Japan is making humanoids

The ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ is known for its cutting-edge technologies. Japan is one of the leading countries in the world that has unconventional and innovative machinery. Japan’s stem cell biologist Hiromitsu Nakauchi is another illustration of Japan’s brilliance. He has been doing research on human-animal embryo experiments. The subject of Nakauchi’s research is very controversial and faced a lot of backlashes, it was restricted, defunded and even banned in many countries. But Japan is has taken the risk and gave thumbs up to the human-embryo experiment. Nakauchi has been waiting for this day. Nakauchi is a lead stem cell researcher at Stanford University and the University of Tokyo. He went to different countries in order to complete his research and fulfill his dream. His research includes growing customized human organs in animals like pigs or sheep. There are thousands of people around the globe who wait for a suitable donor for organ transplantation, among them many fail to receive one. Nakauchi shares that they are trying to do targeted organ generation, so the cells go to the pancreas. He further said that they can now start serious studies in this field after 10 years of preparation. A small number of human cells will be grown inside mouse and rat embryos. Both the rat and mouse will be genetically manipulated so that they cannot produce embryos, it will take about 15 days. The embryos will then be put in surrogate animals. The induced pluripotent stem cells derived from the human’s skin or blood cells and reprogrammed will be injected in the animals to produce a pancreas. The rodents will then be kept under observation for two years. Watch them grow and develop. During this time period, the researchers will monitor their brains and other organs. If the experiment is successful on the rodents only then they can ask for approval to proceed with the same experiment on pigs. Earlier the scientists tried to create pig-human and sheep-human embryos but they weren’t allowed to develop to term before. Although there are certain restrictions in this experiment like if Nakauchi and his team detect that more than 30 percent of the rodent brains are human then they will have to suspend the experiment. The first human-sheep embryo developed by Nakauchi and his team last year was destroyed after 28 days, as the hybrid had no organs and very few human cells. But now with the new and targeted organ generation, the human cells contribute only to the generation of certain organs. If the experiment is successful then it will save many lives and will be a eureka moment in the field of science. 

 

You can share this post!

...