Transgenic Lamb Clones Could Herald New Transplant Techniques

The company that helped create Dolly the sheep reports in today’s Nature that it has cloned two lambs from genetically modified cells in a technique that could prove a major step in animal-to-human organ transplants. PPL Therapeutics Plc of Edinburgh, Scotland, inserted new DNA in a specific place in sheep cells, fused the modified cells with sheep eggs from which the nucleus had been removed and produced two lambs, Cupid and Diana, with the genetic change. As a result, the lambs produce a human protein called alpha-1-antitrypsin in their milk.

Until now, scientists have only been able to produce transgenic mice. The success of the technique in sheep opens up new possibilities to produce specific genetic changes in mammals.

--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II