Iranian scientist creates world's first human-sheep chimera
4/2/07Tehran, Apr. 02 (SINA) - An Iranian scientist has successfully created the world's first human-sheep chimera through bringing to life a sheep that has half human organs. Professor Esmail Zanjani at the University of Nevada's School of Medicine has successfully created the world's first sheep which has the body of a sheep but half-human organs.
Professor Esmail Zanjani
The sheep have 15 percent human cells and 85 percent animal cells and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.
Zanjani, has spent seven years and about 9.8
million dollars perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human
cells into a sheep's fetus.
He has already created a sheep liver which has a
large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep
to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of
sheep.
The process would involve extracting stem cells
from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's
fetus.
When the lamb is born, two months later, it would
have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for
transplant.
Dr. Zanjani obtained his Ph.D. degree from New York
University. He is currently Chair of the Department of Animal Biotechnology at
University of Nevada School of Medicine. He is a member of many national and
international societies, which include:
American Society of Hematology (ASH)
International Society for Experimental Hematology
(ISEH)
Central Society for Clinical Research, (CSCR)
European Hematology Society
American Society of Gene Therapy (ASGT)
The following is a sampling of awards & honors
Dr. Zanjani has received:
1997- Research Career Scientist (Department of
Veterans Affairs)
1997 - M.E.R.I.T. Award, NHLBI, NIH
1998-’02 Member, NIH Hematology I Study Section
1998- Associate Editor, Experimental Hematology
2000 - Associate Editor, Journal of Hematology and
Stem Cell Research
2001 - President, Internal Society for Experimental
Hematology
Dr. Zanjani’s is the author of 238 papers and 3
book chapters.
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