The development of a novel transgenic technology

Atazoa有限公司发现，广泛用于育种目的的农场动物射精中的精子可以进行基因改造。目前，这种基因改造包括将一种编码绿色荧光蛋白（GFP）的基因引入精子中，这种蛋白在显微镜下很容易看到。这种蛋白质本身没有治疗价值，但它确实提供了一种简单的方法来测试和改进将基因引入精子所需的技术。它还将使我们能够测试通过这种方法引入精子的基因是否可以通过体外受精遗传，以及遗传的效率如何。这种技术具有潜在的巨大价值，因为目前将基因引入大型动物体内的方法效率低下且昂贵。这里提出的新技术有望促进转基因动物的繁殖，这对于开发和发现新的治疗方法具有重要价值。

Atazoa Ltd have found that spermatozoa present in farm animal ejaculates, which are widely used for breeding purposes, can be genetically modified. At present this genetic modification consists of introducing a gene into spermatozoa that encodes a green fluorescent protein (GFP), which can be easily seen by microscopy. This protein is of no therapeutic value in itself but it does provide a simple means to test and improve upon the techniques that are required to introduce genes into sperm. It will also allow us to test whether genes that are introduced into sperm by this method can be inherited through in vitro fertilisation and at what efficiency. This type of technology is potentially of great value because current means of introducing genes into larger animals are very inefficient and expensive. The new technology proposed here promises to facilitate the breeding of genetically modified animals, which are already known to be of great value for the development and discovery of new therapeutic treatments.