© Wikimedia Commons
Human-Animal Hybrid A British research group is calling for new regulations governing the insertion of human genes into animals for research purposes.
Human-Animal Hybrid A British research group is calling for new regulations governing the insertion of human genes into animals for research purposes.
A new regulatory group should be formed to oversee experiments that mix animal and human DNA, British researchers said Friday. While the experiments themselves don't necessarily need stricter regulation, there are a few types of experiments that could "approach social and ethically sensitive areas," so they should have an extra layer of scrutiny, the researchers said.
Although it sounds like something from science fiction, human-animal hybrids are actually very common - at least on a genetic, cellular level. In the past few weeks alone, we've seen mice engineered to express a human form of hemophilia, and cows engineered to produce milk with human characteristics. Human DNA is frequently inserted into mice to study cancer, and so on.
But some experiments are a little more ... bizarre, for lack of a better word. Like fertilizing human eggs in animals. Or experiments that would use human brain cells to alter animal brains. Or giving animals human-like speech or facial expressions.
