Mike,
I like BTRN, especially at this price, as well as almost any Co publishing in Science. Harvard is also great, of course.
Let me continue to play the dark side, however.
1. Mice. They are somehow different from human, this case is no exception.
Mice do have alphaGT gene, humans not. For this experiment mice with disrupted GT gene were used. During experiment, porcine GT gene was introduced. You see, the difference is: you are not placing the protein with absolutely new activity into mouse "enviroment". For human it will be protein with absolutely new function, with unknown effect.
No one knows what kind of effects may appear, may be nothing. On the other side, why to change each human instead of disrupting GT gene in pig once? Theoretically, it should solve the problem. I am absolutely not familiar with the literature and let's hope Rick can explain why this approach was not used.
2. Article was supported IN PART by BTRN.
No any author is from BTRN.
Potentially it may create some problems.
3. Many years will be necessary to complete trials on monkeys, than humans, hundreds of millions $ to be spent.
Disclaimer: I had only several min to look at this paper and absolutely not familiar with this field. So, Rick, I do expect to see immunologist's opinion. |
