Transgenic goats producing an improved version of cetuximab in milk.

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) represent one of the most important classes of pharmaceutical proteins to treat human diseases. Most are produced in cultured mammalian cells which is expensive, limiting their availability. Goats, striking a good balance between a relatively short generation time and copious milk yield, present an alternative platform for the cost-effective, flexible, large-scale production of therapeutic mAbs.

Effect of serum concentration, method of trypsinization and fusion/activation utilizing transfected fetal cells to generate transgenic dairy goats by somatic cell nuclear transfer.

This work was performed within a commercial nuclear transfer program to investigate different methods for synchronizing donor cell cycle stage, for harvesting donor cells, and for fusion and activation of reconstructed caprine embryos. Primary fetal cells isolated from day 35 to day 40 fetuses were co-transfected with DNA fragments encoding both the heavy and light immunoglobulin chains of three different monoclonal antibodies and neomycin resistance. Four neomycin resistant cell lines for each antibody were selected, expanded, and aliquots were both cryopreserved for later use as karyoplast donors or used for further genetic characterization.

Viable transgenic goats derived from skin cells.

The current study was undertaken to evaluate the possibility of expanding transgenic goat herds by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (NT) using transgenic goat cells as nucleus donors. Skin cells from adult, transgenic goats were first synchronized at quiescent stage (G0) by serum starvation and then induced to exit G0 and proceed into G1. Oocytes collected from superovulated donors were enucleated, karyoplast-cytoplast couplets were constructed, and then fused and activated simultaneously by a single electrical pulse.