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First Human-Pig 'Chimera' Created in Milestone Study (theguardian.com)

Scientists have created a human-pig hybrid in a milestone study that raises the prospect of being able to grow human organs inside animals for use in transplants. From a report: It marks the first time that embryos combining two large, distantly-related species have been produced. The creation of this so-called chimera -- named after the cross-species beast of Greek mythology -- has been hailed as a significant first step towards generating human hearts, livers and kidneys from scratch. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, who led the work on the part-pig, part-human embryos at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, said: "The ultimate goal is to grow functional and transplantable tissue or organs, but we are far away from that. This is an important first step." The study has reignited ethical concerns that have threatened to overshadow the field's clinical promise. The work inevitably raises the spectre of intelligent animals with humanised brains and also the potential for bizarre hybrid creatures to be accidentally released into the wild. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) placed a moratorium on funding for the controversial experiments last year while these risks were considered.

158 comments

  1. dare I say... by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 5, Funny

    man-bear-pig?

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
    1. Re:dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well we're two thirds of the way there. Give it another couple of years.

    2. Re:dare I say... by number6x · · Score: 2

      Sounds more like the time the Daleks took Manhattan, but pigs and bears are related so I'm sure we'll get to the third step soon. Is Al Gore a Dr. Who fan? I thought he would be rooting for the cybermen, err women?

    3. Re:dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That or we're on our way to making Hyperpigs.

    4. Re: dare I say... by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 4, Funny

      You mean two halves of the way there.

    5. Re:dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      Now we only need to convert it to Islam and the whole cult will implode on it self. LOL.

    6. Re:dare I say... by kuzb · · Score: 1

      I told you, we need to fill the cave with hot, molten lead, 'cause it's the only way to make sure Manbearpig never comes out. And I'm saying it and I'm totally cereal but everyone just keeps digging!
      - Al Gore

      --
      BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    7. Re:dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its a good joke, just a bit late.
      Obama's not in office anymore.

    8. Re:dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That was the most powerful propaganda piece in human history.

    9. Re:dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But are you super cereal?

    10. Re:dare I say... by kuzb · · Score: 1

      He sure is. Just watch this enlightening video on climate change! It'll explain everything!

      --
      BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    11. Re:dare I say... by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      We need to seal off the cave of the winds to keep him in!

    12. Re:dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      is that those catholic aliens from south park?

    13. Re:dare I say... by Required+Snark · · Score: 0

      Manbearpig's public identity is Donald Trump.

      --
      Why is Snark Required?
    14. Re: dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is just another Rosie O'Donnell

    15. Re: dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rosie O'Donnell ate too much of the proverbial "super cereal," and now no one will believe anything she says. Half man and half pig...what did you expect?

    16. Re: dare I say... by ememisya · · Score: 1

      I think the first word it would utter would be, "Kill me." Lets keep this kind of research off the news, on international waters, until they can grow something without a nervous system nor neurons, and can grow organs.

    17. Re: dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

      As a Muslim I can tell you that we would be just fine with this.

      Just about all prohibitions are waived in life or death situations. We can eat pork to avoid starvation, drink alcoholic beverages to avoid dying of thirst, etc.

      Also, we don't have anything against pigs, we just don't eat them, same as we don't eat insects or dogs. Some of us turn this into an emotional thing, but that's their personal stance, and not that of the religion.

    18. Re: dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indo-chimps are already an animal product released into the wild to fuck up america

    19. Re: dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still suffering from snowflake crybaby syndrome, you libtard cunt?

    20. Re: dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry I wrote these nasty words. My Mom just finished explaining to me why it is inappropriate and I am really sorry. She told me to apologize if I don't want to be grounded for the rest of the week. I feel really bad. I don't know why I say these things. I just need a friend and I thought this would make me look cool.

    21. Re:dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are just in time for Trump

    22. Re: dare I say... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      Eating is a life-and-death situation. You either eat or you die. So pork is fine, then!

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    23. Re:dare I say... by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      man-bear-pig?

      You bastard, you stole my line!

    24. Re:dare I say... by pak9rabid · · Score: 1
    25. Re: dare I say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh the day you find out how very ignorant you really are.

