Chimeric bird from embryonic stem cells

Patent Number: 7,145,057

Trangenic animals have been very useful in the basic sciences in terms of elucidating biological activities of specific proteins in an in vivo situation. In terms of developing therapeutics, transgenic animals are useful for a wide variety of practical purposes ranging from in vivo production of recombinant proteins for human use, to serving as bioincubators for tissue and three-dimensional scaffolds. In addition, the ability to generate transgenic animals allows for interesting uses in farming and agriculture, for example generation of disease-resistant, or growth enhanced animals.

This patent covers the generation of transgenic chickens by overcoming prior difficulties in growing and expanding avian embryonic stem cells. The patent has one independent claim covering a method of creating a chimeric chicken with the limitation that the embryonic stem cell used for generation of the chimeric chicken has to be capable of in vitro growth for more than 60 days.

The assignee company, Origen Therapeutics, is interested in both food and health care products. From its website it states that the poultry market is $10 billion/year, which it plans to tackle through the production of what they call "virtual cloning" of the chicken strains of highest productivity. From the health care side, Origen seems to be interested in expressing various human proteins, including therapeutic immunoglobulins in chickens for human use.

The contact info for the company is:

Origen Therapeutics, Inc.
1450 Rollins Road, Burlingame, California 94010
Phone 650 558 6700 Facsimile 650 558 7799
info@origentherapeutics.com

View this patent on the USPTO website.

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