.html

basically saying that at some point that embryo's should be able to be routinely tested for a variety of genes before implantation.

can you say sexing, PHA, TH, monkey mouth, dwarfism, tenderness genes, carcass genes, oh this list is long indeed.  an alternative to sexing sperm with the added benefit of being able to test for other genes, as oppossed to just increasing the odds from 50% to something over 80%.


As a relative newcomer to this Board and knowing no one except TJ before I joined --- I'm curious, Knabe, what you do for a "day job"?  Or do you glean your considerbable knowledge from voracious reading?  Obviously, you love the posts that have some good scientific "meat" to them and/or some good old "interesting" politics.  I'm not looking to criticize - just curious, if you care to share with this newcomer.  Thanks!
 

knabe

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i've shared before.

quick recap.  great grandparents settled with the land rush in KS and OK.  family still has the land, though on the KS side it's about ready to go under.  holdings have diminished greatly as family basically drained the capital to keep up with the jones.  during the dustbowl, the family moved to tx and road it out instead of going to CA.  went back, tried farming for a long time and failed, but land had a small amount of oil, and along with leases, kept my grandmother and aunt tidy.  dad joined navy, stayed for 30 some years, then to lockheed.  i grew up in silicon valley went to a hs that had a science emphasis, and out of HS was apple employee 300.  did stupid stuff wasting time, went back to farms to get back to my "roots".  got a degree in agronomy from cal poly with about 30% extra units in 4 years.  these included animal science and other biology classes including plant biotech.  got a job screening herbicides, in silicon valley if you can believe that.  had outstanding apps to grad school, went to north carolina state, got a ms degree in plant molec bio.  got a job at a seed company screening for genes of interest as well as looking for markers associated with other ones.  did a massive test on integrating 3 recessive genes in corn for an alternative to current sweet corn varieties that didn't prove to do to much taste test wise.  did lots of work on lettuce and a spineless cucumber variety.  seed business is tough, and they downsized.  then went to a dna chip company screening cdna libraries and sequencing on chips. left after 7 years, went to a university sequencing lab participating the genome project and sequencing cdna's again.  lots of robotics, integration, cost savings, tool design, yelling, backfighting etc.  found out how a lot of venture capital money is wasted on phony milestones between friends at different companies and how underwriting works, especially if you are on the staff of the company as well.  then you get almost total control over who gets what stock, and can virtually guarantee you get the lions share.  amazing how little is left to expand the company and how little is actually used on expanding the company.  for me cattle is a hobby.  i do read a lot on a variety of subjects.  i sit on a resource conservation district board, and write letters to the editor a lot.

i don't have the hands on experience that barrel racer does with individual genes and finding them with new technology and doing knockouts.  that is a whole different ball game.
 

dori36

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<<i've shared before.
quick recap.  great grandparents settled with the land rush in KS and OK.  family still has the land, though on the KS side it's about ready to go under....>>

Cool!  Thanks!
 

renegade

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I would love to do a speech on wolves but i think if it was used two years or less ago at state it cant be used, after two years it is free game; im gonna check the status on the topic.  Here its not so much that wolves are cross bred or that they have been reintroduced.  its the fact that when wolves were radicated the first time they were grey wolves not these huge alaskan brutes.  Grey wolves did take down some livestock and wild life but not nearly as bad as these wolves.  These wolves take down hundreds of sheep at one time, killing(not eating) about half, leaving about 1/4 of a flock mutulated and the rest would be scattered among the hills to be rounded up. They kill but dont eat but maybe one meal.  It doesnt make a huge impact on me until i go to hunt and notice numbers are WAY down.  You can read horror stories of hunts by these wolves and whats worse is they arent extremly afraid of humans.
 
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