Post: #1

In Search For Cures, Scientists Create Embryos That Are Both Animal And Human

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots...-and-human

A handful of scientists around the United States are trying to do something that some people find disturbing: make embryos that are part human, part animal.

The researchers hope these embryos, known as chimeras, could eventually help save the lives of people with a wide range of diseases.

One way would be to use chimera embryos to create better animal models to study how human diseases happen and how they progress.

Perhaps the boldest hope is to create farm animals that have human organs that could be transplanted into terminally ill patients.

But some scientists and bioethicists worry the creation of these interspecies embryos crosses the line. "You're getting into unsettling ground that I think is damaging to our sense of humanity," says Stuart Newman, a professor of cell biology and anatomy at the New York Medical College.

The experiments are so sensitive that the National Institutes of Health has imposed a moratorium on funding them while officials explore the ethical issues they raise.

Nevertheless, a small number of researchers are pursuing the work with alternative funding. They hope the results will persuade the NIH to lift the moratorium.

"We're not trying to make a chimera just because we want to see some kind of monstrous creature," says Pablo Ross, a reproductive biologist at the University of California, Davis. "We're doing this for a biomedical purpose."

The NIH is expected to announce soon how it plans to handle requests for funding.

Recently, Ross agreed to let me visit his lab for an unusual look at his research. During the visit, Ross demonstrated how he is trying to create a pancreas that theoretically could be transplanted into a patient with diabetes.

The first step involves using new gene-editing techniques to remove the gene that pig embryos need to make a pancreas.

Working under an elaborate microscope, Ross makes a small hole in the embryo's outer membrane with a laser. Next, he injects a molecule synthesized in the laboratory to home in and delete the pancreas gene inside. (In separate experiments, he has done this to sheep embryos, too.)

After the embryos have had their DNA edited this way, Ross creates another hole in the membrane so he can inject human induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS for short, into the pig embryos.

Like human embryonic stem cells, iPS cells can turn into any kind of cell or tissue in the body. The researchers' hope is that the human stem cells will take advantage of the void in the embryo to start forming a human pancreas.

Because iPS cells can be made from any adult's skin cells, any organs they form would match the patient who needs the transplant, vastly reducing the risk that the body would reject the new organ.

But for the embryo to develop and produce an organ, Ross has to put the chimera embryos into the wombs of adult pigs. That involves a surgical procedure, which is performed in a large operating room across the street from Ross's lab.

The day Ross opened his lab to me, a surgical team was anesthetizing an adult female pig so surgeons could make an incision to get access to its uterus.

Ross then rushed over with a special syringe filled with chimera embryos. He injected 25 embryos into each side of the animal's uterus. The procedure took about an hour. He repeated the process on a second pig.

Every time Ross does this, he then waits a few weeks to allow the embryos to develop to their 28th day — a time when primitive structures such as organs start to form.

Ross then retrieves the chimeric embryos to dissect them so he can see what the human stem cells are doing inside. He examines whether the human stem cells have started to form a pancreas, and whether they have begun making any other types of tissues.

The uncertainty is part of what makes the work so controversial. Ross and other scientists conducting these experiments can't know exactly where the human stem cells will go. Ross hopes they'll only grow a human pancreas. But they could go elsewhere, such as to the brain.

"If you have pigs with partly human brains you would have animals that might actually have consciousness like a human," Newman says. "It might have human-type needs. We don't really know."

That possibility raises new questions about the morality of using the animals for experimentation. Another concern is that the stem cells could form human sperm and human eggs in the chimeras.

"If a male chimeric pig mated with a female chimeric pig, the result could be a human fetus developing in the uterus of that female chimera," Newman says. Another possibility is the animals could give birth to some kind of part-human, part-pig creature.

"One of the concerns that a lot of people have is that there's something sacrosanct about what it means to be human expressed in our DNA," says Jason Robert, a bioethicist at Arizona State University. "And that by inserting that into other animals and giving those other animals potentially some of the capacities of humans that this could be a kind of violation — a kind of, maybe, even a playing God."

Ross defends what his work. "I don't consider that we're playing God or even close to that," Ross says. "We're just trying to use the technologies that we have developed to improve peoples' life."

Still, Ross acknowledges the concerns. So he's moving very carefully, he says. For example, he's only letting the chimera embryos develop for 28 days. At that point, he removes the embryos and dissects them.

If he discovers the stem cells are going to the wrong places in the embryos, he says he can take steps to stop that from happening. In addition, he'd make sure adult chimeras are never allowed to mate, he says.

"We're very aware and sensitive to the ethical concerns," he says. "One of the reasons we're doing this research the way we're doing it is because we want to provide scientific information to inform those concerns."

Ross is working with Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte from the Salk Intitute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., and Hiromitsu Nakauchi at Stanford University. Daniel Garry of the University of Minnesota and colleagues are conducting similar work. The research is funded in part by the Defense Department and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

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Wow, this sounds like some "Island Of Dr. Moreau" type shit...fascinating.

Post: #2

I'll reserve my judgement till I see the if these creatures have nice tits

Post: #3

I'm all for scientific progress and break troughs, but this... I don't like it. Where does it stop, a half human half pig creature?

Post: #4

George Orwell's fiction becoming reality once again

Post: #5

Has anyone seen the movie splice? This is exactly what they did - they spliced human and animal dna to create this weird sexy creature and the lead scientist (adrien brody) ended up having sex with it (to his unfortunate demise). WYB??

Post: #6

(05-19-2016 12:03 PM)Teutatis Wrote:  I'm all for scientific progress and break troughs, but this... I don't like it.
Where does it stop, a half human half pig creature?

