Gene Engineers Grow Pig Embryos with Human Genes

October 8 2000 AUSTRALASIA
Cloning teams cross pig and human DNA
Jonathan Leake and Nick Fielding

SCIENTISTS have successfully produced an embryonic pig-human hybrid.
Human DNA was inserted into pig cells which became tiny embryos.

The researchers have not revealed what happened to them, but suggest they
could have been grown further by being implanted into a womb - and that
either a pig or a human mother would have been suitable.

The intentions of the researchers are not made clear in an application they
have submitted to the European Patent Office. However, such embryos would
be ideal for research into therapeutic cloning, when cells are cloned,
grown into tissues such as nerve cells and then used to treat a patient.

The researchers, from Stem Cell Sciences in Australia and Biotransplant in
America, both big players in the biotechnology industry, took a cell from a
human foetus, extracted the nucleus and then inserted it into a pig's egg
cell. Two embryos were grown to the 32-cell stage, which took a week.
Experts in medical ethics are deeply concerned about the patent
application, which has a strong chance of being granted. They say the
research exploits loopholes in European law. It is not illegal because the
embryo is not technically human.

Dr Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics, said: "This
kind of research depends on devaluing human beings."

Nobody knows whether the hybrid embryos could have be-come living beings.
They would be much more human than pig because about 97% of DNA is in the
nucleus, which was human. There would, however, be some effect from the 3%
of DNA from the pig.

http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/10/08/stifgnaus01001.html