Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

Engineered Hens Lay Cancer-Fighting Eggs

Posted by kdawson on Sun Jan 14, 2007 06:04 PM
from the egg-a-day-keeps-the-tumors-away dept.
Biotech Science
celardore writes "Hens that lay eggs containing cancer-fighting proteins have been developed in Scotland. While not themselves cancer-antagonistic, the proteins can be used to create drugs that have cancer-fighting potential. The hens are, in effect, factories for cancer drug precursors. It is still unknown whether the resulting drugs would work in practice, and clinical trials are 5 years off. This research was conducted by the Roslin Institute, the ones responsible for Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal."
+ -
story
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Engineered Hens Lay Cancer-Fighting Eggs 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.

  • So which came first? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Timesprout (579035) on Sunday January 14 2007, @06:22PM (#17607120)
    The protein or the cancer?

  • the question remains (Score:5, Funny)

    by macadamia_harold (947445) on Sunday January 14 2007, @06:26PM (#17607164) Homepage
    The hens are, in effect, factories for cancer drugs. It is still unknown whether the resulting drugs would work in practice, and clinical trials are 5 years off.

    Clinical trials are 5 years off? What are they, chicken?

  • I will not eat... (Score:3, Funny)

    by p0rnographer (1051212) on Sunday January 14 2007, @06:30PM (#17607212)
    green cancer fighting eggs and ham...

  • Lame Star Trek Joke... (Score:3, Funny)

    by creimer (824291) on Sunday January 14 2007, @06:39PM (#17607296) Homepage
    Laying an egg is a job where no engineer has gone before. :P

  • Eggs? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MMC Monster (602931)
    Man, think about the cholesterol! I'm waiting for eggs that contain a statin and lower my cholesterol.

    But seriously, why is this so much better than using a virus or phage as the vector for reproducing a protein?
    • For one thing, it's easier to keep egg whites contained.
      You get a lot of egg white at once. Chickens lay lots of large eggs, and the ones allowed to grow up to be chickens lay lots more large eggs. Each egg contains more white than the average petri dish can hold.
      It's also simpler to feed a chicken than to feed a petri dish.
    • "But seriously, why is this so much better than using a virus or phage as the vector for reproducing a protein?"

      It's easy to breed and care for chickens. We've been doing it for thousands of years. Viruses and phages require labs and exacting environmental control.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The problem with using a virus or phage system stems from the fact that these are prokaryote based systems. Many proteins need post-translational modifications such as cleavage, methylation, SUMOylation, etc. that only occur in eukaryotic systems such as man or chickens
  • "I for one welcome our genetically engineered chicken overloads!"

    (I'm surprised no one else brought this up yet :)

  • Okay, no serious posts yet, so I'll bite (Score:5, Insightful)

    by alshithead (981606) * on Sunday January 14 2007, @06:54PM (#17607398)
    This has the potential to be a great advance in medicine and science related to cancer. Those of you who are trying for funny or sarcastic posts...would you rather have an option other than dying if you were diagnosed with cancer? I know that some folks out there won't be happy due to manipulation of "God's creatures" but if my wife, parents, or me was diagnosed with cancer, I would want as many options available as possible. This really is a potentially huge step in fighting cancers. It is especially important when you consider how few options there are in fighting most types of cancer. Chemotherapy is a long shot most times and makes you sick as hell before you MIGHT get better. Surgery has many shortfalls besides being invasive. This could be a huge step in making cancer a problem with much better odds of beating.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by KokorHekkus (986906)
      I agree with you but I guess that genetically modified cows would be a better source for tailored proteins. If there is a problem with getting enough viable animals (as has been with cloneing) to produce these tailored proteins then cows should be able to make massive amounts of these over their lifetime compared to chicken.

      As for the "rightness" of manipulating animals to produce these proteins I think it's way more justified than just using them for our food. Any animal actually producing medical help
      • "I agree with you but I guess that genetically modified cows would be a better source for tailored proteins. If there is a problem with getting enough viable animals (as has been with cloneing) to produce these tailored proteins then cows should be able to make massive amounts of these over their lifetime compared to chicken. "

        I agree in general. My wife and I raised chickens and ducks for eggs, not meat. They were pets and we enjoyed them immensely. You might be surprised however at their longevity. We

        • Re: KFC (Score:4, Funny)

          by tomhudson (43916) <hudson@videotQUOTEron.ca minus punct> on Sunday January 14 2007, @08:50PM (#17608346) Journal

          Their importance as a medicinal source makes them much more valuable than just another KFC bucket.

          I'm still waiting for them to cross chickens with octopii ... everyone gets a drumstick.

          Chickens are better than cows. The furst words of the article summary:

          "Hens that lay eggs containing cancer-fighting proteins ...

