
	Where results make sense

Topic: Animal chimeras

	Monsters or Resarch Tools? The Use of Chimeras in Biological Research
		Chimera is one of her offspring described as having a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail.
		Today in research circles, “chimera” elicits a different picture: sheep with mostly human livers that could be used for organ transplants, pigs with human blood coursing through their veins, mice with human neural cells to model human diseases, and people who have received replacement heart valves from a pig.
		Chimeras are not always unnatural; most twins carry a few cells from the brother or sister who shared the womb with them, and most mothers have a few cells circulating in their blood from each child to whom they have given birth.
	www.promega.com /enotes/features/fe0024.htm (1193 words)

	Online NewsHour: Chimeras: Animal-Human Hybrids - Questions and Answers \| PBS
		Chimeras are also produced by blending human and animal genes.
		The term "chimera" comes from Greek mythology and refers to a creature that had the head of a lion, a goat's body and a serpent's tail.
		The guidelines also said no animal into which human embryonic stem cells have been placed should be allowed to breed, and no human embryonic stem cells should be put into nonhuman primate blastocysts.
	www.pbs.org /newshour/science/chimeras/qanda.html (813 words)

	lifeissues.net \| An Overview of Chimeras and Hybrids
		Chimeras of different types of mice are produced routinely in research laboratories as part of the process of creating transgenic mice (mice designed to have a specific gene of interest either expressed or knocked out).
		Animal experiments have shown that, because cells at these stages of life are highly plastic in nature and because the architecture of the body (including the brain) is still in development, an introduced cell and its progeny can be incorporated into the embryo in a seemingly random fashion.
		The products are not chimeras, because they are not a variegated mix of different species of cells or organs within one individual, and they are not true hybrids, because the nuclear DNA does not combine between the two species (because the oocytes have been enucleated prior to insertion of the somatic nuclear DNA).
	www.lifeissues.net /writers/sey/sey_03overview1.html (4018 words)

	Center for Bioethics - University of Minnesota (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Chimeras are animals composed of cells that originate from two (or more) different species.
		Ethical issues of primary concern for bioethicists, researchers, animal rights activists and others interested in chimeras can be divided into two broad categories: a) complete opposition to research of this kind and b) concerns about particular research methods to be used and outcomes that may ensue.
		If a female chimera with human ova (egg cells) mated with a male chimera with human sperm cells, scientists believe that it would be possible for a human fetus to be the result.
	www.bioethics.umn.edu /resources/topics/chimeras.html (2714 words)

	Human-animal chimeras: from mythology to biotechnology \| Scientific Blogging (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		To understand the fear and anger evoked by chimeras, it is useful to go back in scientific history to March 1984, when an animal unlike any other ever born, or seen, adorned the cover of Nature, the international journal of science.
		The geep is an alluring example of a laboratory-created chimera, named by scientists in honor of the creature from Greek mythology with the head of a lion, the torso of a goat, and a tail sprouting the head of a venomous snake.
		Indeed, a chimera's potential violation of nature was so profound that rational thinkers have always assumed it couldn't possibly exist, and the word chimera has become a metaphor for a wishful idea without any basis in reality.
	www.scientificblogging.com /lee_silver/human_animal_chimeras_from_mythology_to_biotechnology (2768 words)

	Reason Magazine - Shimmering Chimeras
		Esmail Zanjani, a professor of medicine at the University of Nevada at Reno, and his colleagues have created animal/human chimeras by injecting human stem cells into fetal sheep about halfway through their gestation.
		"Chimera" has come to mean, in modern biotech, a creature made by injecting embryonic or stem cells from one species into the developing embryo or fetus of the member of another species.
		Of course, animal rights activists will object, but surely if one can kill a sheep for lamb chops or a pig for a ham, such animals can be sacrificed to obtain organs that could keep a human being healthy and alive.
	www.reason.com /news/show/34931.html (1162 words)

