The idea of treating disease by replacing a defective gene with a working copy gained credence in 1990 with the success of the world's first gene therapy clinical tests against a rare condition called severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).
The therapy, developed by UniQure, uses a virus to infect muscle cells with a working copy of the gene.
The group created a virus which was capable of infecting cells with a working version of the Ift88 gene.
An anonymous pharmaceutical company on Celera's subscriber list is now working to see if the gene will produce an alpha interferon protein that might be used as a drug.
Up to 20 technicians working inside 12 production rooms can produce gene treatments for 10 or more unrelated trials a year.
The signals that indicate where the copying machinery should start and stop, which is a good working definition of where on a chromosome a gene begins and ends, are imperfectly understood.
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It is working on better protein-based drugs, gene therapy, industrial enzymes, and ag-biotech.
The company plans to move directly into a final-stage trial and is working on how to provide a diagnostic test for the gene.
Working with Yale University neurologist Stephen Strittmatter, who cloned the Nogo gene, Biogen Idec has created a counterinsurgency protein that acts as a sponge to soak up copies of Nogo and other growth-blocking proteins in the spinal cord before they can bind to the receptor.
The Tennessee team is now working with food crops as well as tobacco, and to extend its studies on gene transfer.
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"This discovery represents a significant advance because it avoids the need for cross-kingdom gene transfer, " he said, noting that many other scientists are working towards the total removal of selection markers.
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But, by coincidence, he then discovered a group of scientists working on a mouse called Peromyscus that possesses the same less active variation of the MC1R gene as mammoths did.
Instead they decoded cow DNA in a quick and dirty way on a new type of gene decoding machine made by a company called Solexa, with which Sonstegard had been working.
Working independently, these three men provided the parts that, when put together, enable the elimination of one gene at a time from the genetic make-up of a mouse.
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