Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Science

Mutant Sheep Are Being Bred In Lab To Fight Lethal Child Brain Disease (theguardian.com) 16

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Scientists have created a flock of sheep that carry the gene for a lethal inherited brain disorder in humans. The condition, Batten disease, usually starts in childhood and is invariably fatal, often within a few years of diagnosis. The project, which is designed to test treatments for the disease, is based at Edinburgh University's Roslin Institute, where cloning techniques were used to create Dolly the sheep in 1996. The scientists acknowledge that the approach could be controversial as it involves creating animals programmed to die, but stress that their aim is to alleviate human suffering.

There are several types of Batten disease, said project leader Tom Wishart. "One of the more rapid types is CLN1, and that's what we have recreated in our sheep." The Roslin scientists used the gene-editing technique Crispr-Cas9 to create the faulty CLN1 gene in the sheep. "We collected sheep embryos from the abattoir," Wishart said. "Then we fertilized them and added Crispr reagents to alter their genetic structure before implanting the embryos into a surrogate sheep's uterus." Three sheep were born that each possessed two copies of the CLN1 gene with the same mutation found in affected humans. They began to show many symptoms of Batten disease, including changes in behavior and brain size. Other sheep were engineered to carry only a single copy of the gene. "These are symptomless carriers, like the parents of Batten disease children," said Wishart. "From these we can breed sheep that have two faulty copies of the CLN1 gene. These will go on to develop a disease like those children, and will be the ones to test our therapies."

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Mutant Sheep Are Being Bred In Lab To Fight Lethal Child Brain Disease

Comments Filter:
  • Dupe (Score:4, Informative)

    by therealobsideus ( 1610557 ) on Friday August 30, 2019 @10:40PM (#59143058)
  • Now for a useless urination contest over whether vi or Emacs was used in this crucial item of computational development.

  • "The scientists acknowledge that the approach could be controversial as it involves creating animals programmed to die, but stress that their aim is to alleviate human suffering."

    Don't they also say that's a distinction without a difference?
    • One's sentient, the other goes well with mint sauce. Human life > sheep life. Sorry sheep, demonstrate sentience and I might change my mind on that one, but I don't see the problem using animal models, even if they are ones altered to mimic human diseases.
    • "The scientists acknowledge that the approach could be controversial as it involves creating animals programmed to die, but stress that their aim is to alleviate human suffering."

      Don't they also say that's a distinction without a difference?

      We breed sheep all the time . . . only with the intent to kill them and turn them into a yummy leg of lamb.

      That's where I don't see any difference. But we all love sheep; they are cute and cuddly like "Shaun the Sheep".

      Maybe animal rights folks would argue that the disease causes more suffering than a bolt through the brain. But animal rights folks probably don't like the bolts either.

    • It makes a difference tot he human.
  • I hope something doesn't go b-a-a-a-a-d.

  • After another week or so we'll be able to count the occurrences of this article to fall asleep at night.

  • Anybody remembering "O lucky man" with Malcolm McDowell, the sheep scene?

  • Our grandson was diagnosed with Late Infantile Batten Disease at around the age of 3. He quite rapidly lost his speech and ability to walk. Then he could not swallow so a PEG tube was put in so he could be fed. By the time he was 6, he only was able to move his legs a little. Not his arms or body at all. And he was on strong palliative care pain killers for severe nerve pain. Shortly after his 6th birthday, he died. I still miss him, 6 years later. In the morning, it is Father's Day (Sunday 1st Sept) here
  • Maybe not "Norstrilia", exactly, but I'm not going to miss an opportunity to mention a brilliant, forgotten SF author who wrote about giant, diseased mutant sheep and the farmers who harvest immortality from them.

An authority is a person who can tell you more about something than you really care to know.

Working...