Mice Created With Human Brain Cells

pin_gween writes "Scientists have added 100,000 human brain cells to mice in an effort to create realistic models of disorders like Parkinson's Disease. Although mice are 97.5 percent genetically identical to humans and it sounds like a large number, 100,000 only represents 0.1% of the number of cells in mice brains. FTA: 'It's true that there is a huge amount of similarity, but the differences are huge,' Snyder said. 'You will never ever have a little human trapped inside a mouse or monkey's body. [...] Researchers are nevertheless beginning to bump up against what bioethicists call the "yuck factor." 'The worry is if you humanize them too much you cross certain boundaries,' said David Magnus, director of the Stanford Medical Center for Biomedical Ethics. 'But I don't think this research comes even close to that.'"

Comments

Re:97.5% genetically identical

[kfg]

so is all this 97.5% like generic organ, dna stuff?

You're about 50% banana.

i dont see the similarities between humans and mice

You obviously haven't even looked at a banana very closely, let alone a mouse. About the only difference a lifeform from the proverbial Mars would see between a human and a mouse would be scale. We are virtually identical to mice in every detail but stature.

If you want learn human anatomy, disect a chicken, and a chicken isn't even a mammal.

KFG

Keeping a tally...

[Metasquares]

So far we have super-strong, long-lived, regenerating mice with human brain cells. We're getting pretty close to "the mice of NIMH".

"Boundaries"

[base_chakra]

The worry is if you humanize them too much you cross certain boundaries

How about if we cross a different barrier and drop the anthropocentric bullshit.