tagged w/ Interspecies Mingling
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MSN...
Scientists create animals that are part-human
Stem cell experiments leading to genetic mixing of species
Rich Pedroncelli / AP
PHOTO: Sheep that have partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs are shown here at the University of Nevada, in Sparks, Nev., on April 27.
updated 4/29/2005 5:43:59 PM ET
RENO, Nev. — On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs.
The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can’t wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into the fetus’ brain about two months ago.
“It’s mice on a large scale,” Chamberlain says with a shrug.
As strange as his work may sound, it falls firmly within the new ethics guidelines the influential National Academies issued this past week for stem cell research.
In fact, the Academies’ report endorses research that co-mingles human and animal tissue as vital to ensuring that experimental drugs and new tissue replacement therapies are safe for people.
Doctors have transplanted pig valves into human hearts for years, and scientists have injected human cells into lab animals for even longer.
Biological mixing of species
But the biological co-mingling of animal and human is now evolving into even more exotic and unsettling mixes of species, evoking the Greek myth of the monstrous chimera, which was part lion, part goat and part serpent.
In the past two years, scientists have created pigs with human blood, fused rabbit eggs with human DNA and injected human stem cells to make paralyzed mice walk.
Particularly worrisome to some scientists are the nightmare scenarios that could arise from the mixing of brain cells: What if a human mind somehow got trapped inside a sheep’s head?
The “idea that human neuronal cells might participate in 'higher order' brain functions in a nonhuman animal, however unlikely that may be, raises concerns that need to be considered,” the academies report warned.
Mice with human brains
In January, an informal ethics committee at Stanford University endorsed a proposal to create mice with brains nearly completely made of human brain cells. Stem cell scientist Irving Weissman said his experiment could provide unparalleled insight into how the human brain develops and how degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson’s progress.
Stanford law professor Hank Greely, who chaired the ethics committee, said the board was satisfied that the size and shape of the mouse brain would prevent the human cells from creating any traits of humanity. Just in case, Greely said, the committee recommended closely monitoring the mice’s behavior and immediately killing any that display human-like behavior.
The Academies’ report recommends that each institution involved in stem cell research create a formal, standing committee to specifically oversee the work, including experiments that mix human and animal cells.
Weissman, who has already created mice with 1 percent human brain cells, said he has no immediate plans to make mostly human mouse brains, but wanted to get ethical clearance in any case. A formal Stanford committee that oversees research at the university would also need to authorize the experiment.
Harvesting human organs from sheep
Few human-animal hybrids are as advanced as the sheep created by another stem cell scientist, Esmail Zanjani, and his team at the University of Nevada-Reno. They want to one day turn sheep into living factories for human organs and tissues and along the way create cutting-edge lab animals to more effectively test experimental drugs.
Zanjani is most optimistic about the sheep that grow partially human livers after human stem cells are injected into them while they are still in the womb. Most of the adult sheep in his experiment contain about 10 percent human liver cells, though a few have as much as 40 percent, Zanjani said.
Because the human liver regenerates, the research raises the possibility of transplanting partial organs into people whose livers are failing.
Zanjani must first ensure no animal diseases would be passed on to patients. He also must find an efficient way to completely separate the human and sheep cells, a tough task because the human cells aren’t clumped together but are rather spread throughout the sheep’s liver.
Zanjani and other stem cell scientists defend their research and insist they aren’t creating monsters — or anything remotely human.
“We haven’t seen them act as anything but sheep,” Zanjani said.
Zanjani’s goals are many years from being realized.
He’s also had trouble raising funds, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the university over allegations made by another researcher that the school mishandled its research sheep. Zanjani declined to comment on that matter, and university officials have stood by their practices.
Allegations about the proper treatment of lab animals may take on strange new meanings as scientists work their way up the evolutionary chart. First, human stem cells were injected into bacteria, then mice and now sheep. Such research blurs biological divisions between species that couldn’t until now be breached.
Combining monkeys and people
Drawing ethical boundaries that no research appears to have crossed yet, the Academies recommend a prohibition on mixing human stem cells with embryos from monkeys and other primates. But even that policy recommendation isn’t tough enough for some researchers.
