Sunday, March 25, 2007

Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human


Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.

The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.

Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's foetus.

He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

submitted by Shaun A. Saunders

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is a win win! You get a new heart or liver and lunch and dinner too! oh and a new sweater!

Shaun your Of Mice and....is SO on the mark!

Anonymous said...

LOL. Yes, quite a versatile manimal!

'Of Mice and -' appears in print at www.antisf.com next month, but from our discussions, I believe it will premiere at BMU before then...looking forward to hearing your audio rendition!

Beam Me Up said...

Yes, seeming that this article hit, I think it would be a timely event to have your story Of Mice and... on the program as well. I am wondering now if I should run it right after this story! Make like I just had an idea....like "Wait, I have the perfect story for this article...!" Oh I am so going to do that!!!