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Kathy
Member
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 832
Location: Home on the Range, Alberta
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 Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 1:52 pm Post subject: The new "TC Cow" from Hematech Inc (prion-free) fo |
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JUST SAY NO!
http://www.hematech.com/
Hematech:
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Whether developing treatments for antibiotic-resistant infections or producing new drugs to help defend against bio-terrorism, Hematech, Inc. is utilizing the latest advances in technology to help fight diseases.
The company, headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is currently developing cows that can efficiently produce human antibodies. The genetically altered cows, known as TC Cows™, will be used for the production of large quantities of polyclonal antibodies. These antibodies are expected to help in the treatments of viral or bacterial infections, autoimmune disorders and other medical conditions occurring in humans. |
Yes, Hematech will protect us... just TRUST them. (no thanks)
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Kathy
Member
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 832
Location: Home on the Range, Alberta
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| Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 1:59 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.hematech.com/Company/About.cfm
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ABOUT HEMATECH
Hematech, Inc was founded in 1998, with corporate headquarters in Sioux Falls, SD. Hematech is a subsidiary of the Pharmaceutical Division of Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd. in Japan, thanks to research collaboration between the two entities. In 2002, Hematech and Kirin consolidated their transgenic bovine research programs in facilities in Sioux Falls, SD. Currently, Hematech occupies nearly 20,000 sq. ft. of laboratory space in the Sioux Falls Technology Park.
In 2003, Hematech formed a joint venture with Trans Ova Genetics. Trans Ova is one of the world's largest bovine embryo transfer companies and has extensive experience in managing cloned and genetically modified cattle. The Hematech/Trans Ova Joint Venture was formed to manage all of Hematech's animal needs, including animal work at Hematech's Research and Development Center in Sioux Center, IA.
Currently, Hematech has four research and development programs: Molecular Genetics, Embryonic Cloning, Immunology and Purification Process Development. In addition, Hematech has Analytical and Quality Systems programs. Hematech's research programs are best known for their successes in producing the first transchromosomic and gene targeted cattle. |
Is this the future?
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Kathy
Member
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 832
Location: Home on the Range, Alberta
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| Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.hematech.com/Products/index.cfm
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OUR PRODUCTS
The pharmaceutical industry currently uses human blood serum to gather the supply of human antibodies necessary in developing disease-fighting drugs. But Hematech's unique TC Bovine technology has developed human antibody-producing cows, making it possible to create an efficient, safe, and steady supply of polyclonal antibodies in larger quantities. This is expected to have widespread implications for the development of new medicines to combat a variety of infectious and other diseases.
Some applications of Hematech's technology are the following:
Antibiotic-Resistant Infections
Bacteria that cause common infections are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, resulting in lengthier illnesses and higher mortality rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates nearly 2 million people in the United States acquire an infection while in a hospital, resulting in 90,000 deaths. Most of the types of bacteria causing these infections are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics commonly used to treat them. In contrast to antibiotics, bacteria cannot develop resistance to polyclonal antibodies. Hematech's bovine-derived polyclonal antibodies, therefore, are an ideal complement to current standard practices of using antibiotics to fight infection.
Biodefense
Defense against terrorists using biological agents to harm either our military personnel or civilians is an important responsibility of the United States government. In response, the federal government is funding the development of novel therapeutics for treatment of individuals either before a potential exposure or after exposure to a harmful biological agent. Hematech has programs funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) to develop human polyclonal antibody therapeutics for botulism toxin, anthrax and small pox exposure.
Immune Deficiencies
Some individuals have compromised immune systems and have difficulty fighting common infections. Immune deficiency is the result of many causes, including genetics, treatments for cancer and organ transplantation. Immune deficient patients currently are the largest group of users of human polyclonal antibody therapeutics. The human antibody treatments are effective but may cost $25,000 to $50,000 per year. Hematech may be able to make more potent human polyclonal antibody therapeutics in cows resulting in substantial savings for this patient group.
Other Applications
Human polyclonal antibodies could be useful for treating many other diseases including organ transplant rejection, cancer and various autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Hematech's human polyclonal antibodies are produced in a genetically modified cow (the TC Cow™). Hematech has inserted the human genes for antibody production into this cow and inactivated the cow's own antibody genes. |
God help us all!
