Helen Sang
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Helen Mary Sang
| image = Helen Sang at the British Library.jpg
| caption = Sang speaks at the British Library in 2014
| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|OBE|FRSE|FRSB|size=100}}
| alma_mater = University of Cambridge (BSc, PhD)
| thesis_title = Studies in genetic recombination in Sordaria brevicollis
| thesis_year = 1975
| thesis_url = http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/t9gok8/44CAM_ALMA21428176290003606
| workplaces = Roslin Institute
University of Edinburgh
Harvard University
| doctoral_advisor = Harold Leslie Keer Whitehouse
| birth_date = 1955
}}
Helen Mary Sang {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|OBE|FRSE|FRSB}} (born 1955) is the head of the Division of Developmental Biology at the Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh. Her research considers the development of chickens that cannot spread avian influenza (bird flu). She has previously served on the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Early life and education
Sang studied natural sciences at the University of Cambridge and graduated in 1972.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/helen-sang|title=Professor Helen Sang|website=The University of Edinburgh |access-date=28 December 2019}} She earned her doctorate in the Department of Botany where she studied genetic recombination in Sordaria. She worked in the laboratory of Harold Leslie Keer Whitehouse. After earning her PhD, Sang was awarded a SERC–NATO fellowship to look at mismatch repair in E. coli working with Matthew Meselson at Harvard University.
Research and career
Sang returned to the United Kingdom as a Medical Research Council fellow working with David Finnegan at the University of Edinburgh. Here she investigated the transposable element that is responsible for the I-R system of hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. Sang was made principal investigator at the Agriculture and Food Research Council (AFRC) Poultry Research Centre, which became the Roslin Institute in 1993. Sang has dedicated much of her research career to the genetic modification of chickens.{{Cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/863e034e-d5c8-11e5-829b-8564e7528e54|title=Are these the chickens of the future?|last=Ahuja|first=Anjana|date=19 February 2016 |website=Financial Times |access-date=28 December 2019}} In the 1980s when Sang started at the Roslin Institute she started to investigate ways to genetically modify hens so that they created valuable proteins in their eggs.{{Cite book |title=A Chicken Bioreactor for Efficient Production of Functional Cytokines |last1=Herron |first1=Lissa R. |last2=Pridans |first2=Clare |last3=Turnbull |first3=Matthew L. |last4=Smith |first4=Nikki |last5=Lillico |first5=Simon |last6=Sherman |first6=Adrian |last7=Gilhooley |first7=Hazel J. |last8=Wear |first8=Martin |last9=Kurian |first9=Dominic |last10=Papadakos |first10=Grigorios |last11=Digard |first11=Paul |last12=Hume |first12=David A. |last13=Gill |first13=Andrew |last14=Sang |first14=Helen M. |name-list-style=amp |publisher=BMC|pmid=30594166 |oclc=1090948795}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1377302/Dolly-team-will-use-eggs-to-mass-produce-medicines.html|title=Dolly team will use eggs to mass-produce medicines |journal=Daily Telegraph |last=Highfield |first=Roger |date=7 December 2000 |access-date=28 December 2019 |issn=0307-1235}} She proposed purifying the egg whites and making use of the engineered proteins for medical therapies to treat cancer, arthritis and multiple sclerosis.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/jan/15/medicalresearch.drugs|title=GM hens' medicinal eggs aid cancer fight|last=Jha|first=Alok|date=15 January 2007 |work=The Guardian|access-date=28 December 2019 |issn=0261-3077}} Since then, genome editing has evolved so that genes can be inserted into the DNA of chickens, producing new human proteins alongside those in egg white.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-47022070|title=Gene modified chickens 'lay medicines'|last=Macdonald|first=Kenneth |work=BBC News |date=28 January 2019 |access-date=28 December 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190127230835.htm|title=Hens that lay human proteins in eggs offer future therapy hope|website=ScienceDaily |access-date=28 December 2019}} Working with Lissa Herron Sang demonstrated new ways to purify these egg proteins.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukri.org/research/themes-and-programmes/international-womens-day/professor-helen-sang/|title=Professor Helen Sang |website=UK Research and Innovation |access-date=28 December 2019}} In 2019 she demonstrated that these hens could produce IFNalpha2a, a protein which has anti-viral and anti-cancer potential.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/drugs-for-humans-laid-in-chicken-eggs-36vlczfg8|title=Drugs for humans laid in chicken eggs|last=Barrie|first=Douglas|date=28 January 2019 |work=The Times|access-date=28 December 2019 |issn=0140-0460}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/gm-chickens-lay-eggs-rich-with-cancer-killing-proteins/|title=GM chickens lay eggs rich with cancer-killing proteins|website=BBC Science Focus Magazine| access-date=28 December 2019}}
