Avian transgenesis: progress towards the promise

• Published in: Trends in biotechnology (Regular ed.) Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 14 - 19
• Main Author: Ivarie, Robert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2003; Elsevier Science; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Animals; Artificial insemination; Automation; Biological and medical sciences; Bioreactors; Biotechnology; Birds; Blastocyst - metabolism; Chick Embryo; Chickens; Cytoplasm - metabolism; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Embryos; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene expression; Gene Transfer Techniques; Genetic engineering; Genetic Techniques; Genome; Genomes; Growth hormones; Manufacturing; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Milk; Organisms; Polypeptides; Protein engineering; Proteins; Retroviridae - genetics; Rodents; Sperm; Stem Cells - cytology; Transgenes; Hen; Vertebrata; Bioreactor; Industrial application; Production; Transgenic animal; Review; Egg white; Recombinant protein; Aves; Gene expression; Pharmaceutical industry
• ISSN: 0167-7799; 1879-3096
• DOI: 10.1016/S0167-7799(02)00009-4

The hen has long held promise as a low cost, high-yield bioreactor for the production of human biopharmaceuticals in egg whites. A typical egg white contains 3.5–4.0 grams of protein, more than half of which comes from a single gene (ovalbumin). Harnessing the power of the gene to express a recombinant protein could yield up to a gram or more of the protein in the naturally sterile egg. Accordingly, a major effort has been underway for more than a decade to develop robust methods for modification of the chicken genome. This effort intensified in the mid-1990s when several avian transgenic companies entered the scene. Progress has been made in that time but much remains to be done.