Avian transgenesis: progress towards the promise

The hen has long held promise as a low cost, high-yield bioreactor for the production of human biopharmaceuticals in egg whites. A typical egg white contains 3.5–4.0 grams of protein, more than half of which comes from a single gene (ovalbumin). Harnessing the power of the gene to express a recombinant protein could yield up to a gram or more of the protein in the naturally sterile egg. Accordingly, a major effort has been underway for more than a decade to develop robust methods for modification of the chicken genome. This effort intensified in the mid-1990s when several avian transgenic companies entered the scene. Progress has been made in that time but much remains to be done.