She has developed new ways to produce transgenic chickens using lentiviral vectors.{{Cite web|url=http://www.narf.ac.uk/transgenics/transgenic-chicken-production.html|title=Production of Transgenic Chickens using Lentiviral Vectors |website=National Avian Research Facility |access-date=28 December 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chickens-drugs-idUSCOL45700720070124|title=Genetically modified chickens lay drugs in eggs|date=24 January 2007 |work=Reuters|access-date=28 December 2019}} The transgenic chickens can serve as models for investigations into vertebrate development.{{Cite journal|last1=McGrew|first1=Michael J. |last2=Sherman |first2=Adrian |last3=Ellard |first3=Fiona M. |last4=Lillico |first4=Simon G. |last5=Gilhooley |first5=Hazel J. |last6=Kingsman |first6=Alan J. |last7=Mitrophanous |first7=Kyriacos A. |last8=Sang |first8=Helen |name-list-style=amp |date=1 July 2004 |title=Efficient production of germline transgenic chickens using lentiviral vectors |journal=EMBO Reports |volume=5|issue=7|pages=728–733|doi=10.1038/sj.embor.7400171|pmid=15192698 |pmc=1299092 |issn=1469-221X}}{{Cite web|url=https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FH023593%2F1|title=Next generation transgenic technologies for the chick|last=Sang|first=Helen M. |website=UK Research and Innovation |access-date=28 December 2019}} Sang and colleagues developed transgenic lines that incorporated green fluorescent protein and membrane localised green fluorescent proteins in cells that are developing embryos. These could be used for in vivo imaging or grafting to analyse lineage during embryogenesis.
In 2011 together with Laurence Tiley Sang demonstrated that she could genetically modify chickens to confer resistance to avian influenza.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/helen-sang-counting-your-gm-chickens|title=Helen Sang - Counting your GM chickens |date=13 June 2015 |website=The Naked Scientists |access-date=28 December 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.wattagnet.com/articles/38693-can-avian-flu-resistant-chickens-be-a-commercial-reality?v=preview|title=Could avian flu-resistant chickens be a commercial reality?|website=WATT Ag Net|access-date=28 December 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/gm-chickens-that-don%E2%80%99t-transmit-bird-flu-developed|title=GM chickens that don't transmit bird flu developed|date=14 January 2011 |website=University of Cambridge |access-date=28 December 2019}}
= Awards and honours =
Sang is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2008) and the Royal Society of Biology.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rse.org.uk/fellow/helen-sang/|title=Professor Helen Sang FRSE|date=17 July 2019 |website=The Royal Society of Edinburgh |access-date=28 December 2019}} From 2015 to 2018 Sang served on the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. Sang was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to food security and bioscience for health.{{London Gazette|issue=62866|supp=y|page=N14|date=28 December 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/28/full-2020-new-year-honours-list-11968227/|title=The full 2020 New Year Honours list - From Olivia Newton-John to Ben Stokes|date=28 December 2019 |website=Metro |access-date=28 December 2019}}
= Selected publications =
Her publications include:
- {{Cite journal|last=Sang|first=Helen|date=2004|title=Efficient production of germline transgenic chickens using lentiviral vectors|journal=EMBO Reports|volume=5|issue=7|pages=728–733|doi=10.1038/sj.embor.7400171|pmid=15192698|pmc=1299092}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Sang|first=Helen|date=1994|title=Transgenic Birds by DNA Microinjection|journal=EMBO Reports|volume=12|issue=1|pages=60–63|doi=10.1038/nbt0194-60|pmid=7764327|s2cid=8465540}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Sang|first=Helen|date=2004|title=Prospects for transgenesis in the chick|url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/13144441/Prospects_for_transgenesis_in_the_chick.pdf|journal=Mechanisms of Development|volume=121|issue=9|pages=1179–1186|doi=10.1016/j.mod.2004.05.012|pmid=15296981|s2cid=18408892|hdl=20.500.11820/bec5f7b2-b8aa-45a0-8fa5-104429dd62b7|hdl-access=free}}
Sang has appeared on The Naked Scientists and delivered a TED talk on the need for genetically modified chickens.{{Citation|title=Why do we need GM chickens? {{!}} Helen Sang {{!}} TEDxGlasgow|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUbqrh5otWs |access-date=28 December 2019}}
References
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Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh