Hybrid human/rabbit?

[davidhorman]

Anyone else heard about this? It's from one of those old-fashioned paper newspapers so I've got no link:

Hybrid embryos

SCIENTISTS in China have used cloning techniques to create hybrid embryos that contain a mix of DNA from both humans and rabbits. The hybrids, made my fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs, were allowed to develop in laboratory dishes before the scientists destroyed them to retrieve so-called embryonic stem cells, according to a Washington Post report.

David

 

[Tez]

I'm sure hybrid human/rabbits still taste like chicken...

 

[Crossbow]

Human/Rabbit hybrid.

Bah! Humbug!

Everyone knows the real power is in the Jack Rabbit/Antlelope hybrid (aka, Jackalope):

 

[The Don]

I thought that Hugh Hefner was the closest approximation to the human/rabbit hybrid

 

[TillEulenspiegel]

My take on it was : University of Bejing. Two bilogists created a cross between a Elephant and a Rhino. When they saw what they had created, the one researcher turned to the other and asked " What is THAT", to which the other rescearcher replied," Ellifino!"

 

[Eos of the Eons]

Uh, if it's only half human, then is it okay to retrieve stem cells that way. Are some activists having a fit over destroying embryo cells for medical gain?

Oh the humanity, or half humanity...

I think it's neat, but I'm sure some people are appalled

 

[Goshawk]

Well, my first thought was that your "newspaper" was the Weekly World News, but apparently not.

Cloning Yields Human-Rabbit Hybrid Embryo

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 14, 2003; Page A04

Scientists in China have, for the first time, used cloning techniques to create hybrid embryos that contain a mix of DNA from both humans and rabbits, according to a report in a scientific journal that has reignited the smoldering ethics debate over cloning research.

More than 100 of the hybrids, made by fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs, were allowed to develop in laboratory dishes for several days before the scientists destroyed them to retrieve so-called embryonic stem cells from their interiors. Although scientists in Massachusetts had previously mixed human cells and cow eggs in a similar attempt to make hybrid embryos as a source of stem cells, those experiments were not successful.

< snip >

The new work, led by Hui Zhen Sheng of Shanghai Second Medical University, appears in the latest issue of Cell Research and was highlighted in a news report in the journal Nature. Cell Research is a peer-reviewed -- if little-known in the United States -- bimonthly scientific journal affiliated with the Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Some researchers yesterday said they were frustrated by the lack of details in the paper.

The team said it retrieved foreskin tissue from two 5-year-old boys and two men, and facial tissue from a 60-year-old woman, as a source of skin cells. They fused those cells with New Zealand rabbit eggs from which the vast majority of rabbit DNA had been removed. More than 400 of those new, fused entities grew into early embryos, and more than 100 survived to the blastocyst stage -- the point at which coveted stem cells begin to form.

 

[SquishyDave]

Yea, they do this coz it's hard to get eggs from humans, and some people like to whine about it, so if you can figure out how to grow human stem cells in other animals eggs, it goes a long way to getting a plentiful supply of human stem cells.

And if they can grow human stem cells easily and reliably, we could up with a new medical revolution, or cures for previously incurable junk, or nothing, whichever's good. But we won't know if we don't try.

 

[Dymanic]

Some wondered aloud what, exactly, such a creature would be if it were transferred to a womb to develop to term

Making it easier to identify those who weren't paying attention.
Others may have wondered what exactly would happen if the embryo were transferred to a rocket ship and launched into outer space, but this was completely irrelevant to the purpose of this research as well.

Richard Doerflinger, of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he felt certain that the human-rabbit embryos were human enough to deserve protections

The ability to reach decisions quickly no doubt aided him in attaining this important position.

 

[TillEulenspiegel]

Some wondered aloud what, exactly, such a creature would be if it were transferred to a womb to develop to term

My guess would be a hyperactive guy with wrinkley skin who got a hard on every time he chewed =)

 

[Yahweh]

...allowed to develop in laboratory dishes before the scientists destroyed them to retrieve so-called embryonic stem cells...

I would have really liked to have seen what a full grown one of these critters might have looked like...

 

[Eos of the Eons]

I'm thinking it wouldn't amount to much if allowed to grow. Only the stem cells would be a functioning product of the procedure.

 

[sorgoth]

Some wondered aloud what, exactly, such a creature would be if it were transferred to a womb to develop to term

It would die. I'm willing to bet a lot of money that it would NOT survive very long.