Webinar 2: Engineering biology in poultry - From Discovery to Application

The second webinar in the series will explore how engineering biology is advancing our understanding of chicken development and enabling faster generation of gene-edited lines. Bringing together academic research and an industry perspective from Cobb-Vantress, the session will consider how these capabilities could support poultry breeding, alongside the opportunities and barriers to their practical application.

Speakers 

Avian Transgenics: Past, Present and Future

Dr James Glover (The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh)

• Introduction and brief history of avian transgenics.

• Current approaches using primordial germ cell (PGC) technologies.

• Next-generation avian models, including the FuChi cell cycle reporter chicken line.

• Future directions and opportunities in chicken transgenic technologies.

Translating and Scaling Innovation: Lessons from Crops Applied to Livestock

Dr Mark Cigan (Managing Director, Genetic Innovation, Cobb-Vantress)

• Moving from laboratory discovery to on-farm commercial application requires time, cross-functional teams, investment, regulatory approval, IP protection, and producer and consumer trust.

• Early crop-industry failures often reflected an unclear product vision, poor coordination between biotechnology and breeding, and insufficient focus on economic value.

• These lessons reinforced the importance of “starting with the end in mind”: traits must create value, benefit the animal, remain durable, and perform across commercial breeding populations.

• Building on these principles, crop and swine biotechnology examples illustrate how innovation can be translated into differentiated, scalable poultry products.