    26. Re:dare I say... by doccus · · Score: 1

      Er.... South Pork

  2. Man-Bear-Pig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Two thirds of the way to Man-Bear-Pig!

  3. Look no further by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    than the White House.

    1. Re: Look no further by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Ape goes out, pig goes in?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  4. Progress...Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    And now that chimera is the 45th President of the United States. Thanks, Obama!

    1. Re:Progress...Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what you're saying is Trump is more diverse than Obummer? Cool.

      Train keeps going.

    2. Re:Progress...Not by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      So what you're saying is Trump is more diverse than Obummer? Cool.

      Train keeps going.

      Almost every President seems to be worse than the one before him... ... I'm not sure how we're going to trump Trump though. Kanye West 2020? Charlie Sheen 2024? Satan 2028?

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re: Progress...Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Zuckerberg 2020 baby. He will have a lot of Hawaiian votes for sure.

  5. Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...but not one to Margaret Atwood? Don't forget the pigoons from Oryx and Crake* which were created specifically for organ transplantation.

    The goal of the pigoon project was to grow an assortment of foolproof human-tissue organs... that would transplant smoothly and avoid rejection, but would also be able to fend off attacks by opportunistic microbes and viruses... A rapid-maturity gene was spliced in so the pigoon kidneys and livers and hearts would be ready sooner...

    * IMNSHO one of the best sci-fi works of all time

    1. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by Overzeetop · · Score: 3, Funny

      Slashdot is just full of uncultured swine. ;-)

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    2. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by Tx · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Hyperpigs in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series were also human-pig chimeras created originally for human transplant organs;

      "The soldier whipped the blanket away from the huddled figure.

      The prisoner, crouched into a small foetal shape, squealed against the sudden intrusion of light, hiding its dark-adapted eyes.

      Clavain stared. The prisoner was nothing that he had been expecting. At first glance it might have been taken for an adolescent human, for the proportions and size were roughly analogous. A naked human at that - unclothed pink human-looking flesh folded away into the hole. There was a horrid expanse of burned skin around its upper arm, all ridges and whorls of pink and deathly white.

      Clavain was looking at a hyperpig; a genetic chimera of pig and human...

      Somewhere before the dawn of the Demarchist era, in the twenty-first or twenty-second century, not far from the time of Clavain's own birth, a spectrum of human genes had been spliced into those of the domestic pig. The intention had been to optimise the ease with which organs could be transplanted between the two species, enabling pigs to grow body parts that could be harvested later for human utilisation... The genetic intervention had gone too far, achieving not just cross-species compatibility but something entirely unexpected: intelligence. " From Redemption Ark, by Alastair Reynolds, 2002

      --
      Oh no... it's the future.
    3. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      I'm glad I'll be dead before we reach that point. The rest of you will have to figure that mess out.

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
    4. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by Is+Don+the+new+Ron · · Score: 1
      Simply as a "prediction" of the future of biotechnology, the intelligent pig scenario sounds like mad science at best, a vanity project of no great economic or military value. Before our descendants reach the point where they can grow pigs for transplantation, a means of growing organs without bodies will be invented. I mean why grow a whole pig, when all you want is the heart? There are now efforts to grow artificial meat I don't see why this technology, if successful, couldn't be developed further and adapted for growing artificial hearts and kidneys.

      Yes, there are going to be mad scientists among us who will find perverse joy in such fanciful "experiments". But they will be found at the fringes. The resultant man-pigs can't even be used as cost-effective weapons in the face of a Skynet-like revolution in robotics, unless you can develop a means of fast charging a porker.

      --
      Deja vu: In the 80s we had a 70ish actor as POTUS, a woman PM in the UK, and a bald leader of that other nuke superpower
    5. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by currently_awake · · Score: 1

      Ensure we don't give apes higher intelligence for the purpose of using them as workers. If they learned to fight we could end up in a world run by them.

    6. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by Razed+By+TV · · Score: 1

      Before our descendants reach the point where they can grow pigs for transplantation, a means of growing organs without bodies will be invented.

