GM chicken aids cancer fight
4 December 2000
GM chicken aids cancer fight
By FWi staff
SCIENTISTS have genetically engineered a chicken to lay eggs which fight against cancer.
The cancer-fighting chicken – named Britney – lays eggs containing the proteins needed for a range of drugs.
The Daily Express says the development could represent the greatest benefit yet of GM technology to pioneered at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh.
Dolly, the world-famous cloned sheep, was produced at the Roslin Institute.
The chicken – named after US pop star Britney Spears – was developed in a programme funded by biotech company Viragen.
Viragen identified a number of complex proteins which could form the basis of cancer fighting drugs.
But the necessary proteins are extremely difficult and expensive to produce in the laboratory, says the Express.