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Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Getting to meet Dolly the ovine disrupter
Sheep have always been important to my family. Having a miserly Glaswegian father meant that with no electric heating or even fires during the winter, we bundled up in hand-knitted woolly jumpers. We devoured legs of lamb, hunks of hogget, shoulders of mutton and more. We listened in avid silence to Dad as he recounted gory tales of working at Burnside freezing works, gasping and shuddering as he described sneaking home bloody packets of offal to consume later. All of this sounds rather macabre, I know, but we were a typical New Zealand family, well-acquainted with the brutalities of farm life and blue-collar jobs. My first pet was a little lamb, aptly named Frisky. I loved him very much, as did all my brothers and sisters. Frisky was hilarious. I think he thought he was a human. He jumped and capered about, sneaking into the house to play hide-and-seek with us, always leaping into our laps for a cuddle and a special treat. When he died prematurely (of internal bleeding, after my father unwisely decided to tether him with a metal chain one night), we were absolutely devastated. I was seven-years-old and this was my first real encounter with death. Over the years, my family has continued to foster lambs from local farmers, caring for the little beasts whose mothers have passed or unaccountably rejected them. We've had many fluffy little creatures join our family: Bunty (a ridiculously shy boy who hid in the bushes), Caspian (a fragile black lamb who needed extra love and attention) and Rupert (who grew to be enormous) to name a few. I've also had the unique pleasure of meeting the world's most famous sheep — Dolly. Of course, I never had the good fortune to meet Dolly while she was alive (she died in 2003), but I've met her taxidermied self in the National Museum of Scotland. Dolly was born on July 5, 1996, in a concrete barn on the outskirts of Edinburgh. In all respects, Dolly looked like a perfectly ordinary sheep, but of course she was extraordinary. Dolly did not arise from natural copulation between two woolly parents, nor even standard laboratory fertilisation. In fact, she arguably had three mothers: one provided the egg, another provided the DNA, and a surrogate third, who carried the cloned embryo to term. Dolly was cloned by Dr Keith Campbell, Dr Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh. The funding for this project was provided by PPL Therapeutics and the Ministry of Agriculture. Dolly was the product of a process called "somatic cell nuclear transfer". Essentially, Dr Wilmut and his team carefully extracted the nucleus from a cell in the udder of a six-year-old Finn Dorset ewe. They then inserted this nucleus into an egg cell from a different sheep, whose own nucleus had been removed. This hybrid egg was then stimulated to spark cell division and implanted into a surrogate mother — a Scottish Blackface sheep. One of the early clues that Dolly was a clone came from her white face; she would have had a black face had she inherited her genes from the surrogate mother. What made Dolly so special? Contrary to popular belief, she was not the first cloned animal, but she was the first cloned from an adult, fully specialised cell. Earlier cloning experiments used embryonic stem cells that were still flexible in function. Dolly, in contrast, was created from a mammary gland cell, a type long thought to be permanently fixed in its role. Her creation proved that even a mature cell retains the entire genetic code necessary to generate a complete organism. Dolly's existence challenged decades of scientific assumption and showed that adult cells could be reprogrammed. Regarding her name, Dr Wilmut explained, "Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's". I wonder what Dolly Parton thinks of that. Dolly's existence was kept hidden until the Roslin Institute published its research paper on February 22 1997. A media frenzy was sparked and the world's press descended on Roslin to meet Dolly. I wonder what she made of all the flashing bulbs, microphones, and jostling camera crews. Media coverage swung wildly from triumphalist predictions of cures for every disease to dystopian fears of designer babies and human clones. A placid Finn Dorset ewe had become an icon of late-20th century science. Dolly spent her life living in a flock of sheep at the Roslin Institute, a quiet expanse on the outskirts of Edinburgh. I've been out there, for a job interview — which was unsuccessful, as it happens — and can attest to its serene, pastoral setting. Dolly had six lambs (Bonny, Sally, Rosie, Lucy, Darcy, and Cotton) with a Welsh Mountain sheep named David. By the autumn of 2001, Dolly was beginning to show signs of arthritis, which fuelled the suspicion that cloned animals were destined to age prematurely. Daily anti-inflammatory treatments helped, but ultimately Dolly had to be euthanised on February 14 2003 at the age of six after being diagnosed with progressive lung disease and severe arthritis. A CT scan had revealed tumours in her chest consistent with ovine pulmonary adenomatosis (OPA), an incurable lung cancer. Dolly's death was due to a Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus, a common viral disease in sheep; there