A team of Indian scientists announced that they have successfully created transgenic chickens in the lab — a first for the country. The scientists are affiliated with the Hyderabad-based Project Directorate on Poultry, a program of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research.
The scientists have been working for two years on mastering techniques for inserting the jellyfish gene responsible for the sea creature’s fluorescence into rooster spermatozoa. They hatched 263 chicks, 16 of which expressed the jellyfish protein, according to the Indian Express.
“This technology, which has been standardized in the laboratory, will further cater to develop transgenic chicken for production of therapeutic proteins for human and animal use,” said a press release from the Project Directorate on Poultry.
