The technology that created Dolly may now help humansManipulating the genes of animals could help safeguard humans from another pandemic, according to the Edinburgh institute that cloned Dolly the sheep in the 1990s. The world-leading team at the Roslin Institute is lobbying governments to consider using biotechnology to help prevent further outbreaks of deadly viruses. SponsoredGenome editing has eradicated respiratory pig viruses and could “conceptually” target animal vectors associated with human disease, said Professor Bruce Whitelaw, interim director of the institute. A breakthrough known as Crispr-Cas9 has enabled gene manipulation to stem disease in livestock that would otherwise have been slaughtered, saving farmers money. Whitelaw believes that DNA-tailoring could one day break the chains of infection — such as those of coronaviruses linked to bats — that can lead to illnesses that affect

Source: The Times May 15, 2021 23:03 UTC