| Barry-xlovecam |
06-08-2016 01:44 PM |
This has to be done VERY carefully ... But the human lives saved could be of great importance. The first thing that crossed my mind was George Orwell's book the "Animal Farm"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Animal_Farm in case you haven't read the book in school ...
Quote:
[L]ike the team in California, Prof Low said they were monitoring the effects on the pig brain: "With every organ we will look at what's happening in the brain and if we find that it's too human like, then we won't let those foetuses be born".
Animal viruses
Gene editing has revitalised research into xenotransplantation, and the concept of using animal organs for humans.
In the mid-90s there were hopes that genetically modified pigs might provide an endless supply of organs for patients, and that cross-species transplants were not far off.
But clinical trials stalled because of fears that humans might be infected with animal viruses.
Last year, a team at Harvard Medical School used CRISPR gene editing to remove more than 60 copies of a pig retrovirus.
Prof George Church, who led the research, told me: "It opens up the possibility of not just transplantation from pigs to humans but the whole idea that a pig organ is perfectible. ...
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