Biopharming, as it's called, may take awhile to gain widespread support since the public gets squeamish when scientists fiddle with genetic composition, he said. Genetically engineered plants, which have been marketed since 1994, are the source of much controversy, and Greenpeace and the Sierra Club categorically oppose genetically engineered foods, plants or animals, First said. In Europe, genetically altered plants have been banned since April 1998. Success may dilute apprehension, if bioengineered plants are the precedent. Last year, about 20 percent of corn grown in the United States, more than half of the soybeans and 75 percent of the cotton was genetically engineered.
Mammals are natural protein factories.
Their mammary glands produce milk with proteins in concentrations of five ounces or more per gallon. For 20 years, scientists have experimented with the process of adding human genes to the DNA of nonhuman host animals. So, the process is more straightforward than scientists thought. We found that yes, some of these proteins extracted from bone do have the capacity to induce bone growth. And if you have the gene for that protein, you can mass-produce it.