Scientists have created the first ever human-sheep hybrids, paving the way for organs to be grown in animals which can be transplanted into humans. The successful Stanford University project could even open the door to finding a cure for type 1 diabetes by creating healthy pancreases to regulate blood sugar.
While scientists have previously developed human-pig hybrids, sparking excitement that they could use them grow human organs, no team has been able to take it to the next step.
But Stanford's team, which has already successfully transplanted pancreases into mice, is tipped to be the first after now that they have produced a human-sheep model to use.
'We have already generated a mouse pancreas in rats and then transplanted those in to diabetic mouse and were able to show almost a complete cure,' project lead Dr Hiro Nakuachi, a professor of genetics at Stanford, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference. The breakthrough could also help to alleviate the global shortage of organ donors.
Thirty-two people die a day waiting for a life-saving organ.
The development comes less than two years after the US government said it would approve funding of these controversial experiments, but later backtracked after receiving more than 20,000 complaints from animal rights groups.
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Edited by: Endy Edeson
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Endy Edeson
Crown: This is a major breakthrough, imagine there may not be too much organ transplant from humans, animal do the work
Yemisi Frank
SCIENTISTIS are moving the world forward