Hopeful Chimeric Innovations

 Hopes For The Future

    Human-animal chimeric technology is still relatively new, and scientists have not yet been given the go ahead to expand its research into other fields.  Yet, many scientists are hopeful aboutt he future of this new technology and what it may lead to.  These hopes consist mostly of ways to make life easier for humans, especially for those with physical impediments. 

Human Transplants

    Scientists all over the world have applied the newfound chimera technology to their own experiments.  For example, University of Nevada's Esmail Zanjani produced human livers in sheep in an attempt to see if the same could be done to correct in utero human defects. During his research Zanjani realized that human cells could be grown within animal organs, and even within the tissue itself.  This breakthrough may result in a permanant source of human organ transplants.  (Citation 2).

 Researcher Esmail Zanjani (Citation 7)

New Medicines

    In addition to human organ transplants, scientists believe that human-animal chimeras are the key to unlocking the cure for diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimers, or Lou Gehrig's disease.  Doctors currently prescribe medications that can ease the pain or effects of these diseases on people, but there is not currently a medicine known to man that will entirely rid a person of the disease.  Most scientists believe that such illnesses begin when something goes wrong in the early development of a human.  Now scientists, such as Irving Weissman, are thinking about making chimeric mice whose brains are 100 percent human. (Citation 16)

 Here is a picture of a chimeric mouse.  It is exactly like any ordinary mouse, except that it has human brain cells in its brain.  (Citation 8)

   "Weissman proposes keeping tabs on the mice as they develop. If the brains look as if they are taking on a distinctly human architecture -- a development that could hint at a glimmer of humanness -- they could be killed so as not to end up with potentially a human in a mouse's body. If the brains look as if they are organizing themselves in a mouse brain architecture, they could be used for research," (Citation 16).