It sounds like something from a Hollywood science fiction film: a race that is half human, half ape.
But leading scientists are today demanding tough new rules to prevent the nightmare scenario becoming a reality.
In a hard-hitting report, they warn that research is close to pushing ‘ethical boundaries’ and that extreme attempts to give laboratory animals human attributes must be banned.
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Summer blockbuster: A scene from the latest Planet of the Apes film Rise of the Planet of the Apes
In the film scientists search for an Alzheimer's cure create a new breed of ape with human-like intelligence
Another scene from the film out in August. Last year, more than one million experiments were carried out on genetically modified animals
While talking chimpanzees and gun-toting gorillas are currently confined to movies, the academics say the dangers of disturbing animal-human experiments are real.
Professor Martin Bobrow, a medical geneticist at Cambridge University and co-author of the report, said society needed to set rules before scientists began experiments that the public would find unacceptable.
He added: ‘We are trying to get this out in the open before anything has happened.’
Out for justice: Scientists claim chimps can be trained to wield weapons like this animal in a viral ad for new prequel Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
Could it happen? The clips, shot to look like fly-on-the-wall documentary footage from Africa, appear scarily real
After taking the AK47 the chimpanzee fires it towards onlookers who goaded it into pulling the trigger
BEHIND THE LAB DOORS
- Mice modified to carry human genes are widely used to study diseases including cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and anxiety.
- Goats created with a human gene are used to produce a human protein that treats blood clotting disorders.
- Mice implanted with pieces of human tumours are used to test cancer drugs.
- Rat brains are injected with human stem cells to study how the brain deals with stroke damage.
- Researchers add human cells to mice immune systems or livers to study hepatitis.
The Academy of Medical Scientists review was set up to look at the growing number of experiments in which scientists add human genes or tissue to animals.
Last year, more than one million experiments were carried out on genetically modified animals – mostly mice and fish carrying human DNA.
These ‘transgenetic’ laboratory animals are used to develop new drugs for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, or to investigate the role of individual genes.
Researchers also create humanised animals by inserting human stem cells into animal embryos. These ‘chimeras’ are used to shed light on conditions such as stroke, hepatitis and cancer.
Today’s report says that most of these experiments raise no ethical or legal concerns.
But it argues that the fast pace of science means researchers could create ‘animals containing human material that approach ethical or regulatory boundaries’, and calls for a new body of experts within the Home Office to monitor the experiments.
It also demands some research is banned outright, including injecting human stem cells into the brains of primates if it ‘engenders human-like behaviour’.
That would prevent scientists creating apes with human-like memories or the ability to speak.
The warnings have echoes of the new movie Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, in which scientists searching for an Alzheimer’s cure create a new breed of ape with human-like intelligence.
Report co-author Professor Thomas Baldwin said: ‘The fear is that if you start putting very large numbers of human brain cells into the brains of primates suddenly you might transform the primate into something that has some of the capacities that we regard as distinctively human – speech, or other ways of being able to manipulate or relate to us.
‘These possibilities that are at the moment largely explored in fiction, we need to start thinking about now.’
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