Do you think this is only possible in a sci-fi or horror movie? Not at all: Scientists around the world are conducting experiments on crossing humans and animals.
1. The first cross of this type was successfully carried out in the laboratory of Shanghai in 2003. The team of scientists used human and rabbit genetic material. The embryos developed to the stage of stem cell formation, which is what scientists were trying to achieve: such material was required in order to grow human organs in the future. This is not the first time that scientists have ventured into such experiments. Researchers from the United States tried to conduct a similar experiment much earlier, but their experiment was unsuccessful.
2. Some researchers claim that back in 1967, Chinese scientists had already experimented with creating a frightening hybrid. The goal of the experiments was to fertilize a female chimpanzee with human sperm. However, the cultural revolution that broke out in China intervened in the plans of scientists, and the project was suspended. And this is for the best: the potential life of such a creature is doomed to life imprisonment within the walls of experimental laboratories.
3. Mayo Clinic in Minnesota used human genetic material and successfully created the first hybrid pig. The goal of the experiment is to study how human and pig cells will interact. As a result, scientists bred a new animal, which, however, did not differ in any way from their counterparts. But the blood type was unique: there was nothing like this in nature yet.
4. In 2009, Russian and Belarusian geneticists jointly modified goats to produce human breast milk. In the future, transgenic goats will help create medicines and food products from new milk, which is close to human milk in composition. Shortly thereafter, a team of Chinese scientists used an entire herd of cattle for similar experiments. The aim was to enable the conveyor belt production of human breast milk. Whether a curiosity will appear in supermarkets - we will find out in the near future.
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5. One of the biggest ideas in the world of biotechnology today is the possibility of raising animals with human organs that could be donors to patients around the world. However, in many countries such a non-humane attitude towards living beings is condemned. Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi left Japan and moved to the United States to work on a similar project. So far, scientists have managed to grow mouse organs in the body of a rat. However, this is progress, and Nakauchi insists that every day the team of scientists is getting closer to the cherished goal.
6. In 2010, the Salk Institute for Biological Research created a mouse with a liver almost identical to that of a human. With the help of this experiment, scientists studied malaria and hepatitis B, C, which only humans and chimpanzees can get sick with. Experiments on human-related animals are provoking a violent public reaction, and mice with human organs allow scientists to avoid this problem. Scientists believe their research will lead to new breakthroughs in medicine.
7. In 2007, Yale University performed human stem cell transplant therapy. As a result, the monkeys with Parkinson's disease were able to walk, eat and move better than they had before. However, from an ethical point of view, the experiment raises many difficult questions. Human cells “migrated” to the monkey brain, actually changing the way the brain functions. Such experiments inevitably make scientists think: where is the line after which interference in a foreign organism leads to a change in its very essence?
Author: Alisa Gorbunova
