Scientists create half human - half chicken embryo in the lab

S.O.T.T: Until now, scientists have been unable to answer how certain cells in a developing embryo decide to become muscles or limbs, while others become bones and nerves.

But now researchers led by Dr Ali Brivanlou, from Rockefeller University in New York, have achieved the unimaginable in a shock experiment. By grafting petri dish-grown human cells onto the embryo of a chicken the scientists were for the first time ever able to observe how cells organise themselves.The study was published this week in the science journal Nature where the scientists unveiled the inner machinations of so-called 'organiser cells'.

Organiser cells are responsible for the formation of a cell's top, bottom and back and essentially dictate how the human body takes its form. Dr Brivanlou said: "No one knew what happens after the ball of cells attaches itself to the uterus." The startling experiment could now promise to circumvent the ethical issues surrounding the use of human embryos in laboratory experiments.

Countries like the US ban the use of embryos more than 14-days-old, which is about the time organiser cells begin to form. In the new study, the researchers bypassed the rule by growing embryo-like structures derived from human embryonic cells....read more>....