Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510160079
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
Call it that extra human touch.
PPL Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that moved into the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in April, is breeding cows, pigs, rabbits and mice injected with a human gene when the animals are just embryos so when grown they will produce milk with medicinal values.
They are called transgenic animals because they contain genes of another species.
The company, which has another research facility in Scotland, formally dedicated its Blacksburg offices with a ceremony last week.
"The range of people we can treat is extremely broad," said Julian Cooper, the company's general manager.
Special proteins in the milk are being developed to help people with a variety of illnesses, including hemophiliacs, stroke victims and people with respiratory illnesses.
But the most common question posed to the scientists at PPL Therapeutics has little to do with the intricacies of genetics. Most of the time, company officials admit, people want to know if the animals act more like people.
A psychologist once came to PPL's research farm in Scotland and spent days staring at the animals, looking for any differences in appearance or behavior. He detected nothing, said Dr. Alan Colman, PPL Therapeutics research director.
"The only difference is that they have a human gene in their milk," Colman said. "They don't look human, they don't act human."
The process of creating a transgenic animal works this way:
The human gene is injected into the nucleus of a fertilized egg, which is then placed into the womb of a surrogate mother. Once the animal is born, researchers run tests to determine whether it actually contains the human gene. Not every animal injected with the gene becomes transgenic, Colman said.
The protein is then isolated from the milk and purified.
Researchers generally begin experimenting with different versions of a gene with mice, which reproduce faster. Once a version is perfected, Colman said, researchers will move to larger animals such as pigs, sheep or cows. When large quantities of a protein are needed, the transgenic cows are the best animals to work with, he said, because they can produce more of the milk that contains the protein.
Several of the 350 cows on PPL's research farm recently have been impregnated with treated embryos, but none of the cows has yet had its calf. There are more than 20 pigs and 50 mice on the Blacksburg farm that are transgenic, however.
The farm is near the company's building, but officials will not reveal its exact location for security reasons. Animal rights activists have been known to show up at the company's farm in Scotland.
Genetic research is often subject to ethical questions, an issue that was broached at PPL's dedication ceremony.
"Not everyone agrees with the sort of things we do ... And some people have accused me of playing God," said Ron James, the company's managing director.
Research into transgenic animals is about10 years old. PPL Therapeutics Ltd. was formed in 1987 in Edinburgh, Scotland, with five employees and a few rented rooms, Cooper said. The business, which has since increased to about 80 employees, came to Virginia in 1993 when it merged with TransPharm Inc., a company founded by Tracy Wilkins, a Tech professor and director of the Center for Biotechnology.
Wilkins said research into transgenic pigs began at Virginia Tech five or six years ago when scientists were developing Protein C, the blood coagulant. TransPharm was founded as a direct result of that research three years ago.
Cooper said the merger of the two companies was ideal because PPL wanted to increase the types of animals it was working with and have a presence in the United States. Since April, 20 people have been working in the new red brick building at 700 Kraft Drive and at the farm. Of those employees, 16 are researchers while the rest are more service-oriented.
The Blacksburg location will serve two purposes: research and developing "founder" or original animals with the valuable proteins. Once the company builds a manufacturing facility, the research and semen from the founder animal would be sent there to actually produce the medicines.
Some of the main projects the company now is working on include a natural "tissue glue" to prevent excessive bleeding in surgery; protein C, which helps clot blood, and alpha 1 antitrypsin, a protein that will help people with respiratory diseases, Colman said.
No actual medicines have been developed from the milk of transgenic animals. But PPL already has formed alliances with pharmaceutical companies such as Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories Inc., Zymogenetics and Bayer AG.
The company is also going to test a protein from a transgenic animal, alpha-1-antitrypsin, on humans for the first time in early 1997 with a series of clinical trials. Cooper said a product could be available by the year 2000, though it could be longer.
"It's in the hands of the regulatory authorities," he said.
How much revenue the company eventually will generate once it begins manufacturing products is unclear, Cooper said. The company has put in a capital investment of $50 million. Eventually, he added, the company will be publicly traded.
Wilkins, who has stock in PPL, said there are only two other companies like PPL in the world - Genzyme Transgenics in Boston and Gene Farming in the Netherlands. He does not expect an influx of new transgenic companies once products become available on the market because the process is patented.
"The companies that are there should dominate the market," Wilkins said.
Memo: NOTE: Also ran in October 26, 1995 Neighbors.