South Korean scientists have developed a technology which they claim will open the door to the mass production of biomedical materials, including a cancer-fighting enzyme, in a couple of years.

The nation’s joint research team, including Kwon Mo-sun of the Taegu School of Medicine at Catholic University, Monday said they have made transgenic chickens for therapeutic purposes.

``We injected green fluorescent protein (GFP) into chicken embryos and incubated chickens showing green fluorescent signals, proving successful genomic incorporation,’’ Kwon said.

Of the 129 incubated eggs, he said, 13 chicks hatched after 21 days and all of them were found to have the GFP.

GFP is the green marker gene, which is frequently used as a reporter of gene expression with the green fluorescent signals confirming the GFP was successfully injected into the gene.

Scientists have produced fluorescing transgenic animals with mice, pigs and fish but this is the first time it has been successful with chickens, which can provide better therapeutic opportunities due to their short reproduction cycle.

``We can obtain biomedical materials such as cancer-fighting enzymes through eggs laid by transgenic chickens, which are injected in other substances,’’ Kwon said.

Kwon added their study will claim the ultimate upper hand against other ongoing efforts to obtain biomedical materials via non-chicken transgenic animals, since it is easy to extract protein from chicken eggs.

``Chicken eggs are composed of just eight kinds of proteins, making it easy to extract certain therapeutic materials. Also chickens can lay eggs six months after hatching, enabling mass production in a short time,’’ Kwon said.

She expected it would take a couple of years to commercialize the biomedical substances, saying with a smile, ``We will be able to make money with this as early as 2006.’’

The breakthrough was printed in the latest edition of the biological journal, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. Another journal, Molecular Reproduction and Development, will also publish the results next month.