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A scientific first: embryos made from human and monkey cells

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A scientific first: embryos made from human and monkey cells

Defenders of the experiment cite the need for improved organ transplantation. Critics fear what it will lead to and ethical ramifications of such a procedure.

Damian Goddard by Damian Goddard
April 15, 2021
in Breaking News, Foreground, Science
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Reading Time: 3 mins read
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A scientific first: embryos made from human and monkey cells
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After years spent unsuccessfully trying to inject human stem cells into sheep and pig embryos, scientists have now ventured into uncharted territory by successfully mixing human and monkey cells.

In the medical journal Cell, the international team of scientists at the fore of this groundbreaking development describes the procedure as an attempt to find new ways to produce organs for people who need transplants. But some scientists remain concerned as to what kind of ground is being broken.

Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, co-author of the study and professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla, California, is very excited about the breakthrough and how it can address the demand for organ transplants which he calls “one of the major problems in medicine”.

“This knowledge will allow us to go back now and try to re-engineer these pathways that are successful for allowing appropriate development of human cells in these other animals”.

The failure of human-to-pig/sheep commingling in recent years led Belmonte to collaborate with other scientists – the majority coming from China – in order to “try something different”. The experiment involved the use of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS); human skin or blood cells that have been “reprogrammed” for ulterior uses. The researchers injected 25 iPS cells into embryos from macaque monkeys, which have a closer genetic makeup to humans than pigs or sheep. A day later, human cells were detected in 132 of the embryos. In a 19-day span of studying the embryos, the scientists documented findings on human/animal cellular communication which they hope will lead to new ways to “grow organs for transplantation”.

Science uses the term “chimera”, to describe a single organism composed of cells with more than one distinct genotype. In Greek mythology, a chimera is a fire-breathing she-monster having a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail.

With lines blurring between fiction and reality, more than a few from within the scientific community are more than a little wary of this new study. Said Kirstin Matthews, a fellow for science and technology at Rice University’s Baker Institute, “My first question is: Why? I think the public is going to be concerned, and I am as well, that we’re just kind of pushing forward with science without having a proper conversation about what we should or should not do.”

Belmonte says that the team’s goal was “not to generate any new organism, any monster. We are trying to understand how cells from different organisms communicate with one another.”

But some biological ethicists are concerned that some scientist could push this envelope into the creation of a baby made out of such an embryo. Or that it could produce animals that have human sperm or eggs.

Said Stanford University bioethicist Hank Greely, “I think rogue scientists are few and far between. But they’re not zero. So I do think it’s an appropriate time for us to start thinking about, ‘Should we ever let these go beyond a petri dish?’ ”

Matthews poses some other questions. “Should it be regulated as human because it has a significant proportion of human cells in it? Or should it be regulated just as an animal? Or something else? At what point are you taking something and using it for organs when it actually is starting to think and have logic?”

Tags: CellchimeraembryosHenry GreelyhumanJuan BelmonteKirstin Matthewsmonkey
Damian Goddard

Damian Goddard

Damian Goddard is a veteran television, radio, and internet broadcaster who garnered international headlines in May 2011 after taking to Twitter in defence of "the traditional and TRUE meaning of marriage".  Not twenty four hours after delivering the tweet, he was fired from his job as anchor for Rogers Sportsnet; one of Canada's two network sports broadcasters.  Damian's extensive broadcast experience also includes work as a news anchor at Sun News Network, a talkshow host at NewsTalk 1010 CFRB in Toronto, and ample experience in the sports realm working for the CBC, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (lead host at Raptors NBA TV and LeafsTV), and The Fan 590 in Toronto.  A history major with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario and a devout Roman Catholic, Damian is passionate about world and cultural affairs, the history and future of the Catholic Church, and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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