No one is most proud of the sensational effect caused by the birth of "Dolly" than PPL, the sponsor of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. Since "Dolly" has appeared frequently in various news media around the world , the company's stock price rose by 65.
Biologists are not surprised by this new breakthrough in science. Professor Chen Yongfu, a member of China's National 863 Program Biotechnology Expert Committee, said: "We have known for a long time that it will come sooner or later. Those who are causing panic in newspapers and TV outside are all laymen."
However, PPL Company wants to This is the effect. "This is definitely a shot in the arm," said Dr. Alan Kullman, general manager of PPL and director of the Roslin Institute. The company, which has been losing money for years, is now ambitiously talking about a market worth $1 billion in the next 10 years.
According to Chen Dong of China Agricultural University, who worked as a visiting scholar at PPL Company, the Scots actually mastered the somatic cell cloning technology three years ago, but kept it strictly confidential until early this year. Only after the technology patent application was approved did PPL make it public to the outside world.
PPL is a pharmaceutical company that uses genetically modified technology to produce drugs in animals. The genetically modified sheep they are currently breeding can produce human AAT protein used to treat cystic fibrosis. The half-liter of milk produced by the first generation of genetically modified sheep contains 10 grams of this AAT protein every day. However, using conventional microbial fermentation methods requires an investment of US$25 million in a set of equipment, and the monthly output is only 2-3 grams. The output of a single transgenic sheep in one day is equivalent to one month of production in a large biopharmaceutical factory. In the international market, 1 gram of human protein sells for at least US$100,000.
However, segregation will occur simply through transgenic inheritance. The expression level in the second-generation transgenic goat milk bred by PPL Company through hermaphrodite breeding is only 2-3 grams/liter. The use of somatic cell cloning technology can not only fix excellent genetically modified traits, but also quickly replicate large numbers of sheep. Therefore, although the British government has stopped funding the Roslin Institute's plan to replicate sheep, PPL is still full of confidence, Alan Dr. Kuhlmann claimed in an interview with a reporter from French newspaper Le Monde: "We are currently extending asexual reproduction to cattle and pigs, and we can also hope to use this technology to copy a genetically modified sheep. Now it seems that several We will be able to get it in a few months.”
The development of science has created new investment directions with huge profits. This is why more and more enterprises and companies are involved in the field of biotechnology. In the business society, the phenomenon of scientific research and production development such as Roslin Institute and PPL is very common. From the launch of satellites to the F1 Grand Prix, in many cases, business competition and competition between scientists or high technology are presented at the same time. Life sciences, especially genetic engineering, as the most vital emerging field, are particularly prominent in this regard. At present, although Wall Street, which is known for focusing on short-term benefits, has responded coldly to the birth of "Dolly", many business people from the United States to Western Europe and even Australia realize that asexual reproduction is the most profitable business in the future. PPL's ??competitors are even more eager to catch up. Genayme, a company in Massachusetts, USA, has extracted antithrombin III from genetically modified sheep, which can be used to make anticoagulants. It has completed the second phase of human clinical trials and will soon be promoted to the European market; another pharmaceutical company, Aleion, is Concentrate on research on cultivating hearts and kidneys in pigs that are not rejected by the human body. Although the whole world is discussing the terrifying prospect of human cloning, no one can forget the huge potential economic value that cloning technology brings to medicine and animal husbandry.
As early as April 1988, the U.S. Patent Office issued the world's first "animal invention patent" to Harvard University - the "Harvard Mouse", which was dubbed a "milestone" by the Washington Post. name. Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart of Harvard University discovered a gene that causes cancer in many people and animals. They cultivated this gene through artificial simulated conditions and made partial changes to its chromosomes. , implanted into early mouse embryos.
After birth, the cells in this mouse's body contain oncogenes, and they will become ill as long as they are exposed to a very small amount of chemical carcinogens. Therefore, this "Harvard mouse" is an ideal artificial cancer model and test material. Carcinogens can be determined promptly. According to reports, this patent has brought millions of dollars in benefits to the two scientists.
Even for scientific prospects that have not yet been realized, their potential commercial value may be advanced. The technical problem of cryonic human reanimation is far from being solved. However, the business of the American "Cryonics Company", which has been in business since the late 1960s, has been declining.
Not every emergence of science and technology has commercial implications, but biological genetics and new reproductive technologies do have rich economic connotations. (According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the market size of such biotechnology products will exceed US$50 billion in 2000.) Although 60% of the public opposes it, "borrowed children" can be used in 39 states in the United States. It is still a legal business. As long as you spend $10,000, you can have a baby and avoid the pain of pregnancy. In Germany, the authorities have strictly banned the "surrogate mother" business with heavy fines, but there are still nearly 10,000 "surrogate mothers" waiting to be sold. Whether it is somatic cell cloning, embryo cloning, or in vitro fertilization technology, oocytes are indispensable. Therefore, after sperm banks, "egg banks" have appeared in some countries. In the United States, there are currently 125 medical units with 500 —Buy eggs in large quantities for $1,200.
In this way, the technological breakthrough of sheep cloning does have great application value. From the perspective of commercial value, it is an inexhaustible gold mine.