“The boundary is going to push further into larger animals,” New York Medical College professor Stuart Newman said. “That’s just asking for trouble.”
Newman and anti-biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin have been tracking this issue for the last decade and were behind a rather creative assault on both interspecies mixing and the government’s policy of patenting individual human genes and other living matter.
Years ago, the two applied for a patent for what they called a “humanzee,” a hypothetical — but very possible — creation that was half human and chimp.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office finally denied their application this year, ruling that the proposed invention was too human: Constitutional prohibitions against slavery prevents the patenting of people.
Newman and Rifkin were delighted, since they never intended to create the creature and instead wanted to use their application to protest what they see as science and commerce turning people into commodities.
And that’s a point, Newman warns, that stem scientists are edging closer to every day: “Once you are on the slope, you tend to move down it.”MSN...
Scientists create animals that are part-human
Stem cell experiments... more
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This report is from last year, but I completely missed it. Someone reminded me that this would make a lot of sense in Interspecies Mingling, so here you go.
"Dogs and Cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"This report is from last year, but I completely missed it. Someone reminded me that... more
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Ok this one's a little creepy. I'm all for interspecies mingling in the animal kingdom, but when it stretches over into human species - I have to wonder.Ok this one's a little creepy. I'm all for interspecies mingling in the... more
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JonnyS
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added this
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1 year ago
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Just because you can does not mean you should.
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It's not so much snatching victory from the jaws of defeat as dinner from the jaws of danger.
But even the imposing presence of an adult leopard at feeding time is not enough to get between plucky young Rattus Norvegicus (better known as the brown rat) and a free meal.
This extraordinary series of images were captured by photography student Casey Gutteridge, as he trained his camera on the leopard for a course project.
The little rat - thought to be only two to three months old - was spotted scampering into the leopard's enclosure shortly after feeding time at the Santago Rare Leopard Project, in Hertfordshire.
So intent was the plucky rodent on its mission to snatch a tasty snack, that it seemed not to notice that its path was taking it within a whisker's breadth of 12-year-old Sheena.
Clutching a corner of raw meat with its tiny paws, the rat busily tucked in, until it sensed one of those whiskers moving in.
Sheena, bemused by the interloper coming between her and the remains of dinner, padded over on paws big enough to wreak vengeance with a single swipe.
But rather than giving the thief at very least the hearty set down it deserved, she gingerly lowered her nose for an exploratory sniff.
Rattus paused, lifted its dainty pink claws in submission, then - obviously deciding on a nothing-ventured-nothing-gained approach - continued to tuck in.
And after another tentative investigation, Sheena gave the leopard equivalent of a shrug and turned away.It's not so much snatching victory from the jaws of defeat as dinner from the... more
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Will you please check out this anerable baby red panda action.
Hopefully, he’ll graduate to bamboo leaves stat.Will you please check out this anerable baby red panda action.
Hopefully,... more
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This picture was so cute, I just thought I would share it with others at current.com. Wouldn't it be great if we could all just get along?This picture was so cute, I just thought I would share it with others at current.com.... more
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According to the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere, two red panda cubs were abandoned by their mother, so zookeepers at China’s Taiyuan Zoo found a replacement: A dog owned by a nearby farmer. Thanks to the milk of this generous pup, two endangered cubs are growing up.According to the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere, two red panda cubs were abandoned by... more
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According to Animal Talk, this redonk Orangutan and Blue Tick Hound are BFFs. They totally each wear a matching half-of-a-heart gold BFF necklace each. Check 'em.According to Animal Talk, this redonk Orangutan and Blue Tick Hound are BFFs. They... more
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Your dose of interspecies mingling for today
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Noah, a non-releasable, one-legged homing pigeon took a liking to a litter of orphaned bunnies that were in need of some love after losing their mom in a dog attack. The resulting pictures are pure, heart-warming, internet photo gold.Noah, a non-releasable, one-legged homing pigeon took a liking to a litter of orphaned... more
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Isabella, the golden retriever who last year adopted three white tiger cubs and saved a rural Kansas zoo, was having a last romp with her 140-pound “pups” in their spacious new enclosure. Although the tigers have never acted aggressively toward the gentle dog that they know as their mom, they’re simply getting too big to mingle unsupervised with a dog.
