- The Scientists from Stanford University have created the first ever human-sheep hybrids, that may pave the way for organs to be grown in animals which can be transplanted into humans.
- To create their ‘chimera’ – a term adopted from Greek mythology for a hybrid animal-humans- the team grew embryos containing sheep and human cells, and kept the surrogate animal carrying them alive for 28 days.
- It is an early step toward growing human organs in farm animals before transplanting them into patients.
- The embroy has 99 percent sheep and 0.01 percent human cells. For the transplant to work, the researchers think at least 1 percent of the embryo’s cells would need to be human – meaning these first steps demonstrated in the sheep are still very preliminary.
- The Stanford University project tests how organs grown in animals can be used for transplants in humans.
- Although scientists have earlier developed human-pig hybrids yet scientist has not been able to take it to the next step.
- The successful project could even open the door to finding a cure for type 1 diabetes by creating healthy pancreases to regulate blood sugar.
- The breakthrough could also help to alleviate the global shortage of organ donors.
