Do you think that this is possible only in science fiction movies or in a horror film? Not at all: scientists around the world are conducting experiments to cross a man and an animal.
1. The first crossing of this type was successfully carried out in the laboratory of Shanghai in 2003. The team of scientists used the genetic material of man and rabbit. The embryos evolved to the stage of stem cell formation, which was what scientists sought: this material was required in order to grow human organs in the future. This is not the first time that scientists have decided on such experiments. Researchers from the US tried to conduct a similar experience much earlier, but their experiment was not successful.
2. Some researchers argue that in the distant 1967, Chinese scientists have already conducted experiments to create a frightening hybrid. The aim of the experiments was the fertilization of the female chimpanzee with human sperm. However, the cultural revolution that broke out in China interfered with the plans of the scientists, and the project was suspended. And this is for the best: the potential life of such a creature is doomed to life imprisonment in the walls of experimental laboratories.
3. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota used human genetic material and successfully created the first hybrid pig. The purpose of the experiment is to study how human and pig cells interact. As a result, scientists brought out a new animal, which, however, did not differ in appearance from its fellow humans. But the blood group was unique: in nature there was nothing like it.
4. In 2009, Russian and Belarusian geneticists jointly modified goats to produce human milk. In the future, transgenic goats will help create medicines and food products from fresh milk, which is close to human. Shortly thereafter, a team of Chinese scientists used a whole herd of cattle for similar experiments. The goal was to get the possibility of conveyor production of human breast milk. Will there be a curiosity in supermarkets – we’ll find out in the near future.
5. One of the biggest ideas in the biotechnology world today is the ability to grow animals with human organs that could be donors for patients around the world. However, in many countries such a non-humanistic attitude towards living beings is blamed. Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi left Japan and moved to the US to work on a similar project. While scientists managed to grow mouse organs in the body of a rat. Nevertheless, this is progress, and Nakauchi insists that every day the team of scientists comes closer to the cherished goal.
6. In 2010, the Salk Institute for Biological Research created a mouse with a liver almost identical to human. With the help of this experiment, scientists studied malaria and hepatitis B, C, which can affect only humans and chimpanzees. Experiments on human-related animals cause a violent public reaction, and mice with human organs allow scientists to avoid this problem. Scientists believe that their research will lead to new breakthroughs in medicine.
7. In 2007, Yale University conducted therapy with the transplantation of human stem cells. As a result, monkeys suffering from Parkinson’s disease could walk, eat and move better than they used to. However, from the ethical point of view, the experiment raises many uneasy questions. Human cells “migrated” into the brains of monkeys, actually changing the features of the functioning of the brain. Such experiments inevitably force scientists to ponder: where does that side lie, after which intervention in a foreign organism leads to a change in its very essence?
