Scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Universidade de São Paulo have created the first transgenic cow that can produce human insulin in her milk, marking a significant breakthrough.
“Mother Nature designed the mammary gland as a factory to make protein really, really efficiently. We can take advantage of that system to produce a protein that can help hundreds of millions of people worldwide,” said Matt Wheeler, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences
Wheeler's friends in Brazil inserted a section of human DNA responsible for producing proinsulin, the precursor to insulin, into the cells of 10 cow embryos. These embryos were implanted into regular cows' wombs. Only one calf with the new gene was born.
Thanks to advancements in genetic technology, they ensured that the human DNA would only activate in the cow's mammary glands, which produce milk. This enabled the production of human insulin specifically in the mammary glands of the modified cows.
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