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A team of researchers working in China have announced that they have successfully created human-monkey chimeras, in the form of monkey embryos that grow human cells as part of their biological structure. This experiment aims to develop a new method of growing tailor-made organs that could be transplanted into waitingread more

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Scientists are inserting human genes or cells into animals in order to create hybrids for use in medical research (NOTE: This is one of the books you can get from the Whitley Strieber Collection, complete with an autographed bookplate).

Genetically engineered mice containing human DNA are already used for research into new drugs for diseases like cancer. Will this lead to a new generation of "monsters?" They may eventually do things like inserting human brain cells into primates in order to create apes that can talk.
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The idea that it is now possible to create part-human,part-animal creatures is a chillingscientific reality. One researcher recently ran into abrick wallat the U.S. patent office when he tried to patent hisformula for creating a chimera.

Rich Weiss writes in the Washington Post that researcherStuart Newman, who applied for the patent, doesn’t reallywant to create this creature, he just wants to be able tostop other people from doing it. So far, the U.S. Patent andTrademark Office has granted patents for a mouse with ahuman immune system and a pig with human heart valves thatcan be transplanted into humans.
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Scientists are producing chimeras?creatures that are parthuman and part animal. A “chimera” originally referred to amonster in Greek mythology with a lion’s head, goat’s body,and snake’s tail. Now that this is possible, the questionbecomes: Is it moral?

Maryann Mott writes in National Geographic News that in2003, Chinese scientists successfully fused human cells withrabbit eggs. The embryos were the first human-animalchimeras ever successfully created and were allowed todevelop for several days in a laboratory dish before theresearchers destroyed them.

In 2004, researchers at the Mayo Clinic created pigs withhuman blood flowing through their bodies.
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