Human Alpha Lactalbumin

Alpha lactalbumin is a small, disulphide-rich protein and the single most abundant protein in human breast milk, making up roughly a quarter of its total protein content; besides its nutritional role it binds calcium and zinc ions and shows antibacterial and anti-tumour activity. Because ordinary cow's milk lacks it, researchers have used transgenic techniques — inserting the human alpha-lactalbumin gene into cows and goats, in the cow's case via somatic cell nuclear transfer (the same nuclear-transfer principle later used to clone Dolly) — to create transgenic livestock whose milk is enriched with the human protein. Transgenic cows produced this way secreted useful concentrations of the recombinant protein, and transgenic goats did too at a comparable range. The point of the exercise is nutritional: milk carrying human alpha lactalbumin is closer in composition to human breast milk and is a more nutr …