	On the moral status of humanized chimeras and the concept of human dignity
		The chimeras we refer to here are, in the strictest sense, entities characterized by the side by side presence of both human and animal cells in embryonic, fetal, or adult individuals.
		The source animals from which transplantable grafts are to be obtained, for instance, may be partially ‘humanized’ in order to inhibit or reduce rejection of the animal grafts by the human immune system upon transplantation.
		If the chimeras were to share the characteristics which are otherwise unique and important to human beings, human dignity would be undermined and the chimeras would be worthy of the same respect that humans are.
	cla.calpoly.edu /~jlynch/ravelingien.htm (6403 words)

	PCRM >> Research >> Beyond Animal Research >> Chimeras: Beyond our Moral Depth?
		The chimeras I learned about as a biology student—obscure, strange-looking fishes of the ocean depths—are not the same as the ones now at the center of a debate in medical ethics.
		There’s little chance of this happening when chimeras are created by inoculating human cells into an adult animal, but the risk is considered real if those cells were transplanted into a fetus.
		Until these conditions are improved and the animals are given a decent quality of life, chimeras ought to be left where they are—swimming in the ocean depths.
	www.pcrm.org /resch/anexp/beyond/chimeras_0508.html (556 words)

	Stem Cell Research Guide Permits Creation of Human-Animal Chimeras
		Nuclear transfer, the technique currently used in the cloning of adult animals, is the transfer of a nucleus from one cell to another, creating a new cell with a different nucleus.
		These hybrid part human, part animal creatures, called chimeras, would be "valuable in understanding the etiology and progression of human disease and in testing new drugs, and will be necessary in preclinical testing of human embryonic stem cells and their derivatives," the guidelines committee said.
		Chimeras might also be used to grow organs, such as livers, to transplant into humans.
	www.ens-newswire.com /ens/apr2005/2005-04-27-03.asp (1568 words)

	Our Instincts Recoil From an Animal-Human Union of Mice and Men - Science - RedOrbit
		A chimera is a mixture of two or more individuals in a single body and is named after the mythical Greek creature with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail.
		Recipients of organs donated by other humans are chimeras and if you have had a heart valve replaced by a valve from a pig or a cow you are an animal-human chimera.
		The power of chimeras as a research tool to study cell development in general and brain development in particular was demonstrated in dramatic experiments about 10 years ago.
	www.redorbit.com /news/display?id=141887&source=r_science (988 words)

	Reason Magazine - What Is Too Human?
		It is now common to place single human genes into plants and animals and even bacteria, to produce various therapeutic proteins, including insulin and human growth hormone.
		Stanford University's Irving Weissman has injected human neural stem cells from aborted fetuses into the brains of fetal mice, where they have integrated and grown into human neurons and glia that intermingle with mouse brain cells, making up about 1 percent of the tissue in their brains.
		The main ethical concern about such research is not the creation of improved and useful animals, but the risk of producing what would be, in effect, diminished human beings.
	www.reason.com /news/show/34941.html (1252 words)

	Catholic-Pages.com \| Discussion Forum - Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy
		A chimera is a mixture of two or more species in one body.
		Biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin is opposed to crossing species boundaries, because he believes animals have the right to exist without being tampered with or crossed with another species.
		She believes a ban should also be put into place in the U.S. Creating chimeras, she said, by mixing human and animal gametes (sperms and eggs) or transferring reproductive cells, diminishes human dignity.
	www.catholic-pages.com /forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3738 (1351 words)

	Nicholas Wade on Chimeras in the New York Times, May 3, 2005
		The original chimera, a tripartite medley of lion, goat, and snake, was a mere monster, but mythology is populated with half-human chimeras - centaurs, sphinxes, werewolves, minotaurs, and mermaids, and the gorgon Medusa.
		Chimeras grip the imagination because people are both fascinated and repulsed by the defiance of natural order.
		Given the nine months it takes for a human brain to be constructed, it seems unlikely that the developmental program of the human neurons would have time to unfold very far in the 20-day gestation of a mouse.
	www.grg.org /NWadeChimeras.htm (1168 words)