Ha, if only you knew!

'Humans evolved after a female chimpanzee mated with a pig': Extraordinary claim made by American geneticist

Quote:Scientists currently suppose that chimpanzees are humans' closest living evolutionary relatives, a theory amply backed by genetic evidence.
However, as Dr McCarthy points out, despite this genetic similarity, there are a massive number of divergent anatomical characteristics distinguishing the two species.

These distinguishing characteristics, including hairless skin, a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, light-coloured eyes, protruding noses and heavy eyelashes, to name but a few, are unmistakeably porcine, he suggests.
There are also a number of less obvious but equally inexplicable similarities between humans and pigs in the structure of the skin and organs.
Indeed, pig skin tissues and heart valves can be used in medicine because of their similarity and compatibility with the human body.

Dr McCarthy says that the original pig-chimp hook up was probably followed by several generations of 'backcrossing', where the offspring of that pairing lived among chimps and mated with them - becoming more like chimps and less like pigs with every new generation.
(...)
In its conclusion he writes: 'I must admit that I initially felt a certain amount of repugnance at the idea of being a hybrid. The image of a pig mating with an ape is not a pretty one, nor is that of a horde of monstrous half-humans breeding in a hybrid swarm.

'But the way we came to be is not so important as the fact that we now exist. As every Machiavellian knows, good things can emerge from ugly processes, and I think the human race is a very good thing. Moreover, there is something to be said for the idea of having the pig as a relative.

Post: #7

(05-19-2016 12:03 PM)Teutatis Wrote:  I'm all for scientific progress and break troughs, but this... I don't like it. Where does it stop, a half human half pig creature?

Post: #8

Post: #9

Hung like a horse takes on a whole new meaning

Post: #10

(05-19-2016 12:47 PM)se7en Wrote:  Has anyone seen the movie splice? This is exactly what they did - they spliced human and animal dna to create this weird sexy creature and the lead scientist (adrien brody) ended up having sex with it (to his unfortunate demise). WYB??

Don't forget, after that happened, she turned into a he, and rapes Brody's female costar who then gets pregnant.

She ends up carrying the baby because the corporation wants her to.

Fucked up movie man.

Post: #11

This is a sign of the apocalypse. The perversion of God's creation.

To think what i've become in the face of such science. I sometime wish I was born in a different era.

Post: #12

I think Ross sounds like a sensible chap. Bioethicist sounds like a very spurious title to me (spell check certainly feels it is worth revolting against) - when I picture a bioethicist it's either a woman or a man who didn't cut it as a scientist. It sounds like the perfect role for someone who likes to advise (and impose their advice on) people more accomplished than them.

Post: #13

This will probably lead to half-breed species clones being made.

Reminds me of that 2005 movie The Island.

Post: #14

I think this has been going on for a while. While it can theoretically lead to some good, these creatures have no human rights and no animal rights. I assume they are used largely for organ harvesting and kept alive in downright disturbing conditions.

Post: #15

Blogger Atavisionary wrote a good article exploring some of the merits and holes of the hybridization theory (Humans as chimp/pig hybrids).

http://atavisionary.com/tag/moneky-fucked-a-pig/

One of the merits discussed in the theory is the compatibility of pig organs with human physiology. Pig organs and valves are generally used in human transplants and much more biologically viable compared to chimpanzee equivalents.

Post: #16

This is how we get orcs.

Post: #17

It explains Lindy West

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Post: #19

Yeah exactly! This sounds like the beginning of Full Metal Alchemist

Post: #20

(05-19-2016 12:13 PM)getdownonit Wrote:  George Orwell's fiction becoming reality once again

Too late

Post: #21

(05-19-2016 01:31 PM)TheFinalEpic Wrote:  

Post: #22

So when are we gonna start fighting evolved cockroaches bent on destroying humanity while trying to colonize Mars?

Also

Post: #23

Anyone ever see Full Metal achelmist brotherhood? Reminds me of that.

Post: #24

(05-19-2016 07:48 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  Anyone ever see Full Metal achelmist brotherhood? Reminds me of that.

That would be what we're referencing, yes.

I only ever saw the original Full Metal Alchemist, but they did have that story arc with the dad who combined his daughter with the dog.

Post: #25

(05-19-2016 12:58 PM)Belgrano Wrote:  Ha, if only you knew!

'Humans evolved after a female chimpanzee mated with a pig': Extraordinary claim made by American geneticist

Huge problem with that theory - only domesticated pigs are hairless, wild pigs are pretty hairy.

I have heard a more convincing theory - pigs and chimps (and banabo's I am very inclined to believe about bonobos's) are descendants of previous degenerated (feminised) civilisations.

Also Kudos to everyone who quotes FMA, was my first assciation as well.

My thoughts about this creation os chimeras is that while we could extract some benefit from this unethical practice, there are a million of more ethical things that could and should be practiced by our civilisation to improve health before we even consider going this dark path - we must fix our food, get rid of chemicals in cosmetics, food and packiging, revive fat shaming, stop drinking, smoking and using drugs, stop poisoning water, medicine must change to heal using more natural remedies, stop prescribing drugs for fictional behavioral deseases, make life more psychologically healthy, reduce air pollution, stop feeding slaughter animals with antibiotics, promote anti-sedentary lifestyles and many things in this fashion.

What humanitiy is doing now is ruining it's health with many methods in hundreds of ways and then developing such morally queastionalbe, expensive and complicated methods like chimeras to try to combat the negative effects of this wicked lifestyle. It should look really stupid for an alien obseving us.