      Our descendants? I'm not sure how old you are, but it might be in our lifetime. There was just an article about scientists using a rat-mouse chimera to grow a mostly mouse pancreas. This was used to transplant cells into diabetic mice and cure their diabetes.

      I mean why grow a whole pig, when all you want is the heart?

      1, growing a pig is an easy, well documented process. 2, you might want multiple organs from the pig.

    7. Re: Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yea, and Charton Heston won't be around to help sort it out.

    8. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1, growing a pig is an easy, well documented process. 2, you might want multiple organs from the pig.

      3 - free bacon as a bonus!

    9. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's already happened: the US just elected one as president.

    10. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by hey! · · Score: 1

      I don't see what is so intrinsically different about sharing the planet with a different intelligent species. For most of H. sapiens' existence we shared it with other human species. In our fantasies of places like Middle Earth we share it with other intelligent species... not to mention Narnia.

      We're not exactly doing a terrific job coexisting with other people of our species that have different opinions from us. That suggests our problems are cultural, not biological.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    11. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

      Don't you mean, uncultured bear-swine?

    12. Re: Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about "Planet Shayol" by Cordwainer Smith. Criminals sent to Shayol to be the human Petri dishes for the growth of human organs harvested and shipped to the elite in need.

    13. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by RudyF · · Score: 1

      free bacon as a bonus

      Does this qualify as cannibalism?

    14. Re:Two references already to Man-Bear-Pig by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Only half way.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  6. So long as after I get my new unclogged heart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I can have bacon made from my donor pig, I'm good.

  7. Don't make the obvious mean joke by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Show respect for the office.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:Don't make the obvious mean joke by Shoten · · Score: 2

      Show respect for the office.

      I applaud you, Sir...for I was going to make some variant of the joke, but indeed your appeal to reason did work. Still, the temptation remains strong; it's hard to keep the respect for the office when the one who holds the office himself seems to lack such respect. But yeah...the higher road is like that, isn't it?

      Bravo, Sir, bravo!

      --

      For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
    2. Re:Don't make the obvious mean joke by mspohr · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Are they working on an orangutan chimera? If so, I know a good place to start.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    3. Re:Don't make the obvious mean joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That already was successfully done. Some side effects occurred though.
      Wants to build walls to keep imaginary monkeys out.

    4. Re:Don't make the obvious mean joke by quenda · · Score: 2

      Obvious? The obvious joke to a normal human would be a "The Island of Doctor Moreau" reference.

      I had to google to find otherwise. South Park? I had kids and watched them grow in adults since that show was funny.
      Next you'll be telling me The Simpsons or Family Guy is still in production.

    5. Re:Don't make the obvious mean joke by Z80a · · Score: 1

      He's not a pig, but the annoying orange, after it grew arms and legs.

    6. Re: Don't make the obvious mean joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're thinking of the former UK Prime Minister, who called an EU membership referendum, and then fucked off when he didn't get the result he wanted.

    7. Re: Don't make the obvious mean joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obongo is half RHESUS and half Arab. Dolt.

    8. Re: Don't make the obvious mean joke by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      No, that's David Cameron.

      --
      Eat the rich.
    9. Re:Don't make the obvious mean joke by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Orange tan chimera?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    10. Re:Don't make the obvious mean joke by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Obama and Hillary voted to expand the wall while senators, so are you describing them?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    11. Re:Don't make the obvious mean joke by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Doctor Who as well. But my guess is that PopeRatzo is making the racist reference towards our outgoing president, which isn't very kind.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  8. this is G.E.L.F space! by CaptnCrud · · Score: 1

    death....to the stranger.

  9. Larson was right? by rmdingler · · Score: 1

    If this produces the inevitable result

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  10. yawn... seems sloppy by coolmoe2 · · Score: 1
    Wake me when you can just grow the organs.

    Bonus points when you can make the tissue grow into any design you want. I want my 200 year rated super heart.

  11. And the chimera's first word was by FFOMelchior · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ed... ward....

    1. Re:And the chimera's first word was by hackwrench · · Score: 4, Informative

      For those scratching their head, this is a Fullmetal Alchemist reference, where an alchemist transmuted his daughter and his dog into a chimera.

