Mutant Sheep Are Being Bred in Lab To Fight Lethal Child Brain Disease (theguardian.com) 53
Scientists have created a flock of sheep that carry the gene for a lethal inherited brain disorder in humans. The condition, Batten disease, usually starts in childhood and is invariably fatal, often within a few years of diagnosis. From a report: The project, which is designed to test treatments for the disease, is based at Edinburgh University's Roslin Institute, where cloning techniques were used to create Dolly the sheep in 1996. The scientists acknowledge that the approach could be controversial as it involves creating animals programmed to die, but stress that their aim is to alleviate human suffering. "We have deliberately re-created the condition in a large mammal because sheep have a brain of a similar size and complexity to that of a child," said Tom Wishart, project leader. "That means treatments we test on them are much more likely to be relevant to humans than those tested only on cell cultures or mice and rats."
In the UK, Batten disease affects between 100 and 150 children and young adults. It is inherited from two symptomless parents who each carry a rare recessive gene mutation. That mutation interferes with the operation of lysosomes, which act as the waste disposal systems for cells. Children who carry two copies of the faulty gene begin to suffer loss of vision, impaired cognition and mobility problems. Seizures and early death follow. "It is devastating for families," Wishart said. There are several types of Batten disease, he added. "One of the more rapid types is CLN1, and that's what we have recreated in our sheep." The Roslin scientists used the gene-editing technique Crispr-Cas9 to create the faulty CLN1 gene in the sheep. "We collected sheep embryos from the abattoir," Wishart said. "Then we fertilised them and added Crispr reagents to alter their genetic structure before implanting the embryos into a surrogate sheep's uterus."
In the UK, Batten disease affects between 100 and 150 children and young adults. It is inherited from two symptomless parents who each carry a rare recessive gene mutation. That mutation interferes with the operation of lysosomes, which act as the waste disposal systems for cells. Children who carry two copies of the faulty gene begin to suffer loss of vision, impaired cognition and mobility problems. Seizures and early death follow. "It is devastating for families," Wishart said. There are several types of Batten disease, he added. "One of the more rapid types is CLN1, and that's what we have recreated in our sheep." The Roslin scientists used the gene-editing technique Crispr-Cas9 to create the faulty CLN1 gene in the sheep. "We collected sheep embryos from the abattoir," Wishart said. "Then we fertilised them and added Crispr reagents to alter their genetic structure before implanting the embryos into a surrogate sheep's uterus."
Programmed to die (Score:4, Insightful)
it involves creating animals programmed to die
Billions of animals are designed and bred to die. It is called "agriculture".
If people don't object to meat, they shouldn't have a problem with medical research.
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If people don't object to meat, they shouldn't have a problem with medical research.
I used to play tennis with a Ph.D student at the local university.
He told me that the leading cause of death among mice was research scientists.
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He told me that the leading cause of death among mice was research scientists.
The leading cause of death among mice is cats. Scientists aren't even close.
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Actually it is old age, cats and exterminators. This scientist seems a bit too taken with his own importance.
Joke (Score:2)
The correct delivery of the joke is:
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Lots of people object to eating meat. Are you some sort of psychopath?
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Calling non-vegetarians "psychopaths" is pretty much virtue-signalling taken to extremist levels.
Now, eating less meat because of the climate-impact is an idea that has some merit, but that has a whole different reasoning behind it.
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When you've rejected the only characteristic that differentiates you from what you ate for lunch, animal rights activism and vegetarianism becomes just basic self-interest.
Consciously or subconsciously. Witness Bill Maher.
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What are you talking about?
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What he means is, he has no idea what makes humans different from other animals, but he's sure it is something Macho and Virtuous.
He also wants you to know that he hates hippies.
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So can be safely ignored then. Thanks!
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I'd recheck what exactly is keeping you safe as an animal, if that's how you self-identify.
I didn't express such an assumption, but I will express that logical consistency is mandatory.
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I suppose the general observation does raise an interesting point though. Assuming scientists could breed test animals that can’t suffer (as in they can’t feel pain or something along those lines) is it still objectionable? I think I’m the future we won’t raise animals for food since we’ll have figured out how to grow the meat without need of the animal. At
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This is not mistreatment. These medical experiments all come with an Ethics board and suffering has to be minimized or the experiments do not get approval. Pretty much at "free range" levels or better.
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I eat fish, but not if I suspect the fishermen were slaves.
That's why I stopped eating canned tuna.
Why not use humans? (Score:3)
These kids already have the affliction, why not use them? You get better results since you're treating the disease directly, or at least trying out different methods on those affected instead of using an intermediary.
