Files relating to the commercial exploitation of nuclear transfer technology, November 1994-June 1998

The work of Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at Roslin Institute with patented nuclear transfer technology (which included the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996 and Polly, a cloned and transgenic sheep, in 1997) opened out a number of possibilities for scientific and medical research. These included the ability to study genetic diseases more effectively in the most appropriate experimental species, to study the basic mechanisms of ageing, to create genetically identical animals for research use, to facilitate the production of novel proteins in livestock and to modify genes in livestock and other experimental animals. These opportunities led to a number of spin-off ventures from Roslin Institute, intended to exploit the commercial, biotechological and medical possibilities of this technology. In 1997, the Institute granted PPL Therapeutics, itself a company established by Roslin, exclusive license to use nuclear transfer technology for the production of therapeutic and medical nutritional proteins in the milk of genetically modified animals - the Institute retained the rights to the jointly owned arising intellectual propert from ongoing research in agricultural and animal breeding areas. In 1998, Roslin created Roslin Bio-Med, a company formed to exploit the cloning technology developed as part of the research which produced Dolly the sheep. In 1999, Roslin Bio-Med was acquired by Geron Corporation.