A Japanese-U.S. team today reported the successful creation of transgenic animals using sperm genetically modified and grown in a laboratory dish, an achievement with implications for a wide range of research from developmental biology to gene therapy.In their study, to be published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of Jan. 26-30, researchers from Fukui Prefectural University in Obama, Japan, and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), describe the innovative techniques they used to produce genetically modified zebrafish using sperm cells grown under laboratory, or “in vitro,” conditions.