    2. Re:And the chimera's first word was by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You just made me very, very, very sad.

    3. Re: And the chimera's first word was by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He did it to save his research tho. It was a noble cause. He hadn't had a breakhru in a long time and was going to lose his job and title.

      What a great anime show.

    4. Re:And the chimera's first word was by Verdatum · · Score: 1

      You monster.

  12. Old News by Shoten · · Score: 1

    The human/pig has been around for a while now, and even has her own tv show. Here's what she looks like now.

    --

    For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
  13. Doctor Who by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 1

    These creatures were featured on Doctor Who.

    1. Re:Doctor Who by martinX · · Score: 1

      There were other experiments in the field.

      --
      When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
    2. Re:Doctor Who by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Also, the "alien" ship that crashed in London, destroying Big Ben yet again.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  14. LunchTime by sdinfoserv · · Score: 2

    Anybody else get a sudden hankering for a BLT?

  15. Isn't this going backwards..? by myowntrueself · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "Dr. Eugene McCarthy is a Ph.D. geneticist who has made a career out of studying hybridization in animals. He now curates a biological information website called Macroevolution.net where he has amassed an impressive body of evidence suggesting that human origins can be best explained by hybridization between pigs and chimpanzees."

    https://phys.org/news/2013-07-...

    --
    In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    1. Re:Isn't this going backwards..? by phantomfive · · Score: 1
      Huh. I sure didn't guess that one, but maybe it makes sense?

      the "direction of the cross" would likely have been a male boar or pig (Sus scrofa) with a female chimp (Pan troglodytes), and the offspring would have been nurtured by a chimp mother among chimpanzees. there's even a creepy possibility that hybridization might even still be occurring in regions where Sus and Pan still seem to come into contact, like Southern Sudan.

      I didn't know that pigs and chimpanzees come in contact with each other that way, and it's still a little hard to believe.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:Isn't this going backwards..? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      but bacon is delicious...

    3. Re:Isn't this going backwards..? by BoogieChile · · Score: 2

      No, it makes no sense. It doesn't even make nonsense.

      http://scienceblogs.com/pharyn...

      > The primate and artiodactyl lineages have diverged for roughly 80 million years — just the gradual accumulation of molecular differences in sperm and egg recognition proteins would mean that pig sperm wouldn’t recognize a chimpanzee egg as a reasonable target for fusion. Heck, even two humans will have these sorts of mating incompatibilities. Two species that haven’t had any intermingling populations since the Cretaceous? No way.

    4. Re:Isn't this going backwards..? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Dr. Eugene McCarthy is a Ph.D. geneticist who has made a career out of studying hybridization in animals. He now curates a biological information website called Macroevolution.net where he has amassed an impressive body of evidence suggesting that human origins can be best explained by hybridization between pigs and chimpanzees."

      https://phys.org/news/2013-07-...

      That's just where the muslims came from

  16. Do not need to use human cells by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many of the issues they appear to be studying do not require the use of human cells. For example, they talk about not knowing what would happen if the animal were to complete gestation since pigs only gestate for 112 days, but human embryos gestate for 9 months.

    Well, then use two different animals that have vastly different gestation periods, and see what happens. You don't need to use human cells to find that out.

    They also talk about not knowing whether or not the cells would migrate to the brain.

    Again, use something else. Like, a mouse and an elephant. Or whatever.

    It seems premature to be using human cells in these experiments if they haven't already answered these questions with other animal chimeras.

    Which makes me wonder, why are they using human cells at all? Are they just going for headlines or what?

    1. Re:Do not need to use human cells by gurps_npc · · Score: 4, Informative

      They are using human cells because they want to be able to grow a human kidney, lung, heart, pancreas, etc. and transplant them into people that need them.

      The current wait for a kidney is almost 10 years in certain states. Average life expectancy on dialysis is 5 years. You do the math.

      The procedure works as follows. Take the human cells and break the genes that make neurons. Take the pig embryonic cells and break the genes that makes kidneys. Add a single human cell to the pig embryos. You get a pig that's brain is 100% pig, whose kidneys are 100% human, and the rest of the body is 95% pig, 5% human. Take the kidney and transplant to a human in need.

