I am not sure that either of those essentially biblical words ‘made’ or ‘created’ are the appropriate ones for this monstrous and perverted piece of scientific hubris. The BBC tells us lightly that the experiment has ‘sparked ethical debate’. I should think it has.
The more important question is how this research was deemed acceptable and licensed in the first place? It took place in California, which may be part of the answer. The researchers are reported to have said that their work, which was published in the journal
Cell, offered a way of studying early human development. ‘As we are unable to conduct certain types of experiments in humans, it is essential that we have better models to more accurately study and understand human biology and disease,’ said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, from the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, California.
First human-monkey embryo sparks debate
A joint team of US and Chinese scientists have, in breakthrough research, grown human cells in monkey embryos in a laboratory for up to 20 days
Representative image
New York: A joint team of US and Chinese scientists have, in breakthrough research, grown human cells in monkey embryos in a laboratory for up to 20 days. The development, which has sparked ethical debates, has implications for developing new models of human biology and disease.
Interspecies chimeras in mammals have been made since the 1970s, when they were generated in rodents and used to study early developmental processes. In the current study, detailed in the journal Cell, six days after the monkey embryos had been created, each one was injected with 25 human cells. The cells were from an induced pluripotent cell line known as extended pluripotent stem cells, which have the potential to contribute to both embryonic and extra-embryonic tissues.
First human-monkey embryo sparks ethical debate
By IANS |
2 Views
New York, April 18 : A joint team of US and Chinese scientists have, in breakthrough research, grown human cells in monkey embryos in a laboratory for up to 20 days. The development, which has sparked ethical debates, has implications for developing new models of human biology and disease.
Interspecies chimeras in mammals have been made since the 1970s, when they were generated in rodents and used to study early developmental processes.
In the current study, detailed in the journal Cell, six days after the monkey embryos had been created, each one was injected with 25 human cells. The cells were from an induced pluripotent cell line known as extended pluripotent stem cells, which have the potential to contribute to both embryonic and extra-embryonic tissues.
Scientists have created human-cross-monkey embryos in a US laboratory in controversial research aimed at developing new treatments for human diseases.
Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in California injected human stem cells into over 100 macaques embryos - a species of monkey found throughout Asia and northern Africa.
They then examined them under microscope for 20 days to see how they would develop.
READ MORE:
Macaques are a type of monkey found widely throughout Asia and northern Africa.(Yoganathan Yoke)
After just one day, human cells had combined with 132 of the macaques embryos and after 10 days, 103 were still developing.
The longest any of the embryos lasted was 20 days.
6 hours ago A long-tailed macaque and Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte. Photo credit: Getty/Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Scientists wanting to do experiments on humans that would fail to meet ethical standards think they ve found a loophole - do them on human-monkey hybrids instead.
Researchers in the US and China injected 25 human stem cells into 132 six-day-old macaque embryos. Ten days later, most of them - 103 - were still developing, using both the monkey and human cells.
Carrying out experiments on human embryos has posed ethical dilemmas. After 19 days, developing babies are still blastocysts - just a bundle of cells - but still have the potential to become people.