Question

How can man benefit from the modifications introduced in transgenic animals?

Answer 1

• Good quality milk with increased albumin content. Rosie, the cow has produced milk containing more amounts of human alpha-lactalbumin that has higher nutritional value.
• Transgenic cattle are produced in a way that they express a particular protein that can be used for treatment of diseases, such as alpha-1 antitrypsin is expressed in cattle to treat emphysema.

Transgenic mice are widely used as disease models of diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Alzheimer’s diseases, cancer etc. to have a better understanding about the diseases and their prognosis.

Transgenic animals are also used to study the effect and safety of a drug before making it commercially available.

To check the efficacy, side-effects and safety of a vaccine, it is tested on transgenic animals or disease models before being introduced in human trials.

Transgenic animals such as transgenic mice are used to study the function of genes, their regulation. This is because mice share a lot of gene similarity with humans.