      Like me for example.

      --
      excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    2. Re:Do not need to use human cells by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 2

      But it sounds like they're not doing the experiments in the right order. They're starting with human cells which end up leaving more questions unanswered because they can't carry the experiments out the way they would be able to with pure animal cells. If they started with pure animal cells they could answer the more fundamental questions quickly and this could lead them to more quickly answering the remaining questions using human cells.

      I guess they could do all this in parallel though, which I hope they are doing.

    3. Re:Do not need to use human cells by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 1

      Additionally, given that there is no such thing as a "gene that makes kidneys" or a "gene that makes neurons", only "genes that make proteins", I expect you'd have to very subtly change a whole lot of genes in order to actually selectively stop just one kind of organ generation, and even then you'd probably get an imperfect version of that organ.

      I thought they were just trying to make the pig "human enough" that its kidneys would work, as piggy as they still might be, in a human.

      But you know, I really ought to actually do some research because clearly you know more about this than I do ...

    4. Re:Do not need to use human cells by PinkyGigglebrain · · Score: 2

      Take the human cells and break the genes that make neurons

      Easy, if we knew exactly which genes controlled the development of the human brain. We don't, we can make educated and informed guesses but do we know if there is a enzyme or protein that is produced by human cells that triggers the development of higher cognitive functions?

      And what if the creature did develop higher brain functions? Pigs are already pretty smart, what if one of these test subjects scratches "No kill I" in the dirt?

      That said I agree that we have to keep doing research into this, the benefits would be huge, but we also have to consider the moral and ethical ramifications of this kind of research before we end up with a mess.

    5. Re:Do not need to use human cells by The_Noid · · Score: 2

      And what if the creature did develop higher brain functions? Pigs are already pretty smart, what if one of these test subjects scratches "No kill I" in the dirt?

      Then that one doesn't get killed, and the procedure for treating the human cells is improved so it doesn't happen again.
      And that specimen is studied intensively of course... In an environment of its choosing so it is as happy as it can be.

    6. Re:Do not need to use human cells by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      From TFA:

      âoeWe didnâ(TM)t see any human cells in the brain region, but we cannot exclude the possibility that they may have gone to the brain,â said Izpisua Belmonte.

      It might not actually be necessary to turn the genes that contribute to brain development off, if it can be shown that no significant amount of human cells go that region.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    7. Re:Do not need to use human cells by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure you know more than the scientists who are actually working on it. Perhaps you should contact them and offer your insights.

    8. Re:Do not need to use human cells by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      And that specimen is studied intensively of course... In an environment of its choosing so it is as happy as it can be.

      So, just like us regular humans then?

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    9. Re:Do not need to use human cells by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And I take it you aren't vegan, and are directly responsible for the torture and killing of thousands of animals during your lifetime, and now you think more animals should die for you...

      Do the animals that you pay people to torture and kill, torture and kill thousands of animals during their lifetimes? How about ANY animals? No, they don't, they're all herbivores. Yet for some strange reason, you think your life is worth more than theirs, even though they are victims, and you are a perpetrator.

      THEY love their lives, I bet you don't love yours. If you did, you would be vegan because you would be able to appreciate the suffering of others.

    10. Re:Do not need to use human cells by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, there are two types of narcissist. Everyone usually thinks of the classic narcissist that publicly re-asserts how great they are every chance they get. But the other kind that most people don't think of is the self-sacrifice narcissist. That type of person thinks they're the epitome of selflessness because they take on so much work and hardships for others and hardly ever (at least in their heads) complain about it. But in reality, that person was never ASKED to make most of those "sacrifices" and loves to take whatever chance he or she can get to remind others of how humble and self-sacrificing he or she is. Especially by alluding to how they live their lives in comparison to others. Sound familiar?

    11. Re:Do not need to use human cells by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are using human cells because they want to be able to grow a human kidney, lung, heart, pancreas, etc. and transplant them into people that need them.

