The 14th Transgenic Technology Meeting (TT2017) was held in Salt Lake City (Utah-US; 1-4 October , 2017), sponsored by the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT).
During the meeting the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT) awarded Prof. Mario Capecchi with the ISTT prize 2017 for his pioneering work on the development of gene targeting in mouse embryo-derived stem cells. His work in this area revolutionized the study of mammalian biology and is used to understand countless diseases by scientists worldwide. In 2007, he was recognized for this achievement with the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, which he shared with Oliver Smithies and Martin Evans.
The scientific results presented clearly remarked the great versatility of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology in the research field for the generation of animal models for biomedical purposes. Moreover, discussions followed underlying potential practical issues and their solutions, which emerged during the implementation of this system a few years after its discovery. An oral session was devoted to genetically modified large animals produced for agricultural and medical purposes.
Avantea participated in last 5 conventions with presentations of our achievements in the field of modified livestock animals. This year we demonstrated our results in the use of endonucleases (Talens technology), specific for our patented safe harbor genomic locus (V2G), generating low PERV targeted transgenic pigs, as possible future donors of modified pancreatic islets for xenotransplantation to treat Type I diabetes. We also presented on the expression studies of the porcine CACNA1C gene, coding for a voltage-gate L-type calcium channel (CaV1.2), as first step towards the creation of modified pigs as models for studies of cardiac and neuropsychiatric disorders.