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Biotech / Medical : Biotransplant(BTRN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nigel bates who wrote (773)	10/5/2000 5:35:18 PM
From: CYBERKEN	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1475

The peasants with pitchforks and torches have arrived: "Thursday October 5, 2:00 pm Eastern Time Firms produced "human-pig" hybrid - Greenpeace By Mark John BERLIN, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Two firms seeking a patent on an embryo cloning process have performed an experiment in which they created a ``human-pig'' hybrid embryo, environmental lobby group Greenpeace said on Thursday. A spokeswoman for the companies involved in the patent application confirmed that laboratory cells of human origin had been used in the experiment but denied that what resulted was a human hybrid, and said Greenpeace had misunderstood the case. Greenpeace's German branch published extracts of what it said was the application made to the European Patent Office in Munich by U.S.-based BioTransplant (NasdaqNM:BTRN - news) and Australian firm Stem Cell Sciences. The alleged extracts made reference to an experiment fusing parts of human and pig cells in a technique known as ``nuclear transfer'' which has already been used in cloning pigs and in making Dolly the sheep, the first adult mammal ever cloned. ``The application shows that the firms have already transferred cell nuclei from human foetuses to egg cells from pigs and cultivated the resulting embryos for around a week in the laboratory,'' Greenpeace said in a statement. ``Society should not reward these Frankenstein scientists with patents,'' it added, noting however that loopholes in European Union patent guidelines restricting such processes on human embryos meant the request stood a good chance of success. A U.S. spokeswoman for both companies said Greenpeace's interpretation of the experiment as wrong. ``A human foetus cell was not used in the experiment,'' Patricia Dimond told Reuters. ``The source of the cell was a laboratory cell line of human origin. It was an aneuploid cell, which means it was totally incapable of creating a human being. It was experimentally impossible to create a hybrid pig-human organism,'' she said. The European Patent Office said it could not discuss the content of any patent request awaiting assessment but confirmed the two firms had filed an application to it. ORGAN TRANSPLANTS Despite the denial that a human hybrid was created in the lab, the experiment may be seen by some as the latest example of biotechnology firms entering ethical grey zones. U.S. doctors last week used stem cells from the umbilical cord of a baby boy, Adam Nash, whose embryo was chosen to save his six-year-old sister Molly, suffering from a blood disease. It prompted accusations that scientists were ``playing God'' by creating ``designer babies'' free of blemishes, particularly because several other fertilised embryos -- Adam's potential siblings -- were disposed of after not being chosen. Others hailed the operation as a medical wonder. Nuclear transfer is seen offering huge benefits in the area of animal-to-human transplants by developing animals whose tissues and organs can be grafted into humans without risk of infection. Scientists at the Massachusetts-based biotech company Advanced Cell Technology said two years ago they had fused human cells into cow eggs and let them grow as an embryo for a few days, provoking headlines that a ``human-cow'' had been created. The company said its aim was to grow organs and tissues in the lab for transplant"