      But there's already plenty of progress with doing that with human stem cells. There's no need to make pig-human hybrids (other than for publicity and publishing papers).

      http://www.nature.com/ncb/jour...
      http://www.nbcnews.com/health/...
      http://www.wired.co.uk/article...
      http://www.stemcellresearchfac...
      http://www.nephrologynews.com/...

      Basically there are plenty of other technologies which are actually closer to real-world solutions than this "hybrid" stuff. And this hybrid stuff has lots more ethical and legal issues.

      So the disadvantages of making such hybrids outweigh the benefits.

  17. 1 in 10,000 cells or not, that's some creepy shit by elrous0 · · Score: 3

    I mean, it's not "Island of Dr. Moreau" level creepy, but it's a start.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  18. puppy monkey baby! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://i.imgur.com/CyKnyua.gif

  19. That animals first words? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ki...llll.....mee....eeee

    1. Re:That animals first words? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Okies, no problem. Who wanted a liver? Anyone order a heart/lung combo?

    2. Re:That animals first words? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, "Hey, where's my buddy BrundleFly?"

  20. facilities by siamesevodka · · Score: 3, Funny

    The facilities to carry out this work was provided by a Dr. Moreau...........

  21. How far? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    "The ultimate goal is to grow functional and transplantable tissue or organs, but we are far away from that. This is an important first step."

    If they are already growing human organs, how much farther do they have to go before they are transplantable?

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:How far? by subanark · · Score: 1

      Having an organ grow in a pig can result in many environmental differences in how the organ turns out. E.g. a pig is smaller and may not "exercise" the heart enough to make it useable in humans. There is also the issue of removing all the pig from the organ for a clean transplant.

    2. Re:How far? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Having an organ grow in a pig can result in many environmental differences in how the organ turns out. E.g. a pig is smaller and may not "exercise" the heart enough to make it useable in humans. There is also the issue of removing all the pig from the organ for a clean transplant.

      Pigs are not smaller than humans; adult pigs can weigh between 100 and 700 lbs.

  22. Wait... by genessy · · Score: 1

    ...I thought we Americans were already doing that with the "science" of HAES.

  23. forget human-pig.... by Mogster · · Score: 1

    When do we get Spider Pig?

    --
    ACK NAK RST
    1. Re:forget human-pig.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      You mean like Peter Porker, the Amazing Spider-Ham?

    2. Re: forget human-pig.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You Sir, win today's internet.

    3. Re:forget human-pig.... by KreAture · · Score: 1

      Spider pig, spider pig. Does whatever a spider pig does...

  24. The Zen Gun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe I could have that cat woman lover once ascended to be the commander of the fleet? Would she smell like a cat or a woman?

  25. Not Brains...Boobs! by FrankSchwab · · Score: 1

    Why in god's name would I want a Pig's body with a Human brain?
    Instead, let me raise a Human body (Female for me please) with the brain of, say, a Bonobo monkey.

    --
    And the worms ate into his brain.
    1. Re:Not Brains...Boobs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why in god's name would I want a Pig's body with a Human brain?
      Instead, let me raise a Human body (Female for me please) with the brain of, say, a Bonobo monkey.

      There are already plenty of Democrats around already, no need to make more.

  26. Holy shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We're in Amnesia now!

  27. Re:1 in 10,000 cells or not, that's some creepy sh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh come on, we're talking a few cells here. There's more human DNA in the pig at Jared Leto's house.

  28. Intelligent animals are unlikely by Chalnoth · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There are many animals that are quite intelligent, but it's exceedingly unlikely that we would ever have the capability to genetically engineer an animal like a pig to have a human-like brain, even if we wanted to.

    The reason is simple: our brains are way bigger than pig brains (human brain: about 3.5lbs, pig brain: 0.4lbs). In order to have a pig with a human-like brain, you'd have to completely reshape it's skull, and because a pig skull is very different from an ape skull, you'd have to do it in a very different way than humans do. To do this, you'd need to generate a wide variety of novel adaptations to make it so that a pig can support a brain that's about 8 times the size. That's just not happening.