is no conclusive evidence that cloning itself caused her illness or shortened her life. Her body was donated to the National Museum of Scotland, where she remains one of its most popular exhibits. Dolly became part of cultural folklore, immortalised in museums, children's books, bioethics debates and satirical cartoons. Meanwhile, cloning technology quietly advanced. Since Dolly, scientists have successfully cloned a range of mammals, including pigs, deer, horses, bulls and endangered species like the mouflon and banteng. Efforts are under way to revive extinct animals like the woolly mammoth. Success rates in cloning have dramatically improved; early cloning was notoriously inefficient — Dolly being the sole success out of 277 attempts. The cloning of primates was achieved in 2018 using the same method which produced Dolly. Gene-edited monkey clones soon followed. Parallel to these developments, stem cell research has surged forward, allowing ordinary cells to be reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells capable of regenerating tissues, offering new hope for treating complex diseases. Reproductive human cloning remains globally prohibited or tightly restricted, although therapeutic cloning for research purposes is allowed in a few countries under strict ethical oversight. Dolly had such a pleasant, good-natured face. In photographs, it almost looks like she is smiling placidly at the camera in a self-satisfied way. She looks like an entirely ordinary sheep, one who grazed, gave birth, and dealt with illness. And she was, in some respects. But she was born from a question: can life be replicated? And Dolly leaves us with a bigger question: what happens when life is replicated and what does it portend? I quite like the fact that something as simple and humble as a mere sheep could disrupt centuries-old notions of life, soul, identity and the sacredness of origin. • Jean Balchin is an ODT columnist who has started a new life in Edinburgh.
Edinburgh Reporter
06-06-2025
- Science
- Edinburgh Reporter
Research in Scotland is revolutionising farming in Africa
Representatives from The Roslin Institute attended the first Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Science Week in Nairobi recently as part of The Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH) delegation. CTLGH is a strategic partnership among the University of Edinburgh through the Roslin Institute, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Scotland's Rural College (SRUC). This partnership aims to contribute to the development of livestock in low to medium income countries (LMICs) through genetics and biotechnological advancements. Although CTLGH is headquartered at the Roslin Institute, it has nodes in Nairobi, Kenya and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. By working in collaboration with national and international partners, CTLGH allows the flow of research and knowledge among different players and stakeholders for implementation on real farms. Current efforts have focused on finding solutions to some of the major productivity and health problems facing smallholder farms in Africa. Historically, there have been strong links and connections between Scotland and Africa. Some of these go back to the times of Dr David Livingstone. Over the years, Universities and research institutions in Scotland and different countries in Africa have worked together and even exchanged expertise. Not surprisingly, the current Director General of ILRI, one of CGIAR institution, Professor Appolinaire Djikeng is an affiliated Professor for Tropical Agriculture and Sustainable Development at the University of Edinburgh, a position he held previously when he was Director of CTLGH in Edinburgh. The delegation from the Roslin Institute to the CGIAR Science Week, which included CTLGH scientists and Centre Management staff, was led by the current director of CTLGH and Chair of Tropical Livestock Genetics, Professor Mizeck Chagunda. During the week-long event, which comprised of conferences, side-events, workshops, demonstration stands, the CTLGH had a manned-stand and held a side-event. These activities highlighted the importance of CTLGH's research and knowledge exchange work in contributing to the African Union's Agenda 2063 – The Africa We Want. The CGIAR institutions based in Africa are driving their research and development strategies towards this theme. During such events, CTLGH aims to communicate in simple ways the contribution of advanced scientific endeavours and biotechnologies in tackling global challenges and to the transformation of food systems through improvements in tropical livestock. All this with the goal of creating high-level awareness and an enabling environment to generate the discussion on how to harness the benefits accruing from agricultural biotechnology, innovation and emerging technologies to transform the livelihoods of smallholder livestock farmers in LMICs. CTLGH's Centre Operations Manager at Roslin, Mrs Jen Meikle explained: 'Our booth was visited by farmers, pastoralists, community workers, school teachers, pupils and university students all with an interest in science and increasing livestock production and welfare. CTLGH have a capacity in building knowledge that we hope to be able to expand to schools in Africa. Professor Chagunda added: 'Our work supports the main CGIAR mission to transform food, land and water systems by ensuring that genetic innovations reach smallholder farmers improving productivity, resilience and livelihoods. 