article - Genetic manipulation of milk

[Guest guest]

I thought this might be of interest to people on this list.

-- if just to keep abreast of the direction of biotechnology....

Australia recruits to milk genomics

13 February 2002 10:00 GMT

by Bea Perks, BioMedNet News

A multi-million dollar research initiative is set to boost Australia's lucrative

dairy industry and provide career opportunities for a new generation of

industry-savvy researchers, says Donnelly, chief executive of the country's

ative Research Centre (CRC) for Innovative Dairy Products.

" The market for bio-scientists in industry is quite small in Australia, "

Donnelly told BioMedNet News. But the CRC should help change that, he says. " As

a market for scientists evolves, greater career opportunities will evolve. "

Australia has more than 60 CRCs in nationally strategic areas of science and

technology. They are long-term collaborative projects between the public and

private sectors, partly funded by the federal government, with input from the

national research agency (CSIRO), industry, and participating universities.

Donnelly's CRC, which he will run from headquarters at the Dairy Research and

Development Corporation in Melbourne, " has a unique biotech focus, " he notes.

The idea is that research teams, based at Monash University and at the

Universities of Sydney and Melbourne, will use genomic technologies to develop

high-earning innovative products for Australia's dairy industry.

For instance, the CRC is already investigating lactation in the tammar wallaby,

which modifies the composition of its milk to match the age of its young.

Identifying the genes that control these modifications will aid the discovery of

homologs in dairy herds, which could then be used to alter protein or lactose

content of cow's milk, suggests who is leading the research at

Melbourne university.

Other predicted outcomes, says Donnelly, include genetic tests for milk-quality

traits, " health-enhancing " milk products, and cloned lines of genetically elite

bulls and cows.

The dairy CRC has A$70 million ($35 million) to spend over seven years, which is

more than most centers. The increase reflects the dairy industry's economic

importance to Australia, which turns over A$6 billion a year and exports about

50% of milk production and 60% of manufactured dairy products, according to

Herman Raadsma, who heads the CRC's gene discovery program at Sydney university.

Another growth area is the export of cattle clones, says French who is

involved with the CRC's embryology and cloning section at Monash University.

There is already an international trade in semen from successful bulls, says

French, but there is no guarantee that beneficial traits will be passed to the

next generation. Exporting clones of successful bulls, or cows, would get round

the problem, he insists.

Donnelly, too, is convinced that clones will be as successful as their

progenitors: " There's no evidence that they won't be, " he said. The only

problem, he concludes, is finding the right recruits to do the work.