For some time now scientists have been manipulating laboratory ******* - adding human genes and cell tissues to build more sophisticated models of human diseases.
So far the techniques have been limited to the insertion of relatively small numbers of human genes or cells: rats which produce human motor neurons in the brain used in the study of degenerative disease; mice whose liver has been re-populated with human liver cells to study Hepatitis C; even goats that produce a human protein in their milk used to treat ***** clotting disorders.
The potential benefits are immense. Research into almost any human disease or condition you can think of would benefit from the study of human, rather than ****** disease, in an ****** model.
