According to the BBC, researchers at the UK’s Southampton University were touting ongoing research their conducting to genetically modify the tilapia species of fish to both grow faster as well as produce an important blood clotting agent.
Funded by the UK’s Department for International Development, the researchers hope to modify the fish to grow three times as fast as the naturally occurring tilapia.
Norman Maclean, a professor of genetics working on the project, also told the BBC that they hope to turn the species into a biological factory for an important, but currently expensive blood clotting agent. Maclean told the BBC,
We are currently working with an American bio-tech company to produce this blood-clotting agent called ‘factor seven’, which is very important in the treatment of someone who has, for example, been involved in a road accident. At the moment, factor seven is being used, but it is very expensive, and this research should help reduce the cost of its production.
Certainly the usual suspects in the animal rights movement will be horrified at the idea of using a genetically-modified fish to save people’s lives.
Source:
‘Superfish’ to ease food shortage. The BBC, August 16, 2001.