Study to examine animals with human genes A group of British
scientists have launched a study looking at the use of animals
containing human material in scientific research to gauge
whether such experiments are acceptable. The work is expected to
take at least a year, but its leaders hope it will help
establish guidelines for scientists in Britain and around the
world on how far the public is prepared to see them go to
discover ways to fight human diseases. "Do these constructs
challenge our idea of what it is to be human?" says medical
geneticist Professor Martin Bobrow of Cambridge University and
chair of a 14-member group looking into the issue. "It is
important that we consider these questions now so that
appropriate boundaries are recognised and research is able to
fulfil its potential." Using human material in animals is not
new. Scientists have already created rhesus macaque monkeys that
have a human form of the Huntingdon's gene so they can
investigate how the disease develops; and mice with livers ma