CHICAGO — An international group of scientists has decoded the DNA of the domestic pig, research that may one day prove useful in finding new treatments for pigs and people and could aid efforts to develop a swine- flu vaccine for pigs.
Pigs and humans are similar in size and makeup, and swine are often used in human research. Scientists say they rely on pigs to study everything from obesity and heart disease to skin disorders.
Researchers are announcing the results of their work today at a meeting at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, U.K., one of the organizations involved in the research. They’ll spend the meeting discussing ways to use the new information, said Larry Schook, a University of Illinois at Champaign biomedical-science professor who led the DNA-sequencing project.
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