'Our presence at the first CGIAR Science Week in Nairobi highlighted the importance of science-based solutions tailored to LMICs (low to middle income countries) and showcased how targeted genetics research can contribute to sustainable agriculture, climate adaptation, environmental impact mitigation and food security.' CGIAR – the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research – is a global partnership engaged in researching ways of combatting food insecurity. Through their research the body hopes to reduce rural poverty, improve human health and nutrition and manage natural resources sustainably. The body has an annual research portfolio of just over $900 million with more than 9,000 staff working in 89 countries and brought together some of the world's leading scientists and decision-makers in agriculture, climate, and health for the very first CGIAR Science Week. This gathering was a key moment to advance research and innovation, inspire action, and establish critical partnerships at the Science Week in Nairobi held at the United Nations compound to discuss the future of farming in the Global South. Part of the conference discussion involved AI and its application to changing food systems which are under pressure from climate change, resource scarcity and hunger. One of the funders of CTLGH is the Gates Foundation and two of the scientists in the film below conduct research work for CTLGH. Food and nutrition security remains a challenge in Africa. However, biotechnologies for livestock conservation and development offer potential solutions. There are African instruments to support the needed transformation, those instruments are embedded in the Agenda 2063-The Africa we want, and in the STISA 2024 to 'Accelerate Africa's transition to an innovation-led, Knowledge-based Economy', and in the CAADP Strategy and Action Plan: 2026-2035 (Building Resilient Agri-Food Systems in Africa). Professor Mizeck Chagunda CGIAR Science Week in Nairobi At the CLTGH booth Professor Appolinaire Djikeng, Jen Meikle, Centre Operations Manager and Andy Peters, Chair of ILRI Like this: Like Related
Agriland
01-05-2025
- Health
- Agriland
Disease-resistant pigs approved for sale in US
Pigs produced to be resistant to one of the world's most costly livestock diseases, using technology developed by the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh, have been approved for sale to US consumers. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of a gene-editing technology that makes pigs resistant to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) on animals destinated for the US food supply chain. This landmark approval for animal genetics company Genus, following years of development, aims to tackle the challenge of a disease that is endemic to most pig-producing regions. The infection, which causes fever, respiratory distress, and premature births, costs industry approximately $2.5 billion (£1.75 billion) each year in lost revenue in the US and Europe alone. The approval follows years of collaboration with the FDA and is a significant step on the pathway to commercialisation of gene-edited pigs in the US and other international markets. Gene-edited pigs Researchers at the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute focused their efforts on the CD163 gene in pigs. This gene produces a receptor on the surface of cells, which the PRRS virus uses to cause infection. Experts removed a small section of this gene, focusing on the section of the receptor that the virus attaches to, leaving the rest of the molecule intact. Supported by Edinburgh Innovations (EI), the University of Edinburgh's commercialisation service, the team collaborated with Genus, which also licensed novel technologies from other institutions, to produce pigs with the specific DNA change. The resulting pigs do not become infected with the virus, and the animals show no signs that the change in their DNA has had any other impact on their health or wellbeing. Prof. Bruce Whitelaw of the Roslin Institute said: 'We are delighted to see the PRRS-resistant pig gene-edit approved for use – this is a milestone in the use of gene editing in livestock, and a landmark moment for the livestock industry towards managing a global disease that causes devastating losses.' CEO of Genus, Jorgen Kokke added: 'FDA approval is a fantastic achievement for Genus PIC and represents a major step towards US commercialisation. 'We will now continue to pursue regulatory approvals in other international jurisdictions with a focus on key US export markets.' EI's head of business development at the University of Edinburgh's College of Medicine and Vet Medicine, Dr. Susan Bodie added: 'This is a very exciting development in translating cutting edge research into a major solution for the food production industry. 'Gene editing – making targeted changes to DNA in a lab – allows scientists to rapidly introduce beneficial traits in plants and animals, which can take decades to achieve through traditional breeding programmes. 'EI is proud to support Roslin Institute researchers to work with industry on pioneering world-changing animal bioscience like this.'