          Somehow, I don't see cow eggs as being able to compete, either in quantity, or in ease of access, to hen eggs :-)

          • "Somehow, I don't see cow eggs as being able to compete, either in quantity, or in ease of access, to hen eggs :-)"

            Ahh! But what about cow milk! :)

            • Hens can start laying eggs after 20 weeks.
              http://gworrell.freeyellow.com/chickenfaq.html [freeyellow.com]

              Cows, on the other hand, only start producing milk after their first calf (so 2 years old before they get preggo, then another 9 months gestation). http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/farm/cows/cow_milk.h tml [animalcorner.co.uk]

              Also, you can use lower-quality feed for chickens - up to 87% chicken shit.

              • From experience...chickens can and will start laying before 20 weeks. Ducks too. That's a great benefit with chickens over cows. Plus, chickens require a lot less feed and care than cows. Of course avian flu might have the potential to fuck things up a bit. No matter, a cancer fighting benefit from either is a huge plus.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Nutty_Irishman (729030)
      Dealth is something we all have to face some day. Whether it be from Cancer, Heart attack, or a car accident. We joke about it because it's our way to relate to something that we know will happen to us.

      Me, I'm not worried about death itself, but the way I go. Every 10 years, the average life expectancy increases by 2 1/2 years-- yet very little has been done to increase the quality of life in our later ages. I'd rather die young while my quality of life is good than older stuck in a nursing home having
      • [quote]...very little has been done to increase the quality of life in our later ages...[/quote] While I am not trying to suggest that I am satisfied with progress on geriatric quality of life, I am curious to know how you quantify this statement. I can only offer anecdotal evidence, within my own lifespan I have personally witnessed what appears to be a very significant improvement in the quality of life at later ages. I barely knew my paternal grandfather, who died at 56 of a heart attack. What little
  • So now we've created Axlotl Hens? Next step, Axlotl tanks.
  • and says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs."
  • you're screwed if you're a vegan
    • Well that goes without saying.
    • ummm...you don't eat them - the proteins (interferon b-1a, miR24) are extracted from the egg whites and used in creating treatments for various types of cancers as well as other diseases such as MS. I imagine it's less expensive than creating those proteins artifically in a lab like *i think* they do for insulin (also a protein) ...that's kewl.
  • This is a self-contradicting article. It claims that these chickens have cancer fighting proteins... but then turns around and says that not only is it not known if this stuff will actually work (huh?), but we won't even know for 5 more years.

    What, may I ask, is the friggin' point of this article? (Other than to get people's hopes up and sell news?)
  • These aren't normal chickens...these are cylon chickens!
  • perhaps if they clone a low cholesteral pig, we could enjoy healthy bacon, and an engineered egg or two. and dont forget some engineered wheat to process into some bread for toast. yes, and make it whole (engineered) wheat bread, with a margerine made from engineered corn......hold it, if this was eaten BY an engineer, would that make him/her a cannibal?
  • That is actually fantastic news, and should prove to be a huge benefit to the production of otherwise expensive proteins for use in medicine. Well done !!

    I particularly like this quote from the article :

    'The only real problem is collecting the eggs. Unlike standard chickens, these muthers have 8 legs, and shoot laser beams out of their eyes - which makes collecting the eggs a real bastard of a job'.
  • "Hens that lay eggs containing cancer-fighting proteins...

    Here, let me get things started with a couple of yolks:

    • Doctor, handing two eggs to a patient, "Take two of these and call me in the morning."
    • That's gonna be a tough pill to swallow.
    • Medicine is not all it's cracked up to be.
  • A few problems that will cause this idea to take several years to, er, hatch...

    Genetically engineered animals and plants have been used to make therapeutic proteins before (but not commercially yet, AFAIK). However, a good fraction of the cost in making such proteins is the purification, not the initial production. Animals, plants, eggs, milk all have to be purified before a therapeutic drug is usable and the costs there are more like phoenix feed. [Such drugs have to be injected, you can't eat the eg

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by kokyuho (151933)
      Ho Hum. Nice article but a bit anticlimactic. These guys are NOT the first to do this. Roslin institute is more than a year behind at least one other company. A good friend of mine, by the name of William MacArthur who is a brilliant Molecular Biologist, founded a company called Geneworks in Ann Arbor, Michigan several years ago with the goal of creating transgenic chickens that do exactly the same thing as the chickens described in the article. He succeeded and more than a year ago had pure-breeding, trans
  • Hmmm... genetically engineering chickens with human DNA.

    Am I just paranoid, or is this a good way of helping bird-flu jump the species barrier ?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by debilo (612116)
      So once again, someone who thought he has solved the chicken and egg problem was wrong!

      I've never understood all the fuss about the chicken and egg problem - they both taste great.
    • Ye, we should wait untill nanotechnology proves that organisms are only machines aswel! /joke
      I know there are ethical concerns, but things like these can be done ethically and with reasonable risks.
      BTW I mean real nanotechnology! Not the precursor we have now! The small machines need to build themselves for a large part.
      • I welcome my time-traveling monkey genetic-tampering overlords! I just don't want scientists messin' with the genetics of the veggies and animals that I eat!

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.