Kevin D. Wells

Kevin D. Wells is an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia in the Division Of Animal Sciences at the Animal Science Research Center. He is also the Senior Scientist, Project Manager, and Department Head of the Department of Embryology and Cell Biology at Revivicor Inc. (formerly PPL Therapeutics).

Wells has devoted his career to working on genetically engineered animals, including the creation of a mastitis-resistant cow. He has given talks entitled "Transgenic Livestock: How And Why" (Georgetown University, November 2000); "Genome Modification For Meat Science: Techniques And Applications" (American Meat Science Association Conference Reciprocal Proceedings, July 2000), "Genetically Enhanced Material In Meat Processing" (Canadian Meat Council, February 2001), and "Transgenic Approaches to Prevent Bovine Mastitis" (Annual Meeting of The American Dairy Science Association, July 2001).

In 2010, Wells was appointed as a temporary voting member to the FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee during the approval process for the genetically engineered AquAdvantage salmon.

Education and Employment
Wells received a Bachelor of Science with a major in Animal Science and a minor in Biochemistry from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1989. In his undergraduate years, from 1987 to 1989, Wells worked as a Research Laboratory Technician at the Nutrition and Nutrient Evaluation Services at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He also worked as a Research Laboratory and Surgery Technician in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Department of Animal Science from 1988 to 1989.

He did his graduate work at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, where he received a PhD in Genetics with a minor in Biotechnology from the Department of Genetics and Department of Animal Science in 1996. During his graduate years, at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, he worked as a Research Assistant in the Department of Animal Science and the Department of Genetics from 1989 to 1996.

After receiving his PhD, he went on to the USDA, where he worked as a molecular biologist at the Gene Evaluation and Mapping Laboratory in Beltsville, MD from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, his title changed to Research Geneticist. He continued on in that role until 2001.

In 2001, Wells became a Senior Scientist, Project Manager, and Department Head of the Department of Embryology and Cell Biology at Revivicor Inc. (formerly PPL Therapeutics) in Blacksburg, VA.

Additionally, over the course of his career in academia, Wells has taught courses on "hands-on" basic farm animal practices, Manipulation of Mouse Embryos, Feeds and Feeding, and Beef Production/Management.

Honors and Awards
Wells has received the following honors and awards:
 * USDA Certificate of Achievement for bovine nuclear transfer, 2000
 * Graduate Career Development Retreat (competitive attendance opportunity), 1992
 * Graduate Teaching Award (ANS 606, Mammalian Embryo Manipulation), 1991 Achievement in Analytical Chemistry Award, 1988
 * Animal Science Faculty Alumni Scholarship Award, 1988
 * American Society of Animal Science Scholarship Award, 1987

Research
Wells describes his research as follows: "My primary research interest and strength is in the recognition and exploitation of the relationship of diverse observations. Biotechnology has matured to a point where the only obstacle to future development is the limitations of imagination. Development of enabling technologies such as gene transfer, embryo culture, transgene expression, and manipulation of embryos and DNA has been my primary focus. My short term goal is to apply bioinformatics, embryology, and molecular biology to the development of economically viable animal products for the betterment of society. My long term goal is to develop an interesting, motivating program to train students and study genetic mechanisms controlling economically important traits."

Ph.D. Dissertation
The title of Wells' Dissertation was "Toward Modification of Digestion Via Gene Transfer: Attempts To Use A Cellulase Gene From Clostridium thermocellum. celD." He says: "My strategy was to combine my previous experience in nutrition with the powerful techniques of gene transfer and molecular biology. This work examined the utility of a bacterial cellulase transgene in the manipulation of digestion... The approach was to generate transgenic animals that would express, translate, fold, and secrete a bacterial cellulase, celD. Further, I developed functional assays for cellulolytic activity and vector systems for the simultaneous assessment of that activity in bacteria, yeast, mammalian tissue culture, and transgenic animals. In other projects, I developed murine and porcine embryo culture media, studied factors affecting in vitro production of porcine embryos and oocytes, improved DNA delivery to pronuclei, cloned microbial genes for other digestive enzymatic activities, and utilized gene transfer to produce transgenic pig models of human disease."

USDA
As a Research Associate at USDA, Wells researched transgene expression and detection. As a Genetecist at USDA, he continued working on genetically engineered animals as well as "communication of embryo and genome manipulation technologies to the public." He says his work at USDA "culminated in the production of dairy cattle that are resistant to S. aureus mastitis."

Current Research
Wells works on production of fully-human antibodies in genetically modified livestock. He says: "This project involves isolation and characterization of livestock immunoglobulin genes, gene targeting, purification ofB-cells, embryo manipulation, yeast/fibroblast fusion, and analysis of immunoglobulin gene function. In addition, I supervise a team of embryologists with the primary goal of regenerating animals via nuclear transfer using genetically modified somatic cells."

