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UK approves chimeric embryos

A British regulatory agency this week granted two universities permission to develop human-animal linkurl:hybrid embryos;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22210/ for stem cell research. Scientists intend to use the embryos, developed from human DNA in linkurl:non-human mammalian eggs,;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15405 for neurodegenerative and diabetes research. According to a linkurl:statement;https://www.hfea.gov.uk/en/377.html from Britain's Human Fertilsation and

Written byKerry Grens
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A British regulatory agency this week granted two universities permission to develop human-animal linkurl:hybrid embryos;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22210/ for stem cell research. Scientists intend to use the embryos, developed from human DNA in linkurl:non-human mammalian eggs,;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15405 for neurodegenerative and diabetes research. According to a linkurl:statement;https://www.hfea.gov.uk/en/377.html from Britain's Human Fertilsation and Embryology Authority, applications from Kings College London and Newcastle University "satisfied all the requirements of the law," and researchers were granted a one-year license to develop the embryos. Human embryonic stem cell research using oocytes is legal in Britian, a 2007 linkurl:report;https://www.nature.com/ncb/journal/v9/n9/full/ncb436.html in __Nature Cell Biology__ said, "...but the shortage of donated human oocytes has prompted the search for an alternative, hence the idea of using animal eggs." A hat tip to the __Chronicle of Higher Education's__ linkurl:News Blog.;https://chronicle.com/news/article/3771/animal-human-hybrid-embryos-are-approved-in-britain
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Meet the Author

  • kerry grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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