OHSU Turns Mouse into Factory for Human Liver Cells

Oregon Health & Science University researchers have figured out how to turn a mouse into a factory for human liver cells that can be used to test how pharmaceuticals are metabolized. The technique, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, could soon become the gold standard not only for examining drug metabolism in the liver, which helps scientists determine a drug's toxicity, but also can be used as a platform for testing new therapies against infectious diseases that attack the liver, such as hepatitis C and malaria.

Comments

Ugh

[BendingSpoons]

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it. -Milan Kundera, 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being.'

I should never visit any Slashdot threads touching on animal experimentation, because I am always sickened by what I find. One or two people will post thoughtful comments, debating the intersection of human medical and animal suffering. Unfortunately, these are drowned out by a chorus screaming that living creatures should be viewed only as a means to human ends. There is no thought or analysis put into these posts; they evince only selfishness and a grotesque sense of entitlement.

These posts, and how they are moderated, also reveal a disturbing group psychology. Cruel jokes about the victims, caricatures of opponents (if you hesitate about this sort of thing, you must be a frothing PETA nut) - these sort of distancing techniques have led down some terrible paths. If your reaction to this news goes no further than "lol next they'll say we can't eat carrots", it might be time to re-evaluate a few things.