Now we take a look at the world of biotech. If you think of medical research, you might see in your mind’s eye a pipette or perhaps a lab mouse. But did you know that one of the most important materials in biotech research is the chicken egg? And not just any old egg. Lots of drug trials hinge on SPF eggs, a material that’s free of undesirable pathogens. Every year, just to administer the annual flu shot in Taiwan, more than 10 million of these eggs are needed. So how are these eggs useful and what role do they play in your healthcare? Here’s our story.

Biotech and advances in IT have led to many breakthroughs. Right now, perhaps the most fashionable field is medical biotech. Targeted therapies and new vaccines as well research into many different drugs provide a wealth of opportunities for new talent to develop.

But under these cutting-edge magnesium lights is an indispensable industry that can even be called a strategic asset, though it’s long been overlooked: SPF eggs.

SPF eggs are an important material in vaccine development and biomedical research.

SPF stands for “specified pathogen free.” They have been crossbred over 10 generations and continuously selected and re-selected. They are free from specific microorganisms that might carry disease. The resulting fertilized eggs are precious “SPF eggs” that are used for laboratory experiments.

Chou Tzung-hsi
NTU School of Veterinary Medicine professor
They’re used for experiments. For almost 100 years, these egg embryos have provided a platform for virology which has always been irreplaceable.

Lin Yu-min
National Laboratory Animal Center
It has been used in tumor experiments for a very long time. Mainly it uses this thing we call CAM, the chorioallantoic membrane.

The CAM model is used in experiments for cancer research. Chicken embryos are easy to observe. The CAM is rich in blood vessels and easily hosts the inoculation and growth of cancer cells. It’s often used in research on the growth and metastasis of tumors. But in recent years, CAM has found a special task: it’s a way to test drugs for clinical patients, as part of a targeted therapy program.

Lin Yu-min
National Laboratory Animal Center
We take some of the tissues of the patient and then 10 or 20 eggs.

The patient’s tumor is transplanted onto lab mice, and then the CAM is inoculated with samples of the tumor. Then multiple drugs can be tested. In just three to seven days, you can find out which drug will have the best effect for the patient, giving the doctors immediate data.

Eggs have been used in the production of flu vaccines for over 80 years. CAM is also used in producing antigens. Developing a new vaccine takes at least six months, from cultivating the virus, purifying it and attenuating it, to filtering the vaccine and packaging it. It also has to go through many tests before it can be given to people.

Flu viruses vary widely. More and more countries are using quadrivalent vaccines that work on four different viruses.

But one quadrivalent vaccine takes two or three eggs to produce. In Taiwan, about 6 million flu shots are administered every year and 85% are developed using eggs. That means tens of millions of eggs are needed annually just for flu vaccines. It’s a staggering number. They all need to comply with laws around the production of SPF eggs, to ensure the quality of the vaccines and protect the health of the public.

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