Quote:Scientists at the University at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute have bred a new form of human-mouse chimera with the highest incidence of human cells ever recorded. Chimeras are organisms made up of a mixture of genetically different tissues—in this case, mouse cells and human stem cells. The team published its work in the journal Science Advances.

Two weeks after the researchers injected human stem cells into the developing mouse embryos, one of the newborn mice exhibited 4 percent human cells—a major advance, considering human and animal cells don't typically jive well. While they're still mostly just mice—and only a tad bit human—the breakthrough marks a step toward more advanced genetically modified embryos in the future.

(05-21-2020, 10:55 AM)Trub Lou Wrote: Yeah, I just don't know.  If the ultimate goal is to produce mice that will better represent human responses to vaccines, space travel, or lip gloss, then that seems justifiable.  My dystopian concern is that this is just practice for something bigger.

In a practical sense, new technologies have the best chance of being funded if there are military applications, so it looks like Mighty Mouse is less a kids' cartoon and more a prophecy.