NDRI all set to produce first transgenic calf

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, June 9

Scientists at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) are all set to produce a transgenic animal.

The NDRI is working on the project to generate human insulin in milk for the past seven years. A Murrah breed buffalo is more than 7 months pregnant and expected to produce the transgenic calf by August.

As per the scientists, the transgenic animal would produce milk with insulin which would be used for producing low-cost medicines.

“If all goes as per plan, it would be a unique achievement as it would pave ways for developing cheap and alternative medicines for diabetic patients,” said Dr AK Srivastava, Director, NDRI.

He said scientists, including Dr MS Chauhan, Dr SK Singla, Dr RS Manik, Dr P Palta and Dr MK Singh, had been working hard on the project and now it was in the final stage.

“It would be a proud moment when this surrogate buffalo delivers the first transgenic calf which would be a breakthrough in the dairy and pharmaceutical sectors,” he said.

About the transgenic process, Dr MK Singh told The Tribune that they had taken a blood sample from the human body and separated insulin gene from it. A vector was prepared with human insulin gene and expression of this gene was checked in somatic cell of a Murrah buffalo, which was found to be active.

It took around five year to determine that the cell was producing human insulin, he added.

After getting success in the first stage, they produced an embryo through cloning and put it into a surrogate buffalo.