Transgenic plants and animals. Hybridoma

Cell engineering works with cells and tissues in artificial conditions. To get a transgenic animal a gene is introduced into a zygote by microinjection: large, fast-growing transgenic mice and rabbits have been obtained in this way. A clone is a genetically identical descendant produced by division from one cell or organism. To clone higher animals the nuclear transfer method is used: the nucleus of an egg cell is removed and the nucleus of another cell is put in its place. J. Gurdon used this method on frogs in 1962 (Nobel Prize, 2012). In 1996 at the Roslin Institute (Scotland) the clone sheep Dolly was obtained from the nucleus of a somatic mammary-gland cell of an adult sheep (announced in 1997). Hybridoma technology was created in 1975 by G. Köhler and C. Milstein: an antibody-producing lymphocyte is fused with a rapidly dividing tumour cell; the hybridoma both makes antibody and divides without limit. One hybridoma clone gives a single kind of antibody – monoclonal antibodies. They are used in medical diagnosis (test systems), in detecting pathogens and in treating some diseases.