The Roslin Institute, formed in 1993, is a world-leading UK capability in animal science research. It is one of eight Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) strategically supported institutes and is led by Professor Bruce Whitelaw.
BBSRC invests in The Roslin Institute’s core national capability and research through Institute Strategic Programme Grants (ISPGs), helping the institute to work towards its goals of:
- achieving sustainable farmed animal agriculture
- control of animal diseases
- understanding and enhancing animal and human health
Economic impact
The Roslin Institute builds on the public funding it receives.
In an economic analysis, published in 2022, it was determined that research at The Roslin Institute contributes almost £20 billion annually to the global economy, largely through productivity improvements in agriculture and aquaculture.
According to the report from BiGGAR Economics, this figure includes a contribution of:
- almost £325 million to the UK economy
- more than £80 million to Scotland
- almost £50 million to the local economy
For every £1 of public funds received, Roslin generates £3.40 in Scotland and £13.50 for the UK. Furthermore, Roslin’s work supports more than 1,600 jobs worldwide including 1,325 in the UK and more than 1,000 in Scotland.
Breeding for economic benefit
Some direct examples of the economic impact of Roslin’s genomic breeding work include:
- salmon resistant to infectious pancreatic necrosis (a disease which can result in mortality and has no treatment), saving farmers up to £234 million between 2013 and 2020
- cattle with better health and fertility, enabling cows to produce more milk
- cattle that need fewer resources to produce the same amount of meat or milk, contributing to increased livestock farming efficiency, saving more than 600,000 tonnes of animal feed
Beyond these advances in farm animal breeding, researchers at The Roslin Institute have also contributed to global efforts to better understand and develop therapies for a number of pathogens. This includes avian influenza and coronavirus infection.
However, it was work behind Dolly the Sheep that first led to public recognition of The Roslin Institute.
The legacy of Dolly the Sheep
Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. Born at The Roslin Institute in 1996, she is one of the most iconic figures in science history.
The late Professor Sir Ian Wilmut led the team of researchers at Roslin. His research transformed scientific thinking at the time and many of the advances we see now in the field of regenerative medicine stem from this early research.
However, the excitement that surrounds and follows Dolly overshadows the purpose of the BBSRC-funded experiment she was part of.
Genetic engineering
One of the main drivers in the mid-1990s for developing cloning was to provide a cell system for genetic engineering.
The end goal was to explore the potential to produce drugs to treat human illnesses by inserting foreign DNA for drug production into sheep and recovering the therapeutics from their milk. Although the therapeutics delivered from the pharming project were not commercialised, Dolly became an inspiration for the development of tools and methods for genetically altering organisms.
Since Dolly, alternative tools for modifying animal genomes have become available including gene editing, where precise changes to an organism’s DNA can be made by researchers.
Importantly, gene editing does not incorporate foreign DNA into the organism. Instead, it makes precise changes to the organism’s own genome, speeding up a process that could naturally be achieved by selective breeding.
Over its 30 years, BBSRC has supported a breadth of plant and animal breeding approaches, from traditional breeding, marker assisted selection and the exploration of new biotechnologies. The approaches all had the end goal of improving food security through crop and livestock improvement.
From Dolly to Director: Bruce Whitelaw
Professor Bruce Whitelaw, Director of The Roslin Institute, is also Personal Chair of Animal Biotechnology at The University of Edinburgh.
He worked at the institute at the time of Dolly and remains committed to applying his research in animal genetics to benefit society and the economy. He is an advocate for the responsible, safe and ethical use of gene editing in animals, contributing to policy discussions on the topic.
A pioneer in gene editing technologies
Whitelaw is a firm supporter of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act which became law in March 2023. This new legislation enables gene-edited plants and animals to be produced more quickly and precisely than conventional breeding practices, thereby supporting plant and animal health and contributing towards food security.
As Professor Whitelaw states:
Cloning enabled gene targeting strategies to be used. We have now moved on from using cloning technology and instead use very efficient genetic engineering methods that can be directly applied to the fertilised egg.
DNA-editing technology enables extremely precise changes of the genome of animals. We apply this exciting method in farm livestock and poultry, aiming to produce animals that are less susceptible to disease.
BBSRC, together with the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and with the support of UK Research and Innovation’s Sciencewise programme, commissioned a public dialogue on genome editing in farmed animals. The outcomes of the report are helping to shape research strategy, wider policy, regulation and responsible research and innovation pathways as the technologies develop.
