The human-monkey chimeras have reportedly only been allowed to develop for a few weeks.
Credit: Xinhua/Barcroft Images
Efforts to create human-animal chimeras have rebooted an ethical debate after reports emerged that scientists have produced monkey embryos containing human cells.
A chimera is an organism whose cells come from two or more “individuals”, with recent work looking at combinations from different species. The word comes from a beast from Greek mythology which was said to be part lion, part goat and part snake.
The latest report, published in the Spanish newspaper El País, claims a team of researchers led by Prof Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte from the Salk Institute in the US have produced monkey-human chimeras. The research was conducted in China “to avoid legal issues”, according to the report.
Chimeras are seen as a potential way to address the lack of organs for transplantation, as well as problems of organ rejection. Scientists believe organs genetically matched to a particular human recipient could one day be grown […]
My Mother had an actual pig’s valve in her heart for about 2 years before they dug into her and replaced it with a plastic valve. Rejection is the biggest problem and if this work can overcome that rejection problem then it would be a great step forward.
It is inevitable that mankind will not wait for the slow processes of natural evolution to take place. Technology is now embedded into every part of our lives and the evolution of the human body will be no exception. An example could be merging our DNA with the DNA from creatures that do not get cancer. And the merging of the body with robotics will become commonplace. The movie, The Fly, comes to mind.