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Human-animal Embryo Research: The Basics
The Times Online offers a useful question-and-answer primer on the latest research news. Some highlights:
What is the research for?
At the moment, the Newcastle group is simply trying to make cybrids to refine the best techniques. In the longer term, the goal is to create them with DNA from patients with conditions such as motor neuron disease and diabetes.
These would produce embryonic stem cells carrying genetic defects that contribute to these diseases, providing powerful cell models for understanding their progress and developing new drugs.
….
Did the experiments work?
It is impossible to say for now, as the results are preliminary and have not yet been submitted for peer-review — the quality control check for scientific research. The Newcastle group says that some of the cybrids lived for up to three days, and that the largest grew to 32 cells. The aim is to grow them for six days, when they will have more than 100 cells, and extract embryonic stem cells, but this has not happened yet.
We do know that the human DNA used came from an embryonic stem cell, not from an adult. These are known to be easier to work with in cloning experiments, but they would not be so useful for medical research.
(Hat-tip to Alta Charo for the story.)
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