Avantea is the lead partner in the project for the use of pigs in biomedical field (for the transplantation of organs and tissues) and biotechnology (animal model) and is supported by the greatest regional research institutes. The program will last two years and will be funded 50% by the Lombardy Region with a grant.
Avantea is the coordinator of the projects which involves others research centres: the Humanitas Clinical Institute in Brescia, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Bergamo, Centre for Biotechnology Research of the Catholic University of Cremona, the Zooprofilattico Institute in Brescia IZSLER, the Multimedica Foundation of Milan and Molecular Genetics Institute in Pavia.
During the meeting which took place on the 2nd December at the Catholic University of Cremona, Professor Galli met with representatives of local and regional research institutes that will work on the project. The study will take place on cloned pigs as well as on non-cloned pigs: the clone will be used for transplant, non-cloned for all other possible applications. In the report accompanying the project, Galli continued: "The research in the field of life sciences (molecular and cellular biology) in recent decades has revolutionized the field of biomedicine and increased the capacity to understand the logic of living and to modify the characteristics through biotechnology. The impact of biotechnology on health, agriculture and the environment will be epochal and far higher than that chemistry has had in recent decades to feed the population (eg pesticides) and treat many diseases (for example, antibiotics). Considerable resources have been and are being used in the field of genomics and genomics for the improvement of farm species (plants and animals). In near future, information from these studies could allow to select the best varieties and characteristics having particular biomedical interest through genetic engineering combined with in vitro reproduction techniques.
It should also be noted that significant resources are now invested mainly for population health and welfare that, with prolonged life expectancy, requires increasingly complex and expensive care. To meet these requirements there is an area of growing interest in the use of animals for non-food uses. "In this perspective, animals are not kept for food production but to extract proteins, tissues, organs, which potentially can find in a not too distant future pre-clinical and clinical applications. For example animal models of human diseases can be created with the aim of investigate the mechanisms responsible for that specific disease and also to test new therapeutic approaches (cystic fibrosis, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, etc..), or developing genetically modified animals whose organs are compatible with the human body and used for xenotransplantation, or to obtain animals that produce proteins of biomedical interest. "With the project Superpig the swine species is shown to be the most likely to fill the gap of knowledge between the universally recognized model (mouse) and the man. Also the Councillor for Work, Education and Training of Lombardy Region prof. Gianni Rossoni took his greeting to prof. Galli and all representatives of various organizations: "This meeting with so well qualified individuals is another evidence of the level of Avantea laboratory. Cremona should be proud of the established and growing international stature of Professor Galli and of his staff. This is an experiment, supported by Lombardy Region, with much of research and development potential, that is very important for all applications related to humans. "
<media 368 _blank - "TEXT, Corriere Agricolo - Super Pig, Corriere_Agricolo_-_SuperPig.pdf, 136 KB">Articolo Corriere Agricolo "Parte il progetto Super-Pig. Il suino compatibile in medicina." </media>Articolo ANMVI Oggi "Avantea, parte il progetto Super-Pig"