So are they, or aren't they, "presently" using the TC Cow to produce human antibodies?
First they say: "they are currently using human blood serum to gather the supply of human antibodies";
then at the end of this page they state: "Hematech's human polyclonal antibodies are produced in a genetically modified cow (the TC Cow™)."
So which is it, Hematech? Human blood serum or TC Cow blood serum?
Please note, Hematech will protect our soldiers and civilians from:
botulism toxin, anthrax and small pox exposure
seems ligitamite, right? Well, not when you realize that the anthrax that was released on the USA just after the WTC attacks was from "USA government" laboratories. Its was genetically matched to the anthrax manufactured and kept by the USA government.
Who should we be scared of? Tell us.
Drugs like Remicade are polyclonal antibody therapy drugs. The first side effect listed with Remicade is, increased risk of infections and "lymphoma".
"Immune deficiency is the result of many causes, including genetics, treatments for cancer and organ transplantation." True, first they damage our DNA via atomic nuclear bomb testing and other dastardly chemicals, then we get cancer and they treat it with heavy metals, then our kidneys fail (due to exposure to these radionuclides and metals) and we require a kidney transplant which our bodies want to "naturally' reject.
Instead of admitting the causes of disease: we the people of this planet are given more weapons (including not-so-depleted uranium), more pollution, more chemicals et. al. that make us sick; and as a result, the pharmaceuticals and "health" authorities get to "save us".
Before you jump all over me about life-saving practices which have developed over the last 100 years - I do acknowledge a place for technological advancements in health sciences. The antibiotic was a major contributor to life-saving practices. However, having learned some of the things I have over the last 3.5 years, and being a cancer patient survivor..... knowing what I know now, I would not have taken the chemotherapy after my surgeries. This is my opinion, in hind-sight!
If a fraction of the money spent on pharmaceutical drugs (and their development) was spent on improving nutrition of people, we would have the natural means to fight off many of the diseases that now crush us. Our immune systems are deficient for a reason. Instead of asking why?, we are given treatments rather than prevention.
All things in life that are worth-while take hard work and time.
Taking the "magic pill" or "injection" is the easy way (and often seems like our only hope). There is a better way to fix our health; and more of us need to take that route.
I wish everyone good health in the New Year, a new beginning!
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Kathy
Member
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 832
Location: Home on the Range, Alberta
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| Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 2:41 pm Post subject: |
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more from Hematech:
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OUR PROCESS
Hematech's goal is to produce human antibodies in cows. Normally human antibodies are found in human blood to help fight infection. They continuously survey the body looking for foreign invaders and eliminate them.
Why Cows?
There are two approaches to making therapeutic antibodies. The first and most common are to produce a collection of identical (monoclonal) antibodies. Hematech's technology is unique in that it is designed to produce a collection of many different types of antibodies (polyclonal). Polyclonal antibodies can only be produced in an animal and, until now, human polyclonal antibodies could only be produced in humans. Hematech has developed a method for producing human antibodies in cows. We choose to make antibodies in cows for a number of reasons:
Cows are large animals and make large volumes of antibodies (a typical mature cow has about 2.5 pounds of antibodies in its blood).
Cows are easy to work with, are readily available and, because cows are important in agriculture, we know a lot about how cows fight disease.
The technology required to put human antibody genes in and inactivate the endogenous antibody genes is more advanced in cow than in any other species.
How we derive the antibody drug product from the cows is an interesting and innovative process. Follow the links below to learn about the process step by step:
Producing Antibodies in a Tc Bovine™
From Plasma to Therapeutic |
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Oldtimer
Rancher
Joined: 10 Feb 2005
Posts: 21972
Location: Northeast Montana
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Kathy
Member
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 832
Location: Home on the Range, Alberta
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| Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:45 pm Post subject: |
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It isn't about disease control, Oldtimer. It is about CONTROL.
If you can't grow your own food, without interference from government, ie: telling you what to grown, when to grown it, how much to grow, then you are not in control, they are.
IF you read the science you claim to, you would KNOW that when the prion protein is bound to copper, in the locations upon the prion protein sequence it has been designed to (whether you believe in evalution or God), it cannot be "converted" to the mal-formed version.
