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Scientists create first genetically modified human embryo
United Kingdom News.Net
Sunday 11th May, 2008 (ANI)
London, May 11 : Researchers at Cornell University in New York have made a breakthrough in genetics by creating the first genetically modified (GM) human embryo.
The GM embryo was produced to study how early cells and diseases develop, but the scientists destroyed it just after five days.
However, the breakthrough has brought with it major concerns. The British regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has even cautioned that such controversial experiments may lead to "large ethical and public interest issues".
The news has come days before MPs are scheduled to debate legislation enabling scientists to use similar techniques in the country.
Usually the genes added to embryos or reproductive cells, such as sperm, will affect all cells in the body and will be passed on to future generations.
This method has implications to be used for correcting genes, which cause diseases such as cystic fibrosis, haemophilia and even cancer. This means that any gene that has been identified could be added to embryos.
However, ethicists have cautioned against genetically modifying embryos as it may lead to the addition of genes for desirable traits such as height, intelligence and hair colour.
But, The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, scheduled to have its second reading this week, will possibly make it legal to create GM embryos in Britain. However, GM embryos are allowed to be created only for research and the bill will ban implantation in the womb. But the ethicists have claimed that the legislation could be relaxed in the future.
The HFEA has claimed that it is trying to prepare scientists to apply for licences to create GM embryos.
"The bill has taken away all inhibitions on genetically altering human embryos for research. The Science and Clinical Advances Group [of the HFEA] thought there were large ethical and public interest issues and that these should be referred for debate," Times Online quoted the paper, published by the authority, as stating.
Led by Nikica Zaninovic, the Cornell team, used a virus to add a gene, a green fluorescent protein, to an embryo left over from in vitro fertilisation.
However, Dr David King, director of Human Genetics Alert, warned: "This is the first step on the road that will lead to the nightmare of designer babies and a new eugenics. The HFEA is right to say that the creation and legalisation of GM embryos raises 'large ethical and public interest issues' but neglects to mention that these have not been debated at all."
He added: "I have been speaking to MPs all week and no one knows that the government is legalising GM embryos. The public has had enough of scientists sneaking these things through and then presenting us with a fait accompli."
The research was presented at a meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine last year but details have emerged only after the HFEA highlighted the work in a review of the technology.
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Comments on this story
bulldog48
05-11-08, 10:59 PM |
Scientists create first genetically modified human embryo
WERE getting close to cloning human if we can clone animal why not human if we do clone human i wonder what they would look like
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waltky
07-04-08, 01:44 AM |
Now they gonna be makin' pig-people in England...
:eek:
Human-pig hybrid embryos given go ahead
01/07/2008 : A licence to create human-pig embryos to study heart disease has been issued by the fertility watchdog.
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This marks the third animal-human hybrid embryo licence to be issued by Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the first since the Commons voted in favour of this controversial research last month. An HFEA spokesman said it had approved an application from the Clinical Sciences Research Institute, University of Warwick, for the creation of hybrid embryos. The centre has been offered a 12 month licence with effect from today, July 1. The effort at the University of Warwick is led by Professor Justin St John. “This new license allows us to attempt to make human pig clones to produce embryonic stem cells," he said, where embryonic stem cells are able to turn into the 200 plus types in the body.
“We will take skin cells from patients who have a mutation for certain kinds of heart disease (cardiomyopathy, which makes the heart lose its pumping strength) and put them into pig eggs after their chromosomes have been removed. We will then make embryos so that we can attempt to derive embryonic stem cells which will allow us to study some of the molecular mechanisms associated with these heart diseases. “Ultimately they will help us to understand where some of the problems associated with these diseases arise and they could also provide models for the pharmaceutical industry to test new drugs. We will effectively be creating and studying these diseases in a dish.
“But it’s important to say that we’re at the very early stages of this research and it will take a considerable amount of time. There is still a great deal to learn about these techniques and much of our early work will involve understanding how we can make the hybrid cloning process as efficient as possible." The study is aimed at understanding the way power-producing structures in cells, called mitochondria, are passed from egg to embryo. In the hybrid, the mitochondria mostly come from the egg, initially making up around half of the DNA by weight, and the team will do experiments in order to ensure that the trace of human mitochondrial DNA takes over, not least because it is designed to work with human nuclear DNA.
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