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Yeah, why not just use human children for experimentation?
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These kids already have the affliction, why not use them?
The Nazis ruined a lot of good things, and experimenting on humans is one of them.
Eugenics was another. Both eugenics and human experimentation seem reasonable, and would be good if done ethically. But there is too much history of horrible abuse (not only by Nazis [wikipedia.org]), so they are banned.
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"eugenics and human experimentation seem reasonable"
Says the sociopath on Slashdot. I hope you people don't reproduce.
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I hope you people don't reproduce.
So you support eugenics?
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I didn't, but you are making a good case for it.
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Experiments on humans are not banned. They are done all the time. They are just required to be done very carefully and to be low-risk or terminal patients with no other available treatments only. And, of course, they all require full informed consent.
As to Eugenics, you seem to be unaware what that term actually means. Or you are some kind of closet-Fascist that deeply believes to be part of some "Master Race".
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Find a nation that is still ratifying limited international protections.
Hippocratic oath? UN? US laws? Declaration of Geneva? "Modified" Hippocratic Oath? Oath of Maimonides?
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That is pretty much the reason. Also, to do anything double-blind would in the human case mean to withhold treatment from a larger group while telling them they are getting treatment. That is acceptable with non-serious conditions, but on something life-threatening nobody sane is willing to do this as long as there are other options.
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Are you serious? If it was that easy, they would be doing that. There is just the little problem that treatments for something like that can have extreme side-effects that you cannot predict beforehand.
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Test *ARE* done on humans too, just much later. (Score:2)
These kids already have the affliction, why not use them?
Have you heard the concept of clinical trials, double blind studies, etc. ?
Testing on humans is a thing, it's just that it is usually done much later in the release cycle of a drug once we have enough data to be sure that the drug has a chance in helping treating the disease and stand a chance of actually being useful (instead of just killing the subjects enrolled in the study).
But until we have enough data to make sure that it is safe to advance to human subjects, we need alternative ways to gather data. A
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These kids already have the affliction, why not use them?
Using these engineered sheep to test new compounds is ethically better than having to give half your research children a placebo.
WAKE UP SHEEPLE! (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, well, somebody had to go there! I'll see myself out.
Re:WAKE UP SHEEPLE! (Score:4, Funny)
Dunno about everyone else, but ewe made me laugh.
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Dunno about everyone else, but ewe made me laugh.
Nah, he got my goat because he had to ram the point home.
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Re: WAKE UP SHEEPLE! (Score:2)
My Slashdot reader breaks the title of this story at "Mutant Sheep Are Being Bred in Lab To Fight"!
kinda rare? (Score:2)
In the UK, Batten disease affects between 100 and 150 children and young adults
Well, it's good for these people that there might be some kind of relief coming but isn't this a rather rare problem in the big scheme of things? There seems to be a few other maladies that could get some DNA treatment focus first.
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I'll agree. I'll let them know to re-focus their research under your guidance.
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The question I would ask is, what other therapies could this help with?
In IT, I'm constantly plagued by a "This is rare" disorder..."don't work on it". Okay, then what should I do when 10-20 other instances of these rarities start "washing up on the shore"?
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You sound like you might be be surprised at:
1) how far into debt parents will go to save a dying baby
2) how enthusiastic for-profit medical companies are about exploiting that willingness to go into debt
3) how little our capitalist society and the medical companies care about developing treatments that aren't super profitable
4) all of the above
Jeff Minter (Score:2, Offtopic)
This headline made me think of Jeff Minter
Lamb? (Score:1)
How is this different than breeding animals for meat?
Ethics 101 (Score:2)
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This just seems blatantly unethical to us. This isn't necessity...
Were you afflicted with this disease I think you would immediately see the necessity and ethicality of it. Sheep are slaughtered everyday to provide the food to keep a handful of humans alive for a day. These sheep are being slaughtered to keep a handful of humans alive for half a century or more. By our current standards, it seems extremely ethical and worthwhile.
Time to update the nursery rhyme (Score:5, Funny)
Its brain was like a child
And to research its lysosomes
She had its genes restyled
Do you want carnivorous sheep? (Score:2)
Because this is how you get carnivorous sheep. Next thing you know New Zealand, Australia, Wales and Scotland will be overrun.
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Are you going somewhere with this? Or are you just trying to drum up support?
You had me at... (Score:1)
Brief video of what we did here in New Zealand... (Score:2)
https://youtu.be/9-ExKYM5xQY?t... [youtu.be]