    What is being done in these kinds of experiments is far less ambitious: to use small amounts of human DNA to make animal tissues compatible for transplantation. This kind of research has gone on for a long time: it's common to genetically engineer mice and rats to have human immune systems, to make them better test subjects. In this case, if the research continues, you'll have a pig growing a pig liver, with some of its genetic markers changed just enough to fool a human body into thinking that it's a human liver rather than a pig liver.

    1. Re:Intelligent animals are unlikely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Fortunately, the goal is to create a human with a pig's brain. That way we can harvest its delicious blood and organs while only be technically be killing a pig (which we do *quite* a lot of anyway).

    2. Re:Intelligent animals are unlikely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not save the time and effort and just harvest the scientists?

      Oh, yeah, I know, that'd be "murder" if there's some differentiator between the two species that conveys "rights".

      Since a "soul" or like concept is off the table, I wonder where the "develops rights" DNA sequence may be...

    3. Re:Intelligent animals are unlikely by PJ6 · · Score: 1

      Fortunately, the goal is to create a human with a pig's brain. That way we can harvest its delicious blood and organs while only be technically be killing a pig (which we do *quite* a lot of anyway).

      That's already happened.

      The big surprise to the scientific community was that they can vote.

    4. Re:Intelligent animals are unlikely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The reason is simple: our brains are way bigger than pig brains (human brain: about 3.5lbs, pig brain: 0.4lbs).

      Is it really as simple as you claim?

      Tell me why crows are so intelligent despite having brains the size of a walnut?
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      And how did this guy function despite having a lot smaller brain? https://www.newscientist.com/a...
      (yes he was stupider than average but he still counted as human).

  29. Pigoons more than Hyperpigs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Predicted here: http://www.businessinsider.com/margaret-atwoods-pigoons-are-starting-to-become-reality-2016-6

  30. Better Bacon? by pubwvj · · Score: 1

    I wonder what it tastes like?
    Humans taste like pork...

    1. Re:Better Bacon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I wonder what it tastes like?
      Humans taste like pork...

      Long pig.

    2. Re:Better Bacon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      JESUS.. THE OTHER WHITE MEAT.

    3. Re:Better Bacon? by siamesevodka · · Score: 1

      My God!!! Your eating Cousin Eddy!

  31. Uplift them animals! by ihaveamo · · Score: 1

    The work inevitably raises the spectre of intelligent animals with humanised brains .. Excellent! - Scifi becoming fact, yet again... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  32. It's name is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Donald Trump

  33. Dr. Moreau ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ⦠paging Doctor Moreau

  34. How far?-diseases by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd worry more about pig diseases coming to man.

  35. Disease by JBMcB · · Score: 1

    You can grow genetically pure pigs in a sterile environment. They do this already with flies, to use maggots to clean out necrotic tissue in ulcers. Gross, but it works incredibly well.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  36. Rat/Mouse chimera for pancreas by stabiesoft · · Score: 1

    http://www.livescience.com/576... describes growing a mouse pancreas in a rat for diabetes research. There are many good applications of this type of research but I can also see it going very wrong.

  37. And the first thing he asked? by Z80a · · Score: 1

    The best panties in the whole world.

  38. Colds by Neuronwelder · · Score: 1

    Since they are modified by pigs each year, will this have an effect on cold viruses?? (Most things are not as simple as they first appear.)

  39. Man pig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Um, That's 'Officer Man Pig' if you don't mind"

  40. Re:details by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Submission and respect aren't the same thing. Lack of submission may not be the appropriate term, but neither is lack of respect.

  41. Anyone hungry...... by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 1

    For some bbq baby-back ribs?

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
  42. Mice-Humans a long time ago by pz · · Score: 1

    We've been creating mice with human immune systems for probably decades now. Heck, you can even order them from commercial suppliers:

    https://www.jax.org/jax-mice-a...

    --

    Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
  43. Life imitates art? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1
    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  44. New breed of muslims. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    New breed of muslims.

  45. Artificial Politician? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So they created a politician in a lab now?

