NEW YORK, June 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The following was released today by The
Roslin Institute in conjunction with their presentation at the '98
Biotechnology Industry Partnering Conference:
Dr. Harry Griffin, Assistant Director of the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh,
Scotland, reviewed the scientific developments on nuclear transfer at Roslin
over the past 12 months, and the progress made to date in exploiting Roslin
Institute's strong intellectual property position in this exciting field.
The Roslin Institute's major scientific achievement during the last year
was the creation, in collaboration with PPL Therapeutics, of the first
transgenic animals, Polly and Molly, by nuclear transfer. This was the latest
stepping stone towards the development of methods for the precise genetic
modification of livestock species for research and commercial use.
Dolly is the most famous of Roslin's cloned sheep to date and the recent
birth of her first lamb Bonnie helped confirm that clones can produce healthy
offspring. This is important to the commercialization of the nuclear transfer
technique that produced Dolly. When nuclear transfer is used, for example,
for the production of transgenic animals, a few founder cattle, sheep or pigs
can be expanded to produce larger flocks or herds by conventional breeding,
not cloning.
The nuclear transfer technology developed at the Roslin Institute is
covered by two patent applications filed by the Roslin Institute (Edinburgh)
with a priority date of 31 August 1995: PCT/GB96/02099 and PCT/GB96/02098.
"The potential for these technologies was unmistakable," said Griffin.
"Roslin Institute has been working hard to determine which options - licensing
agreements, joint ventures and the formation of a new company - were best in
each field of use."
Licensing agreements on its nuclear transfer technology have been made
with PPL Therapeutics and Roslin Bio-Med.
Roslin Bio-Med was established in April this year with $10 million backing
from 3i, Europe's leading specialist provider of investment capital. The
company has an exclusive license to the technology which led to the creation
of Dolly the sheep for all biomedical applications other than the production
of therapeutic proteins in milk of transgenic ruminants and rabbits and for
the modification of milk composition for nutraceutical use, which are licensed
to PPL Therapeutics.
Roslin BioMed has appointed Simon Best as CEO. He was formerly CEO of
Zeneca Plant Science and vice-chair of BIO's Food & Agriculture Division from
1994-96.
SOURCE Roslin Institute
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CONTACT:
Richard Cripps or Claire Gale, of Hayhurst
Conington Cripps, +44-1483-414182, or fax +44-1483-414157, for
The Roslin Institute
NOTE TO EDITORS: Further details are available from Roslin
Institute's web site on http://www.ri.bbsrc.ac.uk Roslin
Institute is a leading international center for research on farm
animals. Its research on quantitative genetics, genome analysis,
animal physiology and behavior is aimed at improving the
productivity and welfare of farm animals. Roslin Institute has
also pioneered the use of transgenic technology to create new
uses for farm animals. Its earlier work on directing expression
of human proteins to the mammary gland led to the creation in
1987 of PPL Therapeutics who is now one of the world's leading
companies in the transgenic production of human proteins for
therapeutic and nutritional use.
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