Grants

 * Army Research Office - DARPA, "Production of human polyclonal antibodies in Genetically-Modified Animals, as a prophylactic countermeasure to biowarfare agents," $2,374,500, 05/01/01 - 02/28/06, Contract number: DAAD 19-0 1-C-0041
 * National Institute of Standards and Technology - ATP, "Preventing Porcine Endogenous Retrovirus Transmission in Xenograft Tissues," $1,871,400, 07/01103 - 06/30/06
 * National Institute of Standards and Technology - A TP, "Production of fully-human polyclonal antibodies in genetically modified pigs," $1,843,502, 01/01/05-12/31/07

Publications

 * Petters, R.M., Alexander, C.A., Wells, K.D., Collins, E.B., Sommer, J.R., Blanton, M.R., Rojas, G., Hao, Y., Flowers, W.L., Banin, E., Cideciyan, A.C., Jacobson, S.G. and Wong, F. (1997). Genetically engineered large animal model for studying cone photoreceptor survival and degeneration in retinitis pigmentosa. Nature Biotechnology. Oct 1; 15(10): 965-970.
 * Wells, K.O., Foster, J.A., Moore, K., Pursel, V.G., and Wall, RJ. (1999) Codon Optimization, Genetic Insulation, and an rtTA RepOlier Improve Performance of the Tetracycline Switch. Transgenic Research Oct;8(5):371-81
 * Du, W., Huang, Z., Flahelty, 1.E., Wells, K., and Payne, G.A. (1999) Green Fluorescent Protein as a reporter to monitor gene expression and food colonization by Aspergillus jlavus. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Feb; 65(2): 834-836.
 * Talbot, N.C., Caperna, TJ., Edwards, J.L., Garrett, Wesley, M., Wells, K.D., and Ealy, A.D. (2000) Bovine blastocyst-derived trophectoderm and endoderm cell cultures: interferon tau and transferrin expression as respective in vitro markers Biology O/Reproduction Feb;62(2):235-47.
 * Wells, K.O. and Powell, A.M. (2000) Blastomeres from somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos are not allocated randomly in chimeric blastocysts Cloning 2(1):9-22.
 * Kerr, D., Plaut, K., Barmley, 1., Williamson, C., Lax, A., Wells, K.D., Moore, K., Wall, RJ. (2001) Lystostaphin expression in milk confers protection against staphylococcal infection of mammary glands in transgenic mice Nature Biotechnology Jan;19(1):66-70.
 * Yang J, Ratovitski T, Brady JP, Solomon MB, Wells KO, Wall RJ. (2001) Expression of myostatin pro domain results in muscular transgenic mice. Molecular Reproduction and Development Nov;60(3):351-61.
 * Dai Y, Vaught TD, Boone J, Chen SH, Phelps CJ, Ball S, Monahan JA, Jobst PM, McCreath KJ, Lamborn AE, Cowell-Lucero JL, Wells KD, Colman A, Polejaeva lA, Ayares DL. (2002) Targeted disruption of the alpha1,3-galactosyltransferase gene in cloned pigs. Nature Biotechnology Mar;20(3):251-5.
 * Talbot NC, Caperna TJ, Wells KD .. (2002) The PICM-19 Cell Line as an in vitro Model of Liver Bile Ductules: Effects of cAMP Inducers, Biopeptides and pH. Cells Tissues Organs. 171(2-3):99-116.
 * Sonstegard T, Capuco AV, White J, Van Tassell CP, Connor EE, Cho J, Sultana R, Shade L, Wray IE, Wells KO, Quackenbush J.(2002) Analysis of bovine mammary gland EST and functional annotation of the Bos taurus gene index. Mammalian Genome. Jul;13(7):373-9.
 * Phelps CJ, Koike C, Vaught TO, Boone J, Wells KD, Chen SH, Ball S, Specht SM, Polejaeva lA, Monahan JA, Jobst PM, Shamia SB, Lamborn AE, Garst AS, Moore M, Demetris AJ, Rudert WA, Bottino R, Bertera S, Trucco M, Starzl TE, Dai Y, Ayares DL.(2003) Production of alpha I ,3-galactosyltransferase-deficient pigs. Science. Jan 17;299(5605):411-4.
 * Mitra A, Foster-Frey J, Rexroad CE 3rd, Wells KD, Wall RJ. (2003) Molecular characterization of lysozyme type II gene in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss): evidence of gene duplication. Animal Biotechnology. May;14(1):7-12.
 * Powell AM, Talbot NC, Wells KD, Kerr DE, Pursel VO, Wall RJ. (2004) Cell donor influences success of producing cattle by somatic cell nuclear transfer. Biology 0/ Reproduction Jul;71 (l ):21 0-6.
 * Butler JE, Wertz N, Sun J, Wang H, Chardon P, Piumi F, Wells K. (2004) Antibody repertoire development in fetal and neonatal pigs. VII. Characterization of the preimmune kappa light chain repertoire. Journal 0/ Immunology. Dec 1; 173(11 ):6794-805.
 * Wall RJ, Powell AM, Paape MJ, Kerr DE, Bannerman DD, Pursell VG, Wells KD, Talbot N, Hawk HW (2005) Genetically enhanced cows resist intramammary Staphylococcus aureus infection. Nature Biotechnology, Apr;23( 4):445-51.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Biotechnology
 * AquAdvantage salmon
 * Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee