TLDR · SCIENCE & FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY

GENETICALLY MODIFIED COW MAKES MILK WITH HUMAN INSULIN

zmescience.com5 min read

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

Researchers have engineered a cow capable of producing milk that contains human insulin. This could result in an alternative for insulin production. The process involves inserting human DNA coding for insulin into cow embryos. It could dramatically simplify the process and cost of producing the drug. A single cow can produce enough milk every day to supply thousands of type 1 diabetes patients with their daily insulin for an entire month. Scaling up production, ensuring the health and welfare of the transgenic cows, and navigating regulatory approvals are still huge challenges that lie ahead before the process can replace conventional methods of insulin production.