Production of mal-formed prion proteins requires either genetic mutations which instruct the cell to do something wrong, and/or it requires that the prion protein be loaded with other metals besides copper, such has been demonstrated with manganese, which when challenged with ultraviolet energy, or aging, forms a protease K resistant prion.
Ignorance of the science will keep the masses fearful and willing to take drastic measures to "cure" or "prevent" future occurrences. Meanwhile, the disease will continue, and the only relevant change that will result from all this Genetic manipulation... is CONTROL of the cattle business.
Control by FEAR is tyranny. Fear of the unknown is a major tool used against civilization.
It is a sad fact that there is more concerned about BSE than the use of chemical, biological and depleted weapons by our own governments.
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Kathy
Member
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 832
Location: Home on the Range, Alberta
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| Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2004/06/04/bse040604.html
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Scientist questions value of BSE-immune cows
Last Updated: Friday, June 4, 2004 | 3:40 PM ET
CBC News
Researchers are inching their way toward producing cows that are immune to BSE but it's unlikely to result in herds of beef or dairy cattle with built-in resistance, according to an infectious disease expert in Saskatoon.
Scientists at Japan's Kirin Brewery and the U.S. biotechnology company Hematech genetically engineered 150 cow embryos that are resistant to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the brain-wasting disease.
The cows won't carry the gene for misshapen prion protein that causes BSE, the companies said.
Chris Clark, an infectious disease expert at Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, said it is possible to produce a cow that is immune to BSE but he doesn't know how useful it would be.
First scientists would have to figure out what the prion protein does and what happens if it disappears.
"I know some of the British research groups are coming to the theory that they think that the prion protein may be important for what they call a scavenger probe," said Clark.
"What it may do is allow cells to kind of remove the natural waste materials that are produced by cellular metabolism and allow it to be recycled to prevent things accumulating."
The two companies developed the technique to produce pharmaceuticals in milk and have no plans to breed the cows for human consumption.
Clark said right now it is too costly and complicated to produce a BSE-immune cow that is viable for the beef and dairy industries.
There is a danger that introducing a genetically modified animal could cause the industry to lose hundreds of years of selectively breeding for good quality milk and beef, he said.
The risk of BSE in cattle can be virtually eliminated through strict controls over what they're fed, Clark said. |
Nothing like a 2 year old article to help set up some questions.
So Hematech started with 150 embryos, and reports on 8.
Even Chris Clark of the University of Saskatchewan Western Veterinary College has the ability to read and see that the research is high-lighting the biological importance of the healthy prion protein as a scavenger and neuroprotector.
The only problem with the control of feed given to cattle, is that we are not in control of our environment. Industries andgovernments are polluting the air with many metals, chemicals and unknowns which settle upon the forage our cattle eat. They can not only take up these nasties from consuming the feed; but, simply from breathing (especially since they are inhaling while they forage for grass). Science has shown that the olfactory bulb, skin, and even the surface of the eye, can be sources of absorption of particulate/chemicals.
Controlling what animals eat is not a simple matter as one might think.
Then again, neither is cloning and growing prion-free cattle. Perhaps Hematech has more live clones than they are reporting on? Or maybe, the experiment is hiding something?
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mrj
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Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 3057
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:14 am Post subject: |
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Kathy, do you believe ALL research companies and facilities should be suspected of working toward some nefarious end?
BTW, considering all the things human blood can be tainted with, from AIDS to the Hepatitis 'alphabet' to the typhoids and many more, I think I want 'cow' produced antibodies and other medicines if I become seriously ill!!!!!
I, too, am a cancer survivor and also might not have taken the chemo if I had done more research.......however, I also want to live to enjoy my grandchildren for as long as I can......so how does one weigh which risks to take???? No one forced the decision for chemo on me and the problems it leaves me are manageable without medications most of the time. It was my CHOICE.
Why do you believe it would require lots of money, as you said, "spent on pharmaceutical drugs...." for people to live a more natural life, produce our own food, live a more healthy lifestyle? After all, that would be the less costly life, wouldn't it? Then, figuring money not needed for healthcare would be substantial, the individual CHOICE of how to manage and live our lives would leave us financially healthier as well.