  46. I worked for this guy! by SlithyMagister · · Score: 1

    Well, it smelled and acted like a pig-man hybrid anyway

  47. Nostradamus was right ! by Laxator2 · · Score: 1

    The scourges passed the world shrinks,
    For a long time peace and populated lands:
    One will travel safely by air, land, sea and wave,
    Then the wars stirred up anew. (C I â" 63)
    They will think they have seen the Sun at night
    When they will see the pig half-man:
    Noise, song, battle, fighting in the sky perceived,
    And one will hear brute beasts talking. (C I â" 64)

  48. Original source probably here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fi&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=fi&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iltalehti.fi%2Fuutiset%2F201701212200057471_uu.shtml&edit-text=&act=url

  49. I dunno... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I think Rosie O'Donnel's parents created the first Human-Pig hybrid...

  50. The sociopaths of Slashdot are out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... again. No consideration for the untold suffering of all the animals involved in these atrocities, let alone the future HUMAN BEINGS who these psychopaths are eventually going to mix with animals until we have literal half-human, half-animal chimeras being born, in secret, in laboratories. These psychopaths will then continue to torture them, claiming they "aren't human" and therefore it's okay to do so - just as they claim it's okay to torture animals for ONE reason alone - "they aren't human".

    Can you tell me how you chose to be born human, and not an animal?

  51. What Bacon has done for science... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    and what science has done with bacon.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    1. Re:What Bacon has done for science... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      C'mon people, Francis Bacon one of the people who devised scientific method, get it.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  52. Pig and Elephant DNA Just Won't Splice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good thing it was a pig and a human, because I'm sorry kids, but pig and elephant DNA just won't splice. Haven't you ever heard that song by Loverboy?

  53. I guess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some pigs are more equal than other pigs

  54. It's the Uplift War all over again.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pig's are new I think but chimps and dolphins were enhanced already.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uplift_War

    No wait hyperpigs are already a thing in Revelation Space universe
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Races_in_Revelation_Space#Pigs

  55. Redwall Abbey, here I come by CresCoJeff · · Score: 1

    "The work inevitably raises the spectre of intelligent animals" -- what 'spectre'? Creating a new species with human-level intelligence would be the greatest feat mankind has ever accomplished, bar none. It's a big deal, sure, and as such could go super-wrong, but it doesn't have to. If it went right, we could have a real-world Redwall Abbey, with Jacques-esque Moles! That said, the "...with humanised brains" part is a bit disturbing, depending on how much human gets into the new species; we're not exactly a sterling role model for new sapient life.

  56. Not just human hearts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This research on pig-human hybrids is being done under the guise of developing replacement human hearts. But I have no doubt that this technology will be ultimately used to develop horse-human hybrids for replacement penises.

  57. What about allergies? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As someone who has a very rare (less than 1% of the entire world has my allergy) but very severe allergy to pig. This is great for most of the people because pigs are chemically very close to humans and show the best results as being easily tolerated in people for thyroid treatment (Amour) and vaccines(the flu shot). However for those rare people who have severe allergies to pigs this could be life threatening. My allergy is not only airborne but if someone eats a pastry with lard, touches marshmallows, or includes jello in something it is an ER visit for me. I hope they would make it very known of the host source for the organs.

  58. We humans are generally too not ready... by martinfb · · Score: 1

    We humans are generally too not ready for this hi-tech stuff.

    Consider this example: Africanized bees. Theye were inadvertently released into the wild and now have taken lives here in the USA.
    Those bees continue to migrate further north and pose a threat to an ever increasing population.

    Add to this one example the fact that an obvious unqualified Trump made it to being a presidential candidate (let alone actually now in office), and it is quite evident that we humans are akin to an ape with a machine gun!

    I say we first educate the masses. Then we can let the few intelligent educated persons manage such amazing research.

    First, we need to have more humans actually recognize what makes a qualified leader; rather than THINK they know and we all end up suffering from the mistake once it all blows-up in (their) faces.

    --


    Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
  59. This is horrifying by Rujiel · · Score: 0

    Pigs and such are tortured in modern slughterhouses, now we'll allow it for human hybrids? And just how human are they? What if today's ag gag bills are used against these hybrids, to prolong their suffering. But also scary is how glib people are here about it. Man bear pig? Seriously? That bit was dumb anyhow, AGW trash.