A more recent (and perhaps less hysterical) version of the story...
Firms Act to Patent 'Human-Pig' Hybrid Cells
Last updated: 05 Oct 2000 23:14 GMT (Reuters)
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two firms trying to find alternatives for organ transplants said on Thursday they had applied to patent a cloning process in which they fused human and pig cells.
The environmental group Greenpeace attacked the researchers as "Frankenstein scientists," prompting the companies to deny they were trying to create a half-human, half-pig creature.
They said they were looking for ways to advance therapeutic cloning, which would involve taking a patient's own cells and growing them in the laboratory to create a source of stem cells or "master cells," which could then be developed into tissue or organs for transplant.
Instead of waiting in line for an organ donor, thousands of patients could, in theory, get transplants taken from their own cells. They would not need the drugs now used to suppress their immune systems so their bodies do not reject the transplant.
Therapeutic cloning is in itself controversial, with opponents saying such creation of a human embryo for any reason is unethical. But scientists and others who support it say the mass of cells that would be created would not be an embryo in any real sense and would be a valuable medical tool.
"We support the prospect of human therapeutic cloning," Peter Mountford, chief executive officer of Melbourne, Australia-based Stem Cell Sciences, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"At this point we are not pursuing the research, because there are bigger problems to solve and we think this is only one approach to providing a source of cells."
Stem Cell Sciences and Charlestown, Massachusetts-based BioTransplant Inc. BTRN.O confirmed they had applied to the European Patent Office for a patent on the process, but said Greenpeace had mischaracterized their work.
"The application shows that the firms have already transferred cell nuclei from human fetuses 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.
Mountford said his company had indeed used nuclear transfer to put a human cell nucleus into a pig's egg. Nuclear transfer, the method used to create Dolly the sheep, the first cloned adult mammal, involves scraping the nucleus out of an egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus, which contains most of the genetic material, from another cell.
SOURCE OF STEM CELLS
The process, if done correctly, re-programs the nucleus and it starts to divide as if it were a fertilized egg. In effect, it regresses back to the very first stages of life.
These cell masses could be a source of embryonic stem cells, which have the power to become any type of cell in the body at all, including nerve cells, blood cells or organ cells. Stem Cell Sciences said it had shown last month that this could be done, using mice.
In the latest case, Stem Cell Sciences, working with a team at Monash University, said it used a pig's egg cell and the nucleus from a cell taken from a cell line, or laboratory culture of cells.
After the nuclear transfer the cells divided, 4 or 5 times, to create a mass of either 16 or 32 cells. Mountford said the experiment proved that human and animal cells could be fused for the purpose of therapeutic cloning.
Another company has done similar work. In 1998, Advanced Cell Technology, based in Worcester, Massachusetts, said its scientists had fused human cells into cow eggs and let them grow as an embryo for a few days. Its aim is also to produce organs and tissues for transplant.
The reason for using cow or pig eggs is simple -- they are more readily available than human eggs, which can be obtained only through difficult and painful surgery. Farm animal eggs are available at any slaughterhouse.
Julia Greenstein, chief scientific officer at BioTransplant, said her company had a long-standing arrangement to support and license Stem Cells' work.
"We are interested in Peter's work in human cell reprogramming for human therapeutic cloning," she said. "And we are interested in nuclear transfer for animal cloning."
BioTransplant is also working on genetically engineered pigs as a potential source of animal-to-human transplants, or xenotransplants. Animals containing human genes, known as chimeras, are commonly used in medical science -- for instance, sheep that produce human proteins in their milk.
The U.S. government is forbidden by law to fund scientists who engage in cloning, therapeutic or otherwise, but privately funded scientists can legally do as they please.
Britain's chief scientific officer has proposed that therapeutic cloning be legalized there, but the European Parliament condemned the idea in September. Australia is debating the issue. |
