Proposals for cow-human embryos put on hold

news@nature.com ^ | 11 January 2007 | Jim Giles

[neverdem]

Close window

Published online: 11 January 2007; | doi:10.1038/news070108-11

Proposals for cow-human embryos put on hold

Chimaera experiments still on the table after authority avoids outright ban.

Jim Giles

Mixed up: UK proposals to make embryos using two different species are on hold. Getty

British plans to create cloned human embryos that contain small amounts of cow DNA have been set back by about a year, after regulators decided to gauge public opinion before granting any licences.

Scientists want to use cow eggs to create and study cloned embryos because human eggs are in desperately short supply. Injecting human DNA into animal eggs, creating a 'chimaera' mix of species, gets around this problem. The work could lead to new treatments for conditions such as Parkinson's disease, and the idea of creating chimaeras for research purposes is relatively uncontroversial among scientists. Researchers elsewhere, such as China, have done work with chimaeric embryos before.

The British government said last December that it was considering banning such experiments, prompting concern among researchers at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and Kings College London, UK. The two universities submitted an application for a licence to do such work last year.

Such a ban would be a set-back for the UK scientific community, which is currently quite strong in the field of cloning research.

But at the same time, the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the independent body that licenses embryo research, decided to look at the issue. Today, it said that it will consider the applications, but only after a three-month public consultation.

Willing to consider

The results will be used to develop a policy for all chimaeric projects, allowing the applications to be considered in the autumn. Applications typically take three months to be processed.

The Government's white paper policy now has no friends.  Evan Harris MP

"I'm pleased that it's not an outright ban," says Lyle Armstrong, a member of the Newcastle team. "At least they're prepared to consider following the debate."

The HFEA's consultation is expected to influence the Government's proposal to outlaw the research, which parliament is due to discuss later this year. The HFEA's decision to consider the applications is a boost to politicians who are campaigning for the work to go ahead.

"The HFEA has chosen not to support the Government's ill-thought-through and damaging policy of banning this research, which has been attacked from scientists, patients and ethicists," says Evan Harris, a Liberal Democrat MP. "The Government's white-paper policy now has no friends except those who are opposed to all embryo research."

Switching genes

Armstrong and his colleagues want to insert adult human DNA into a cow egg from which the nucleus has been removed. The resulting embryo would not be completely human, because a small amount of its DNA, less than 0.5%, would come from the mitochondrial DNA that exists outside the cell's nucleus. Such an embryo cannot legally be implanted into a woman and can only be grown for 14 days.

During that two-week period, researchers would study the chemical signals that allow the adult DNA to be reprogrammed into an embryonic form. Some genes that are expressed in adult cells are turned off in the embryo, for example, and the teams want to work out how this switching works.

In the long-term, understanding the process could help scientists to reprogramme adult cells without the use of eggs. That would allow doctors to create new cells to treat conditions in which cell loss is critical. In Parkinson's, for example, neurons are lost from an area of the brain that helps control movement.

Visit our newsblog to read and post comments about this story.

	Top

Story from news@nature.com:
http://news.nature.com//news/2007/070108/070108-11.html

		© 2006 Nature Publishing Group | Privacy policy

[My2Cents]

[Telepathic Intruder]

"regulators decided to gauge public opinion before granting any licences"

Certainly most will come to their senses and agree that we need more cow-people.

[Yaelle]

This is forbidden in the Torah.

[devolve]

Hard to believe stuff

[neverdem]

IMHO, they want to do somatic cell nuclear transfer into bovine oocytes. They may get the most trouble from PETA because of the harvesting of oocytes.

Biotech leader lashes media ‘lies’ about stem cells

[potlatch]

Sinful scientists.

[devolve]

This is insane in so many ways

What benefits to they hope to achieve?

Looks like another scam for grant money funded by taxpayers

Silicone is bad

Let's use cow-human DNA instead

[zarf]

Testing to see if my font problems are resolved. Testing...1...1...1..2...2..

[LibFreeOrDie]

A few years ago, I read a medical thriller based on the idea of cow-human genetic engineering. "In the Blood" by Don Donaldson. Apparently, it may no longer be fiction...

[neverdem]

What benefits to they hope to achieve?

"During that two-week period, researchers would study the chemical signals that allow the adult DNA to be reprogrammed into an embryonic form. Some genes that are expressed in adult cells are turned off in the embryo, for example, and the teams want to work out how this switching works."

Let's use cow-human DNA instead

They aren't studying cow-human DNA. Cow DNA is in the mitochondria of the egg cell, and adult human DNA will be in the nucleus. I don't know enough to say if results will be valid, but they want to study the results of gene expression to reverse engineer adult DNA to a primitive, embryonic state.

[RunningWolf]

To have a human embryo conception had to happen at some point, so then they are using the powerless innocent life of a human being to advance their thesis.

[onyx]

ROTFLOL!

[Grizzled Bear]

But what if the cow-people take over the world!

[devolve]

I know zero about this

But the "Dolly-clone" sheep turned out badly

If government is not funding this I wonder who does or will

Rumors years ago about the Red Chinese and a chimp-human chimera

True or not there are dingbats out there they are determined to do more than "study"

Years ago who would have believed North Korea or Iran would have access and be screaming of using nukes on the USA

And both be run by nutcases

Ah progress

At our expense

--

The left are childlike dreamers that everyone can play nicely together

Lets give the Muzzies another 1400 years to get to the level of chimps in a zoo

At least they only throw small stuff at the gawkers

--

The extension of life and cures for diseases is a nice thought

But reality hits us with far more serious problemos that few are able to acknowledge much less face
It can all be solved by Dr. Phil, Oprah, "The View", and Teddy-Jon chatting with the crazies

[Telepathic Intruder]

They'll have to close down all the McDonalds, for one. How about this, instead of carpeting their houses, they can grow grass, and eat it too. A world populated by cow-people can probably solve a lot of our problems.

[PLMerite]

I knew before I even opened this thread that she was going to show up.

[little jeremiah]

I've got to start finding the time to ping again.

[syriacus]

regulators decided to gauge public opinion before granting any licences.

I guess the regulators sense some "unease" about this.

[Global2010]

But what would the "gastric emmissions" be like?