Stem Cell Technology Patent

A biotech company has taken out a Europe-wide patent on a process which it has been claimed would allow 'chimeric' animals to be developed with body parts originating from humans.

An Australian company, Amrad, was granted the patent last year, which covers embryos containing cells both from humans and mice, sheep, pigs, cattle, goats or fish. Details in the patent do not make it clear what use these mixed-species embryos would be put to, but experts are in no doubt of the potential to create a hybrid creature.

Previously, the European Patent Office claimed it would never grant a patent on mixed-species because it considers it against public order and morality. This patent, discovered by a researcher in Greenpeace's German office, has been taken out since sold to a US company.

A Greenpeace representative has called for the patent's withdrawal stating 'chimeras may be non-human but they may contain human organs, body parts, nerve cells and even human genetic codes. The company does not give concrete medical uses and obviously intended to [have] monopoly rights on the process and chimeric creatures'. One possible use might be to grow human organs in animals for transplantation.

According to the patent, the patented process starts by isolating a hormone, the objective of which is to stimulate the growth of stem cells or 'master cells' which could, in theory, be used to produce replacement tissue for a damaged body.

Amrad has denied it had ever conducted research in this field and said the patent would not be used to create animals with human cells and that the process was mainly used to produce genetically engineered mice for research.