EFTA02680513

From: Lesley Groff Ma. Sent: Saturday, September 1, 2012 4:38 PM To: Epstein Jeffrey Subject: Fwd: Dinochicken meeting proposal Attachments: THE DINOCHICKEN PROJECT _SUMMIT_ MEETING PROPOSAL.docx; Untitled attachment 00643.htm Sent from my iPhon= Begin forwarded message: From: Jack Homer < Date: September 1, 2012 12:18:37 PM E=T To: Lesley Groff < > Subject: Re: Dinochicken meeting pro=osal Dear Jeffrey, &=bsp; First off , many thanks for the invitation to your ranch, I had a great time, especially spending time with you and the girls, and seeing your Cretaceous s=diments and the old railroad. I don't get many chances to spend time with non paleontologists or=see places and things like that these days. I talked to my po=t docs and Co-PI when I returned and got the scoop on the transgenic chickens situation, for as you know I was very s=rprised to hear that such a thing existed since my co-researchers were saying they didn't. As it turns o=t, although there are such a thing, there is simply no established protocol to create th=m, and they, at present do not pass on their characteristics, so in effect are useless for our project. What=it is that we need to do is to be able to target a specific region of DNA, and that technology is not yet available in birds, but is expected within a year=or two, so within our time frame. We hope someone else will do it first so we can use it, as this technology (homologous recombination technology, aka knockout technology) is essential t= the success of this project. =span style="mso-bidi- font-family:Verdana;colOr:k1F1F1F">We do not aim to g=nerate chickens that express an extraneous gene (a transgene), but we plan on findi=g the very small changes in the regulation of existing genes that curb tail, hand, and tooth development. In order to make these very small changes=in the chicken genome, homologous recombination technology needs to be develope=. Anyway, this is the sort of stuff we will discuss in our summit meeting, and I very much appreciate your considering the funding of this meeting. It is obviously the most important first step, and I thank you for suggesting we do it. Please give all the girls my very best wishes, and to you, whom I envy,<=span> EFTA_R1_01988432 EFTA02680513 Thanks again, lack 9.1.12 Proposal Attached and Separate (=ttachment) 2 EFTA_R1_01988433 EFTA02680514