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In April, Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Harvard Medical School's McLean Hospital announced they transplanted genetically altered pig nerve cells into an animal model of Alzheimer's disease (in this case, mice). The mice regained cognitive abilities once the pig cells were implanted.
"The current test model represents the most rigorous animal model of Alzheimer's disease, in which wholesale loss of cholinergic neurons is associated with highly advanced stages of the disease," said Dr. Ole Isacson, associate professor in the Neuroregeneration Laboratories at McLean Hospital. "Today's reported findings represent the first demonstration of functional restoration using transgenic pig neurons in an animal model of Alzheimer's."
Meanwhile, researchers at Genzyme Transgenic Corp., Tufts University and Louisiana State University announced in April that they had genetically engineered goats to produce a human protein used to affect the clotting of blood. The goats were the result of a cloning experiment, suggesting that someday large numbers of genetically engineered animals, carrying important drugs for treating human diseases and medical conditions, may be produced relatively rapidly.