Would you truly rather the government had not done any research which has contributed to the fact that we were not overpowered by the Germans and Japanese? Would you rather there be no research and just live as in biblical times, for instance?
I believe their is verifiably less polution today from most sources other than human wastes. We are now able via DNA (which I'm very happy someone did the research to make useful) to verify the majority of bacteria in streams comes from wildlife, NOT ag animals......and more.
Look up, Kathy, the sky is NOT falling! The world if full of opportunities for those willing to work and think. I thank God that some people, including genetics researchers are doing so!
MRJ
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don
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Joined: 10 Feb 2005
Posts: 1566
Location: saskatchewan
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:20 am Post subject: |
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| i would rather they do more testing and research and deal with the cause than just go to the test tube for a band-aid solution. i wonder if we're going to find that with more sophisticated testing every older animal will be carrying a low level of these prions and they are a symptom, not the cause.
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mrj
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Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 3057
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:40 am Post subject: |
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| don wrote: |
| i would rather they do more testing and research and deal with the cause than just go to the test tube for a band-aid solution. i wonder if we're going to find that with more sophisticated testing every older animal will be carrying a low level of these prions and they are a symptom, not the cause. |
Don, do we know that "they" are NOT doing "more testing and research and deal with the cause...."?
Hematech is only one research group, and I believe BSE is not their primary goal, but what they are doing is to assure as quickly as possible, "pure" genectics for their 'real' goals. I have heard speakers from Hematech, some time ago when they were beginning their work in SD. These posts have renewed my interest/curiosity about them and will try to learn more.
My 'take' on BSE may be a bit like yours on the older animal theory......I wonder if it is a spontaneously/sporadic occuring phenomena in animals, including humans which carry proteins in their systems. Not original, but gathered over several years from several sources and comments of people knowledeable about animals, proteins, and diseases thereof.
MRJ
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don
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Joined: 10 Feb 2005
Posts: 1566
Location: saskatchewan
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 1:18 pm Post subject: |
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| my point is just that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. a genetically modified animal as a solution has to be tremendously expensive and won't help us understand the cause any better. as a cancer survivor i'm sure you have asked yourself what it was in your life that caused the disease and prevention would have been so much easier than the cure. the other point is that if a gm animal is or has been developed it will be the property of somebody and we will all have to pay to have the genetics. more expense as well as handing control over to somebody who is not a cattle producer per se.
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mrj
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Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 3057
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| Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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| don wrote: |
| my point is just that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. a genetically modified animal as a solution has to be tremendously expensive and won't help us understand the cause any better. as a cancer survivor i'm sure you have asked yourself what it was in your life that caused the disease and prevention would have been so much easier than the cure. the other point is that if a gm animal is or has been developed it will be the property of somebody and we will all have to pay to have the genetics. more expense as well as handing control over to somebody who is not a cattle producer per se. |
Actually, Don, I do know that my cancer was caused by the synthetic hormones I took for many years to counter severe menopausal symptoms after a hysterectomy at age 36.
You sound a bit close to blaming the victims of illnesses for not living right. What of those of us who were born with faulty genes which cause illnesses? What of people who started smoking ages ago before there was a known cause and effect of that habit?
I'm truly thankful for pharmaceutical companies and researchers who have worked to find and develop cures, medicines and treatments, "tremendously expensive" though they may be, which allow many people to live, who once were doomed to die from a wide array of illnesses.
I see this angst over information about the work of Hematech as a symptom of people not understanding research, not wanting research into subjects with which they are uncomfortable, so deciding that it is bad.
Surely there are many "ounces of prevention" involved at Hematech. I seriously doubt that BSE is the only project there. Surely many such labs and companies are working to solve BSE and TSE puzzles across this world.
Hasn't man always had a quest for knowledge?
Just maybe we were created that way!
Yes, such a quest can and has been used for evil.
I has also achieved much that is good and valuable to mankind, IMO.
Hematech is only one group. No doubt there is or will be competition and I believe competition is good.
Regulations surely will follow new products.....if typical naysayers prevail, too many of those new products may very well be regulated out of existence before we as a society, or at least an industry, can benefit from them, IMO.
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