Justplain
31st July 2019, 05:02
A Japanese scientist is one step closer to beginning unprecedented experiments that could develop human-animal embryo hybrids.
Hiromitsu Nakauchi, a professor at the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Tokyo and the Department of Genetics at Stanford University, has just received approval from a committee of scientists working for the Japanese government to insert human stem cells into rodents in an attempt to grow a human pancreas in the animal.
Though the decision allows unprecedented access to long-term chimeric organ experiments, some scientists were concerned with the ethics of the decision. The biggest worry for bioethicists in the industry is the possibility of developing a human-animal hybrid with human cells in the brain, which would present a huge ethical issue in terms of its cognition and awareness.
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/japanese-researcher-receives-approval-to-experiment-on-human-animal-chimera-embryos
Hiromitsu Nakauchi, a professor at the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Tokyo and the Department of Genetics at Stanford University, has just received approval from a committee of scientists working for the Japanese government to insert human stem cells into rodents in an attempt to grow a human pancreas in the animal.
Though the decision allows unprecedented access to long-term chimeric organ experiments, some scientists were concerned with the ethics of the decision. The biggest worry for bioethicists in the industry is the possibility of developing a human-animal hybrid with human cells in the brain, which would present a huge ethical issue in terms of its cognition and awareness.
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/japanese-researcher-receives-approval-to-experiment-on-human-animal-chimera-embryos