They named him Teodoro. He was born in an experimental farm in Madrid. He is the first genetically modified lamb born in Spain, as part of research conducted by the National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (Inia-Csic). The main objective of the project, explain those responsible, is to “study reproductive problems in farm animals” and, from there, develop a “model to understand fertilization in the human species”.
The possibility of “generating” animals with genetic modifications, beyond mice, has emerged in particular since the irruption of “Crispr” (“clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”) technology in the last ten years or so, explain the Spanish researchers. A discovery that has allowed to significantly broaden the horizons in the study of certain biological mechanisms, since “in some processes there are clear differences between mice and other mammals”. Thus in Spain the aim has been to favor the birth of a lamb whose embryo contains a genetic modification considered of interest.
“These animals contain targeted genetic modifications that eliminate or modify a specific gene and, therefore, allow us to know unequivocally its function in a biological process,” explains Pablo Bermejo-Álvarez, co-leader of the project together with Priscila Ramos-Ibeas. The lamb was named Teodoro in homage to Bermejo-Álvarez’s grandfather, who passed away this year. At the moment, the Spanish researcher and his colleagues prefer not to reveal the modified gene, to avoid being overtaken by other scientific groups in this specific research.