	Growing human organs on the farm
		When the sheep is born, much of the animal's liver will consist of your own cells-ready to be harvested and given back to you.
		Zanjani's team hopes the animal-human chimeras they are creating (see "A question of breeding") will one day yield new cells genetically identical to a patient's own for repairing damaged organs, and perhaps larger pieces for transplantation.
		Some people oppose the creation of all human-animal chimeras on religious grounds, and many more would join them if there were the slightest chance that sheep with human brain cells might be more than just sheep.
	www.eurekalert.org /pub_releases/2003-12/ns-gho121703.php (1341 words)

	lifeissues.net \| The Ethics of Chimeras and Hybrids
		Animal experiments have shown that because of the highly plastic nature of the cells at this stage of life and because the architecture of the body (including the brain) is still in development, an introduced cell and its progeny can be incorporated into the embryo in a seemingly random fashion.
		Significantly changing the identity of an organism via combining human and nonhuman cellular or genetic material (especially at the embryonic or fetal level) could be construed as a violation of the dignity of the human person.
		This would not be elevating animals to the level of people, but ensuring that the humanity in the chimera did not have its dignity violated (any more than it already has, by having been created as a chimera in the first place).
	www.lifeissues.net /writers/sey/sey_02ethicschimeras.html (2365 words)

	Of Mice, Men and In-Between (washingtonpost.com)
		Biologists call these hybrid animals chimeras, after the mythical Greek creature with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail.
		Chimeras are allowing scientists to watch, for the first time, how nascent human cells and organs mature and interact -- not in the cold isolation of laboratory dishes but inside the bodies of living creatures.
		Recipients of organ transplants are also chimeras, as are the many people whose defective heart valves have been replaced with those from pigs or cows.
	www.washingtonpost.com /ac2/wp-dyn/A63731-2004Nov19 (1853 words)

	A question of chimeras
		(The word "chimera" refers to the Greek mythological creature that has a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.) President and CEO Martin McGlynn says his biotech company is now waiting for the FDA's permission to test human neural stem cells – the ones already tested in mice – in human patients.
		It's the bridge to the clinic." However, the use of such chimeric animals is the focus of a complicated patent case that is raising legal and ethical questions.
		Using what he calls the "embryo chimera technique," Newman sought to patent a creature combining human embryo cells with cells from the embryo of a monkey, ape, or other animal to create a blend of both.
	www.vetscite.org /publish/items/002211 (1061 words)

	Human-animal chimeras
		The creation of such hybrids is a relatively recent phenomenon with some scientists claiming the more humanlike the animal, the better she can serve as research model for testing drugs or for tissue engineering and growing "spare parts," such as livers, to transplant into humans.
		In 1998 the first report of a type of human-animal chimera surfaced after Human DNA was inserted into in a cow egg.
		Using animal eggs in research could avoid the ethical problems of using human eggs in experimental science.
	www.centres.ex.ac.uk /egenis/Human-animalchimeras.htm (529 words)

	CBHD: Could Animal-Human Chimeras Be on the Way? - Nancy L. Jones
		Some concern should certainly be expressed for the experimental animal's suffering; however, Christians do believe that they have been given stewardship over animals and are permitted to use them to benefit humanity.
		When human and animal tissues are intertwined so closely, potential mutations of once species-specific pathogens may gain a unique ability to infect organisms of other species.
		The creation of animal-human chimeras as a means of deriving human tissue and organs highlights the deeper issues facing our generation: the new biological genomic revolution and the resultant power that may permit scientists to redesign various species and biological life.
	www.cbhd.org /resources/genetics/jones_2003-01-09.htm (876 words)

	Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy
		They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells.
		Biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin is opposed to crossing species boundaries, because he believes animals have the right to exist without being tampered with or crossed with another species.
		She believes a ban should also be put into place in the U.S. Creating chimeras, she said, by mixing human and animal gametes (sperms and eggs) or transferring reproductive cells, diminishes human dignity.
	www.infowars.com /articles/science/animal_human_hybrids_spark_controversy.htm (1073 words)

