新澳门六合彩内幕信息

Animal and Veterinary Innovation Center Established at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis

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Head of a blackface sheep looking into the camera.
With a grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis will run an Animal and Veterinary Innovation Center looking into gene-editing technology in livestock such as sheep, pigs and cattle. (Greg Urquiaga/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis)

新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis is one of four institutions nationwide selected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to establish Animal and Veterinary Innovation centers to help spur innovation and advance regulatory decisions.

The 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Intentional Genomic Alteration Innovation Center will focus on genome editing of livestock like pigs, sheep and cattle to support science-based regulations that demonstrate the safety of the technology and pave the way for human consumption of edited animals.

The $5 million five-year collaboration with the FDA seeks to answer key regulatory questions related to gene editing and how it can improve the health and productivity of animals while protecting human health and supporting sustainable agriculture, said Elizabeth Maga, a professor and the lead investigator of the new center.

鈥淚f we can supply data to help streamline the regulatory process, that will really help development in this space because there are a ton of applications that can be done with the technology now that we couldn鈥檛 do before,鈥 Maga said.

A black calf faces the camera.
Cosmo, a gene-edited bull calf born at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis in 2020 (Alison Van Eenennaam)

Safety in mind

The research with the FDA will provide the framework to ensure genome editing is safe for both the animal and human consumption. Australia, Brazil, Japan and other countries allow in certain conditions.

鈥淲e want a science-based regulatory process that鈥檚 risk proportionate and doesn鈥檛 overregulate simple products,鈥 said animal geneticist and extension specialist Alison Van Eenennaam, who is part of the research team. 鈥淲e can help that happen so it鈥檚 actually feasible for small companies and academia to bring products to market. I think that鈥檚 an important role that we can play as public sector scientists.鈥

Leading the way

新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis has been on the cutting edge of research, teaching and extension work surrounding genetically modified animals for more than 25 years, and the center will build on existing data, research and animals already on campus.

鈥淲e鈥檝e all been working in this space for a long time,鈥 Maga said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 fun to see it starting to gain traction because we鈥檝e always known the promise that these types of gene modifications can hold.鈥

Associate professor Anna Denicol and distinguished professor emeriti Trish Berger in the Department of Animal Science are also part of the center.

From data to modified animals

The 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis team has three main research goals.

The first is to establish a gold standard workflow, outlining techniques and methodology to use when assessing the specificity of gene editing events, working toward being able to tell the difference between natural genetic variation and any unintentional edits that may have occurred.

The second phase is to measure the durability of the gene editing from generation to generation and across different targeted traits and livestock species to determine if any unintended variations occurred. They鈥檒l also measure if the characteristics or traits they wanted to introduce or remove successfully took hold.

鈥淲e鈥檒l look to see how the edits hold up over time,鈥 Maga said.

Finally, the team wants to adapt and improve newer gene editing technologies currently used in human and laboratory animals for biomedical purposes and apply it to livestock traits.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to optimize the efficiency of incorporating specific genetic changes, not just cutting, but putting in a small, specific change where we want it,鈥 Maga said.

One example of such a change would be introducing a variant gene, or allele, from an Angus cow that doesn鈥檛 grow horns and insert it in the genome of Holstein dairy cows, which grow horns that typically are removed to prevent the animal from hurting itself or other animals.

鈥淚t鈥檚 basically a way to introduce a useful allele into the genome,鈥 Van Eenennaam said.  

Kansas State University, University of Arkansas and University of Wisconsin-Madison will also form centers as part of the FDA鈥檚 Center for Veterinary Medicine initiative to protect human and animal health, according to a . 

Media Resources

(FDA news release)

by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. 

Emily Dooley is a writer with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. 

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Feeding a Growing Population

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