Teams to mix human, rabbit cells

BRITISH scientists are poised to press ahead with controversial plans to create hybrid human and rabbit embryos.

Three teams in London, Newcastle and Edinburgh are due to make applications this month for permission to carry out the work as part of their stem cell research programmes.

They are seeking licences from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority allowing them to create embryos 99.9% human and 0.1% rabbit.

The scientists are also looking at the possibility of creating similar “chimera” embryos by mixing human and cow genes.

The aim is to find a ready source of “human” embryonic stem cells without the ethical problems of tampering with human life.

Making the chimeras would involve removing nuclei from animal eggs and replacing them with genetic material from human cells.

Professor Stephen Minger, from King’s College London, who leads one of the groups, wants to use stem cells extracted from the embryos to investigate human neurological diseases.

“The idea is to gain information that we can’t get from animal models,” he said. “We want to create tools we can use in both academic and pharmaceutical research. We want to create disease-specific cell lines — predominantly neurological disorders with a known genetic basis, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

“At the end of the day it could lead to new therapies.”