As they talked, the now-adolescent beasts splashed in their pool, clawed at a big deflated ball and nuzzled Isabella and her pup, Sandy — the dog that, in their eyes, is their sister.
“They love Isabella,” Allie Harvey said. “They love to play with Sandy the puppy more than they do Isabella. Izzy just kind of supervises everything.”
“The play is pretty much done with. We’re just kind of doing an interaction here this morning so that people can see that the animals still get along really well — but we’ve been supervising them,” Tom Harvey admitted.
The Bengal tigers — Nasira, Anjika and Sidani — will soon be celebrating their first birthday, just as the Harveys are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the zoo they have operated as a labor of love.
The Harveys regard the entire saga of the white tigers and their canine foster mom as little less than a miracle. Last year, as gas prices soared and the economy soured, they watched attendance at the zoo dwindle alarmingly, along with their income.
They decided to give themselves until Aug. 1, 2008, for things to turn around. If they didn’t, they saw no alternative to closing the park.
That’s when a white Bengal tiger they had gave birth to the triplets. Within 15 hours, she abandoned the helpless cubs.
It’s a pivotal moment, when the cubs will learn to live without their canine mom and sister.
Lauer asked if there were plans for the dogs to visit from time to time in the future.
“It’ll basically be nil,” Tom Harvey said.
Behind him, tigers and dogs ambled happily and peacefully in the enclosure — unaware that this was goodbye.Isabella, the golden retriever who last year adopted three white tiger cubs and saved... more
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In an attemp to capture attention five elephants were led on a walkabout to send a message to the Thai public not to ignore its elephants, the symbolic animal of Thailand, as a new born Panda has been in the publics eyeIn an attemp to capture attention five elephants were led on a walkabout to send a... more
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A feral girl who has spent her entire life shut up in a flat in the company of cats and dogs- despite having lived with her father and other family members- has been taken into care by police in Siberia.
The child, 5, was unable to speak and acted like a dog when officers discovered her locked in a squalid, unheated flat in the city of Chita.
“For five years, the girl was ’brought up’ by several dogs and cats and had never been outside,” police said in a statement.
“The unwashed girl was dressed in filthy clothes, had the clear attributes of an animal and jumped at people.”
This has to be the epitome of child abuse and neglect.A feral girl who has spent her entire life shut up in a flat in the company of cats... more
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I found a great gallery of pics!
the guy with the tats looks like he needs the cash, vote for him
haI found a great gallery of pics!
the guy with the tats looks like he needs... more
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This is the amazing moment a mighty mouse took on a hungry leopard - and won.
The brave rodent appeared to be unaware of the wild cat towering over it while he tucked into some food.
Instead of pouncing on food rival the cowardly bigcat called Sheena appeared to be too scared and lost out on its own lunch.
The bizarre sight took place at Santago Rare Leopard Project in Hertfordshire.
Photography student Casey Gutteridge who was photographing the leopard for a course project, was astounded by the mouse's behaviour.
He said he had no idea where the mouse came from.
Project owner Jackie James added: "It was so funny to see - Sheena batted the mouse a couple of times to try to get it away from her food.
"But the determined little thing took no notice and just carried on."
Sheena was brought in to the Santago Rare Leopard Project from a UK zoo when she was just four months old.
She is one of 14 big cats in the private collection started by Jackie's late husband Peter in 1989.This is the amazing moment a mighty mouse took on a hungry leopard - and won.
The... more
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If you need a dose of cute in your day, this is the blog for you!
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What youve never seen a guy enjoying a beer in the hot tub with his best bro? Er best bear. On May 3rd National Geographic will run a special called Expedition Grizzly which follows renowned naturalist Casey Anderson and his 800-pound grizzly bear Brutus who Anderson has raised him since birth. Together, they've set out on a yearlong mission to chronicle the lives of Yellowstone's vulnerable grizzly bears.
Check out the photo album to see pics of Anderson just hanging out with Brutus and even Brutus as the best man at Andersons wedding!
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/expedition-grizzly-3909/Overview1#tab-photo-albumsWhat youve never seen a guy enjoying a beer in the hot tub with his best bro? Er best... more
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