Startup Uses Chicken Eggs as Bioreactors of Low-Cost Medicines
May 20, 2026| |
Evolutionary biologist Samuel Levin and aerospace engineer Dimi Kellari of biotech startup Neion Bio introduced a new approach in biomanufacturing medicines. Speaking at the Global Synthetic Biology Conference 2026 held early this month in San Jose, California, they discussed using genetically engineered chickens as living bioreactors for the production of therapeutic human proteins.
Neion Bio's technique uses gene insertion of a desired medicine, such as a monoclonal antibody, into the ovalbumin locus, which produces half of the egg white's native protein, thereby leveraging the chicken's natural protein-manufacturing machinery. The company has successfully developed five genetically engineered chicken lines within a year, drawing on decades of foundational research to bypass historical engineering inefficiencies. The main target is to reduce end-to-end production costs of monoclonal antibodies to under US$10 per gram, a benchmark established by the Gates Foundation.
Read more from The Scientist.
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