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Transgenic Research
Transgenic animals, which have permanently taken up foreign genes, have been crucial to our understanding of how genes work and their involvement in health and disease.
Though transgenic technology is well established for mice, the generation of larger animals is still problematic and Professor Winston is currently researching improvements in modifying the genes of animals, to help human transplantation. Since his long-term goal is to generate transgenic pigs that have organs suitably modified for transplantation to humans, he has been developing novel methods to generate these animals. He has brought his microsurgical techniques to bear on this problem and has used viruses to enter the male germ cells. The mature transgenic sperm are then used to fertilise eggs. As a very large number of adults and children die whilst waiting for transplantable organs, so his work is of considerable importance. He also investigates the development of the stem cells that make sperm, in the search for better fertility treatments.