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UK Approves Human-Pig Embryo Stem-Cell Harvest

Posted by timothy on from the but-I-know-plenty-of-half-pig-humans dept.

An anonymous reader writes "British biologists have received government approval to create the world's first human stem cells from hybrid embryos, part pig, part human. The Warwick Medical School team, led by Justin St. John of the Clinical Sciences Research Institute, was granted the country's third animal-human embryo license from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which goes into effect today (July 1)." The above link requires (free) registration; the Telegraph's coverage does not.

3 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Somewhat misleading... by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Informative

    The summary seems to imply that they are creating embryos which combine genetic material from humans and pigs. The article, on the other hand, says that they are taking 100% human DNA and implanting them into pig egg cells which have had their DNA removed. I think it's safe to to say that there is a huge difference between the two ideas.

    1. Re:Somewhat misleading... by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 4, Informative

      The summary seems to imply that they are creating embryos which combine genetic material from humans and pigs. The article, on the other hand, says that they are taking 100% human DNA and implanting them into pig egg cells which have had their DNA removed. I think it's safe to to say that there is a huge difference between the two ideas.

      They would still have pig mitochondrial DNA, even if the nuclear DNA was all replaced.

  2. that's historically accurate by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Informative

    historically cannibalistic societies in the pacific did in fact call human flesh "long-pig"

    we really **do** taste like pig

    "the Marquesas Islands of Polynesia, where human flesh was called long-pig (Alanna King, ed., Robert Louis Stevenson in the South Seas, London: Luzac Paragon House, 1987: 45-50)."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism#Middle_Ages

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