	Chimeras, Cloning and Freak Human-Animal Hybrids
		Biologists call these hybrid animals chimeras, after the mythical Greek creature with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail.
		Chimeras are allowing scientists to watch, for the first time, how nascent human cells and organs mature and interact -- not in the cold isolation of laboratory dishes but inside the bodies of living creatures.
		Recipients of organ transplants are also chimeras, as are the many people whose defective heart valves have been replaced with those from pigs or cows.
	www.infowars.com /articles/brave_new_world/chimera.htm (3957 words)

	Technology Review: The Laws of Man and Beast
		While the mythical Chimera is the stuff of fantasy, researchers across the country are developing their own real-life chimeras -- animals that are bred to incorporate the cells of other animals or humans -- in an effort to better study human diseases or to create more viable organs for people needing transplants.
		But as scientists continue to create more varied chimeras -- especially those that have some amount of human brain matter -- questions continue to rise from ethicists, religious groups, and even other biomedical researchers, about the types of limitations that should be set on the scientific community.
		The guidelines also say that any chimera possessing human cells should not be allowed to breed, and that human stem cells should not be put into other primates, such as chimpanzees, where a more human-like brain might be apt to develop.
	www.technologyreview.com /articles/05/05/wo/wo_051105hoffman.asp (607 words)

	Creating 'human-animals' for research
		In fact, the Academies' report endorses research that co-mingles human and animal tissue as vital to ensuring that experimental drugs and new tissue replacement therapies are safe for people.
		But the biological co-mingling of animal and human is now evolving into even more exotic and unsettling mixes of species, evoking the Greek myth of the monstrous chimera, which was part lion, part goat and part serpent.
		The "idea that human neuronal cells might participate in 'higher order' brain functions in a nonhuman animal, however unlikely that may be, raises concerns that need to be considered," the Academies report warned.
	www.organicconsumers.org /Patent/human-animals.cfm (2309 words)

	WashPost: Chimeras a step closer to reality - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Chimeras are allowing scientists to watch, for the first time, how nascent human cells and organs mature and interact — not in the cold isolation of laboratory dishes but inside the bodies of living creatures.
		During one recent meeting, scientists disagreed on such basic issues as whether it would be unethical for a human embryo to begin its development in an animal's womb, and whether a mouse would be better or worse off with a brain made of human neurons.
		Most twins carry at least a few cells from the sibling with whom they shared a womb, and most mothers carry in their blood at least a few cells from each child they have born.
	www.msnbc.msn.com /id/6534243 (1930 words)

	Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country
		In Europe, China and Japan, even more complex chimeras are being created in laboratories that are racing to use these strange beings to create radical new treatments that are expected to revolutionize medicine.
		Chimeras make it possible for scientists to study organs as they function, rather than in artificial laboratory settings, and represent a tremendous medical advance.
		However, there are at present no ethical rules governing the creation of chimeras, and the National Science Foundation is developing rules now, which it expects to propose in February.
	www.unknowncountry.com /news/?id=4303 (272 words)

	Steve Quayle News Alerts
		The laboratory creation of chimeras -- animals with mixed-species heritage -- has become so advanced that scientists have drawn up regulations to prevent the production of creatures that blur the line between animal and human.
		Animals implanted with human cells, scientists say, may reveal the secrets of primordial human development and lead to novel medical treatments.
		Scientists want to inject human embryonic stem cells into animals so they can study how the cells develop in a living creature rather than in a Petri dish, which is where most experiments have been done to date.
	www.stevequayle.com /News.alert/05_Genetic/050503.monkey.html (689 words)

	A NEGLECTED SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF THE METAPHYSICAL AND MORAL STATUS OF THE HUMAN-ANIMAL CHIMERA Ethics & ...
		Biotechnologies that seek to create human-animal chimeras raise many interesting philosophical questions, and these questions are of different kinds.
		The metaphysical question is whether it makes sense to consider the possibility that the human-animal chimera could be a member of two different species at the same time.
		I believe that a Christian response to the issues raised by human-animal chimeras should embody at least three features: it should be unapologetically theological, multi-disciplinary, and forward-looking.
	www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_qa4004/is_200407/ai_n9437187 (799 words)

Try your search on: Qwika (all wikis)