Professor Bruce Whitelaw discusses the applications of genome editing. Credit: The Roslin Institute
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
Understanding animal genomes
Underpinning our ability to conduct gene editing is our knowledge of genomes, giving us an understanding of what and where changes can be made to yield desirable characteristics in plant and animal products.
The Roslin Institute, with sustained long-term strategic investment from BBSRC, has made key contributions to our understanding of animal genomes.
Professor Alan Archibald, while working at The Roslin Institute, co-led PiGMaP, the first international farm animal genome project. The genome mapping effort established The Roslin Institute’s capacity and leadership in farm animal genomics. The project demonstrated how collaboration across research groups and nations could yield valuable genetic resources and formed the connections used to support further genomics research.
Since then, Roslin Institute researchers have contributed to efforts to understand the genomes of:
- pigs
- sheep
- chicken
- turkey
- cattle
- salmon
- oysters
- mussels
Genomics infrastructure
These efforts have been aided by BBSRC ISPGs as well as BBSRC-supported infrastructure, ARK-Genomics, based at The Roslin Institute.
ARK-Genomics provided skills and resources in farm animal genomics with a specific focus on determining gene function, having been born from the BBSRC Investigating Gene Function programme.
The facility merged with the Medical Research Council and Natural Environment Research Council funded Edinburgh Gene Pool in 2013. It now forms Edinburgh Genomics and continues to provide research capacity in animal genomics and beyond.
Research connectivity
The Roslin Institute has played a key role in determining how genome sequences translate to animal characteristics, leading the international Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes (FAANG) project to accelerate this effort. FAANG encompasses researchers in the UK, Europe and the US, and this project strongly illustrates the needed connectivity of this type of research.
It is vital that we understand how the genes and specific markers within the genome contribute to an animal’s characteristics. Characteristics with economic and biological significance underpin animal selective breeding for desirable traits, including meat quality and animal disease resistance.
The real-world value of Roslin’s work
The work of The Roslin Institute is valued by breeders, and the institute partners with breeding companies to bring new technologies into breeding programmes. The translation of Roslin’s expertise in quantitative genetics and in genomics has resulted in real productivity increases in agricultural and aquaculture sectors globally.
Quantitative genetics theories and methods developed at Roslin, and Roslin trained scientists in key positions in global animal breeding companies, have been critical to this translation into practice. This is partly responsible for The Roslin Institute’s global economic impact in terms of gross value added.
Genome editing livestock for disease resistance
With long-term strategic investment from BBSRC, Whitelaw has developed techniques for genome editing livestock, aiming to produce pigs with resistance to otherwise fatal infectious diseases.
Efforts to mitigate African swine fever virus were not ultimately effective. Then working with Archibald, they successfully engineered pigs with resistance to an equally lethal virus, the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus.
The reduced revenue resulting from the disease costs approximately £1.75 billion in the US and Europe each year. The disease-resistant pigs generated at The Roslin Institute present real economic value to the agricultural sector.
Looking to the future
Future breeding programmes, building from Roslin’s functional genomics data, may result in:
- pigs and sheep resilient to Pestivirus
- cattle and sheep with reduced methane emissions
- cattle resistant to East Coast fever, which could save farmers $600 million each year
- tilapia fish resistant to Tilapia Lake Virus (this work was completed in collaboration with WorldFish and the Earlham Institute)
Dr Emily Clark, a Research Group Leader at The Roslin Institute, talks about her team’s work on beneficial traits in livestock. Credit: The Roslin Institute
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
The Roslin Institute acts as a hub for the advancement and application of farm animal genetics and genomics knowledge which, combined with the ability to generate gene edited animals, offers exciting opportunities for engineering biology. BBSRC continues to invest into research at the institute working to tackle the challenge of ensuring future food security for a growing population.
Professor Bruce Whitelaw says:
The global influence of Roslin’s research is dependent on the long-term vision and support the Institute has received from the BBSRC. Many of the projects that are now seeing major impact in the academic and farming sectors started decades ago. The sustained BBSRC support, first enabled the early engagement in both genomic and biotech activities, and now is accelerating application of knowledge through a focus on engineering biology. It is truly exciting to imagine what applications will emerge in the coming years.
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