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Experts find hybrid embryos easy to make By Clive Cookson in San Diego Published: June 19 2008 22:33 | Last updated: June 19 2008 22:33 Scientists at Newcastle University in the UK have already produced almost 300 hybrid embryos, by inserting human DNA into cow eggs, since their controversial research project started in January. Lyle Armstrong, the project leader, told the BIO biotechnology conference in San Diego that the scientists were finding it easier than expected to make embryos for stem cell research, by replacing the nuclei of cow eggs with DNA from human skin cells. Afterwards he told the Financial Times that about 270 embryos had been produced in Newcastle through this process, which is designed to overcome the acute shortage of fresh human eggs for research. "We might be able to get eight to 10 human oocytes [eggs] of sufficient quality per month," Dr Armstrong said. "We can get 200 cow eggs a day from the local meat industry." No other research group in the world has spoken of producing hybrid embryos on this scale. The project is part of an extensive global effort to find ways of making stem cells that can replace failing human tissues - and treat a wide range of currently uncurable diseases, from Parkinson's to diabetes. The Newcastle work was approved five months ago by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority - the UK's regulator - in the face of intense opposition from some religious and anti-abortion groups. Parliament is expected shortly to pass a new Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which would provide a firm legal basis for hybrid embryo research, after opponents failed last month to insert clauses that would ban the procedure. Although the Newcastle researchers have not had time yet to submit their hybrid embryo results for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, Dr Armstrong's presentation in San Diego made it clear that the project had already produced some surprising findings. While hybrid embryos are easy to produce, they stop developing sooner than expected. "Very few have gone beyond the 32-cell stage," Dr Armstrong said. The microscopic embryos are then three or four days old. The law does not permit the development of a hybrid embryo beyond 14 days - or its implantation into a human or animal womb - but it turns out that nature would prevent this anyway. "The embryos are mostly self-regulating, because they arrest naturally at 32 cells - which is quite good from the ethical point of view," said Dr Armstrong. "There is no way these embryos could develop into a foetus." The research aims to study the way embryonic cells specialise and lose the "pluripotency" that initially allows them to become any tissue in the body. The scientists are using the latest DNA-scanning technology to follow the natural biochemical processes that switch on and off different genes in the developing embryo. This Newcastle project is different in its aims to the other hybrid embryo research programme approved by the HFEA, at King's College London. The latter aims to make embryos that are genetically identical to patients with particular incurable diseases, from which they can extract stem cells for research into new treatments. Dr Armstrong, in contrast, is more interested at the moment in discovering general mechanisms that can be used to re-programme adult cells and turn their genetic clock back to an embryonic state, without having to make an embryo in the process. This is the basis for "induced pluripotent stem cells" - the hottest new field in biomedical research. "We are in a transitory phase now," he said. "In 20 years there will be little need for embryo research." Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 Rayilyn Brown Director AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn