Posted 7th Oct 2001

Dolly Not Cloning Profits
By BBC News Online's Helen Briggs

Dolly the sheep might never have been created if current attitudes to
genetically modified food had prevailed in the 1990s.

The pioneering Roslin Institute, which made the famous clone, says public
hostility towards GM food in the UK has forced it to reassess its research
goals. It intends to focus on biomedical applications of cloning technology
rather than pure agricultural research like that which led to Dolly. "An
institute likes ours can no longer sustain itself entirely on agricultural
research," Professor Grahame Bulfield told BBC News Online. "We have
decided we need to build on our strengths by developing products for use in
the biomedical industry," he added.

The Roslin Institute, based near Edinburgh, sprang to fame in 1997 when it
announced it had cloned Dolly. It is now one of the world's leading centres
for genetic research on farm animals. However, agricultural research has
fallen over the years and now comprises only 20% of its work, compared with
70% in the early 1990s. The Roslin blames a dwindling agricultural research
budget for its change in policy, as well as public and political attitudes
to GM foods. "The political climate in agriculture hasn't been particularly
friendly," Professor Bulfield said. Instead, the Roslin will focus on
biomedical research based on stem cells and nuclear transfer.

Professor Bulfield believes the public is prepared to accept medical
applications of such technology. "People will permit technology to be used
in producing drugs that they would be uncomfortable being used in
agriculture," he said. It will mean that some potential applications of
genetics in farming will not be pursued at present, by the Roslin at least.
It might be possible, for example, to genetically engineer chickens so that
they do not carry food poisoning bugs like salmonella. The Roslin says
there would be little point in trying to do this, if no-one would want to
eat the end result.