Science, Craziness at Odds, But Abnormalities Still Possible!

Science and craziness might never meet, but science can still resort to abnormalities to register further progress.

Now, scientists in Japan decided to take a further leap in their experiments, this time an abnormal idea would come into effect.

News sources reported that a research group in Japan received approval from a committee in the Japanese government on July 24 to move forward with an experiment that will put a type of human stem cells (cells that can grow into almost any cell) into animal embryos.

Ronald Parchem, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who is not involved with the new research explained that once inside the embryos, the human cells — called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells — may grow into specific organs. If all goes well, the researchers plan to eventually grow human organs in other animals, such as pigs. Perhaps these organs could one day be used for organ transplants in people, the researchers said.

Once the embryos develop and are born as full-fledged rats and mice, the researchers plan to spend up to two years monitoring the little ones. This stage is key, as the government has placed certain nuanced restrictions on the research. For instance, if the scientists find human cells in more than 30% of the rodent brains, the scientists have to stop the experiment. This is to ensure that a "humanized" animal won't come into being, news site ScienceAlert reported.

"It has tremendous potential to help many people who are suffering from a broad variety of diseases or in need of different types of tissue or organ replacement," added Parchem.

Earlier in March, Japan made headlines when the country reversed a ban on growing human cells in animal embryos beyond Day 14 of an embryo's existence and transplanting those embryos into the uterus of a surrogate animal. This reversal was a big deal for Hiromitsu Nakauchi, a stem-cell biologist at Stanford University and the University of Tokyo, who has been pursuing this line of research for more than a decade, Nature magazine reported.

Now, pending official approval next month from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Nakauchi's research could be the first approved under Japan's new guidelines, according to Nature.