IntroductionAs you all might remember, I wrote a post a while ago regarding the ethics of some genomic practices. Some of the questions I posed include: -Should DNA technology be used to bring back extinct species? -Is is really feasible to use DNA technology to bring back extinct species? -What are the possible health implications of DNA technology? -Could DNA technology make a truly permanent impact on the Earth as a whole? -Could DNA technology be used to eradicate disease and cancer, and if that happens, how would we sustain a planet where essentially everybody lives? In order to get a better understanding of current genome science research and hopefully answer some of the questions I posed a while back, a looked online for a current article regarding genome sciences. The article I found was this one. Summary of the Article I readThe article I read, published by National Geographic, details how scientists created human-pig chimera embryos in a lab and the implications of their work. Basically, the chimera embryos are created by taking the embryo of a pig and injecting humans stem cells into them. Early chimeras were created by taking a mouse embryo and injecting rat stem cells, some of which survived beyond the womb and actually lived on to be adults. While many protest against the hybridization of species, scientists hope to use these chimeras as donor organisms that can be used for organ transplants and the like. Scientists chose pigs as the organisms to hybridize, as their organs look a lot like human organs, even though they take less time to gestate. A challenge that the scientists will have to overcome in the future is the fact that they have to keep a low amount of human cells to pig cells. As of right now, there is about 1 human cell for every 100,000 pig cells in the chimeras. Some Questions I haveIf these human-pig embryo hybrids were able to survive beyond the lab and actually become a full grown organism, would they be subject to basic human rights?
Could the creation of a human-pig hybrid lead to another gateway for the passage of illness between species (similar to swine flu or bird flu but easier to pass on)?
1 Comment
Keri E Shingleton, PhD
3/24/2018 01:28:23 pm
I wonder how far into development these chimeras have developed? Are they ever born alive? And are human cells interspersed in the chimera or are they concentrated in certain organs? Unless this can be really controlled it seems making entire human organs in chimeras is going to be a long way away. The ethics of keeping animals to grow organs is also a difficult question we need to consider!
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AuthorAllan Kalapura. Holland Hall class of 2019. Archives |