Spanish scientist Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte has grown the world's first-ever human-monkey hybrid in a lab in China. However, the process has now been aborted. Biologist Juan who operates a lab at the Salk Institute in California, has been working with monkey researchers in China for the study. As a part of the research, the team led by Juan injected stem cells into the animal embryos trying to grow organs for transplants. They are genetically modified monkey embryos that deactivate specific genes which are used in the formation of genes. Their objective was to create 'human-animal chimeras', in this case, monkey embryos to which human cells are added, making it a promising step towards organ harvesting. Japan: Human Organs to Be Grown in Animals for First Time.

The research paves the way towards using animals for human organ transplants. The team have not yet published their findings, but spoke about the creation to El País. The embryo would have grown into a monkey with human cells, if left to its own devices, but keeping with ethical standards, the scientists stopped the process. A genetic chimera, or chimerism, is a single organism composed of cells from different individuals. Is Cloning of Humans Possible? Monkeys ‘Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua’ Becomes First Non-Human Primates to be Cloned.

It was destroyed at 14 days of gestation, even before the embryo could develop a central nervous system. The team had travelled to China to conduct the procedure, as it was in violation of Spanish law. Estrella Núñez, who collaborated on the project, told El Pais that "the results are very promising". She said that the experiment was a first step towards developing human organs in animals that could be used in transplants. Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte was responsible for creating the first human-pig hybrid in 2017. The team is now looking to experiment with human, rodent and pig cells and also non-human primates.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 02, 2019 11:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).