Controversy trails research to grow part-animal, part-human ‘Frankenstein’ organs for transplants

The United States Government is planning to lift a moratorium on funding of controversial experiments that use human stem cells to create animal embryos that are partly human.

The National Institutes of Health has unveiled a new policy to permit scientists to get federal money to make the embryos, known as chimeras, under certain carefully monitored conditions.

The US National Institute for Health (NIH) imposed a moratorium on funding these experiments in September because they could raise ethical concerns.

Researchers are interested in growing human tissues and organs in animals by introducing pluripotent human cells into early animal embryos.

Using this method, researchers hope to produce sheep, pigs and cows with human hearts, kidneys, livers, pancreases and possibly other organs that could be used for transplants.

“With recent advances in stem cell and gene editing technologies, an increasing number of researchers are interested in growing human tissues and organs in animals by introducing pluripotent human cells into early animal embryos, wrote Carrie Wolinetz, the NIH’s associate director for science policy, in a blog post announcing the decision.

There are major fears scientists might inadvertently create animals that have partly human brains, even with some form of human consciousness or human thinking abilities.

Another is that they could develop into animals with human sperm and eggs and breed, producing human embryos or fetuses inside animals or hybrid creatures.

But scientists argue they could take steps to prevent those outcomes and that the embryos provide invaluable tools for medical research.

Researchers hope to produce sheep, pigs and cows with human hearts, kidneys, livers, pancreases and possibly other organs that could be used for transplants.

The new policy proposes prohibiting the introduction of certain types of human cells into embryos of nonhuman primates, such as monkeys and chimps because these animals are so closely related to humans.

However, the policy would lift the moratorium on funding experiments involving other species.

To address the ethical concerns, the NIH’s says its new policy imposes several restrictions.

“At the end of the day, we want to make sure this research progresses because its very important to our understanding of disease,” Wolinetz told NPR.

The researchers use new gene-editing techniques. With a small laser, researchers can cut a small hole in the outer layer of the embryo’s membrane. Then, they inject a synthesized molecule that can ‘delete’ the pancreas gene.

Once the DNA has been edited, they then make another hole in the membrane to inject human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS).

These are made from the skin of an adult human, and would reduce the risk of transplant rejection.

The cells can turn into any kind of cell or tissue in the human body, and in a pig embryo, they have the same capabilities.

But, it means they could go anywhere else in the body, including the brain.

The researchers hope that the cells will work to take the place of the removed gene in the embryo to create a human pancreas.

Once the iPS cells have been injected, the now-chimera embryo is surgically placed into the womb of an adult pig.

The embryos are allowed to develop until their 28th day, when primitive structures begin to form, and then they are retrieved and dissected.

“But we also want to make sure there’s an extra set of eyes on these projects because they do have this ethical set of concerns associated with them.”

In addition, the NIH would even consider experiments that could create animals with human sperm and human eggs since they may be useful for studying human development and infertility.

But in that case steps would have to be taken to prevent the animals from breeding.

“I am confident that these proposed changes will enable the NIH research community to move this promising area of science forward in a responsible manner,” Carrie Wolinetz, the NIH’s associate director for science policy, wrote in a blog post.

The public has 30 days to comment on the proposed new policy. NIH could start funding projects as early as the start of 2017.

Despite the moratorium, scientists have started to grow human organs inside pigs, in an attempt to solve the worldwide shortage for transplants.

In the latest development in the controversial project, researchers have injected human stem cells into pig embryos, to produce human-pig embryos known as ‘chimeras’.

The human-pig chimeric embryos will look like a normal pig’s embryo, but one of their organs – the pancreas – will be made completely from human cells.

To grow a human organ in an animal embryo the researchers, from the University of California, use new gene-editing technique.

While the idea of using organs from animals such as pigs for human transplants has been around for some time, developments in stem cell cloning techniques has opened up the possibility of a new approach.

Animal organs, like many human organs, will be rejected by the immune system of recipients without powerful supression drugs.

But by using the stem cells taken from patients, scientists believe it may be possible to grow organs that are a perfect match for them, reducing the risk of rejection.

It relies upon a cutting-edge fusion of technologies, including recent breakthroughs in stem-cell biology and gene-editing techniques.

By modifying genes, scientists can now change the DNA in pig or sheep embryos so they are genetically incapable of forming a specific tissue.

Then, by adding stem cells from a person, they hope the human cells will take over the job of forming the missing organ, which could then be harvested from the animal for use in a transplant operation.

The chimeras will be allowed to develop in the sows for 28 days before the pregnancies are terminated and the tissue removed for analysis.