Amusing Web: Beware 'Planet of the Apes' experiments that could create sci-fi nightmare

Friday, July 22, 2011

Beware 'Planet of the Apes' experiments that could create sci-fi nightmare

Last updated at 7:57 AM on 22nd July 2011

It sounds like something from a Hollywood science fiction film: a race that is half human, half ape.

But leading scientists are today demanding tough new rules to prevent the nightmare scenario becoming a reality.

In a hard-hitting report, they warn that research is close to pushing 'ethical boundaries' and that extreme attempts to give laboratory animals human attributes must be banned.

Science fiction: Image from the new film Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Science fiction: A chimpanzee takes up arms in the new film Rise of the Planet of the Apes

While talking chimpanzees and gun-toting gorillas are currently confined to movies, the academics say the dangers of disturbing animal-human experiments are real.

Professor Martin Bobrow, a medical geneticist at Cambridge University and co-author of the report, said society needed to set rules before scientists began experiments that the public would find unacceptable.

He added: 'We are trying to get this out in the open before anything has happened.'

BEHIND THE LAB DOORS

Mice modified to carry human genes are widely used to study diseases including cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and anxiety.
Goats created with a human gene are used to produce a human protein that treats blood clotting disorders.
Mice implanted with pieces of human tumours are used to test cancer drugs.
Rat brains are injected with human stem cells to study how the brain deals with stroke damage.
Researchers add human cells to mice immune systems or livers to study hepatitis.

The Academy of Medical Scientists review was set up to look at the growing number of experiments in which scientists add human genes or tissue to animals.

Last year, more than one million experiments were carried out on genetically modified animals – mostly mice and fish carrying human DNA.

These 'transgenetic' laboratory animals are used to develop new drugs for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's, or to investigate the role of individual genes.

Researchers also create humanised animals by inserting human stem cells into animal embryos. These 'chimeras' are used to shed light on conditions such as stroke, hepatitis and cancer.

Today's report says that most of these experiments raise no ethical or legal concerns.

But it argues that the fast pace of science means researchers could create 'animals containing human material that approach ethical or regulatory boundaries', and calls for a new body of experts within the Home Office to monitor the experiments.

It also demands some research is banned outright, including injecting human stem cells into the brains of primates if it 'engenders human-like behaviour'.

That would prevent scientists creating apes with human-like memories or the ability to speak.

Pugh: I wish you'd stop doing that, George!

The warnings have echoes of the new movie Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, in which scientists searching for an Alzheimer's cure create a new breed of ape with human-like intelligence.

Report co-author Professor Thomas Baldwin said: 'The fear is that if you start putting very large numbers of human brain cells into the brains of primates suddenly you might transform the primate into something that has some of the capacities that we regard as distinctively human – speech, or other ways of being able to manipulate or relate to us.

'These possibilities that are at the moment largely explored in fiction, we need to start thinking about now.'