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The controversial project is led by gene expression expert Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte of the Salk Institute in California. He and his team have implanted human stem cells into several monkey embryos which then grow for up to 20 days.
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The work has sparked criticism from other scientists about the ethics and legal status of the creature if it survives. On the other hand, Belmonte claims his team’s research is potentially useful in terms of uncovering the remaining secrets of developmental and evolutionary biology and could be a solution to the human organ crisis.
“Since we cannot perform certain types of experiments on humans, it is important for us to have better models to study and understand human biology and disease more accurately,” said Belmonte.
“An important target of experimental biology is the development of model systems that allow the study of human disease under conditions in vivo, “he said, as quoted from Russia Today, Saturday (17/4/2021).
According to the research team, some monkey embryos were injected with human stem cells. Stem cells can produce various types of tissue, both embryonic and non-or extra-embryonic tissue.
Human cells were detected in 132 chimera embryos 24 hours after implantation, while 103 chimeric embryos were still developing nine days later.
By day 19, the number of chimera embryos that survived dropped to three, all of which had a high percentage of human cells as they continued to grow. All embryos are destroyed within 20 days of creation.
Chimera has been in existence since the 1970s, with varying degrees of success. Research is usually carried out on rodents, but more recently has involved the use of DNA from pigs and sheep.
An important technology that allows monkey embryos to survive outside the body for long periods of time is also being developed by Weizhi Ji and his team at the Kunming University of Science and Technology in Yunnan, China.
By analyzing the samples, the researchers were able to determine which lines of communication between monkeys and human cells were viable for future chimera generations and which were not.
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This will expand the possibility of producing future chimeras with species that are genetically more distant from humans than monkeys, opening the door to unique research avenues, including growing organs that can be transplanted for use in humans but grow in animals.
The researchers were careful to highlight the various ethical consultations they undertook prior to creating human-monkey chimera embryos and repeatedly underlined full attention to ethical considerations in close coordination with regulators.
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