Mad Science: ‘Genetically Modified Micro Humans’ to be ‘Farmed’ for Drug Testing by 2017
Developers of artificial micro-humans, or ‘mini GM humans,’ are hoping to release their technology on the market by 2017. No this isn’t a sci-fi joke. Scientists are developing artificial humans in the same vein as GM plants with the hope that these creations will replace the need for using animals in laboratory testing.
Artificial humans will be ‘farmed’ with interacting organs that can be used in drug tests, speeding up the process of FDA and other government regulatory approvals, and supposedly without damaging rats or other animals currently used in laboratories. The GM humans will contain smartphone-sized microchips that will be programmed to replicate up to 10 major human organs.
Each GM human will be tiny – roughly the size of a microchip itself, simulating the response of humans to substances inhaled, absorbed in the blood, or exposed to in the intestinal tract.
Early versions comprising an artificial kidney, heart, lung or gut are already being used by the cosmetic industry and to observe the use of chemical drugs on non-GMO humans.
The Times of India reported that researchers said this could replace up to 90 million animals each year in labs. Uwe Marx, a tissue engineer from Technische Universitat Berlin and founder of TissUse, a firm developing the technology said:
“If our system is approved by the regulators, then it will close down most of the animal-testing laboratories worldwide.” said.
Currently, this type of technology is already used on artificial organs like hearts and livers, but the results must be verified on a ‘live’ being – animals in a lab, for instance, to prove that substances are safe when interacting with a living being with real organs.
The problem with current testing, and obviously this proposed ‘solution,’ is that artificial organs, like animals, won’t respond the same way as a human body. We have already observed unforeseen side effects during human trials after animal trials that are far from ‘safe’ – GM crops are a perfect example of this phenomenon.
Organs cannot be divided into ‘fake’ computerized components. They interact with one another, the endocrine system, the brain, the nervous system, environmental cues, emotions, and according to advanced research, even our energetic bodies.
This reminds me of how genetically modified humans are planned to be the next venture for biotechnology companies working with the United States military, with the admitted goal of producing a ‘super soldier’ that does not require food or sleep to perform Olympic-style physical feats. The genetically modified humans, or ‘super soldiers’, will even be able to regrow limbs that were destroyed by enemy fire and live off of their fat stores for extreme lengths of time. You can read more on GMO super-humans here.
While the new GM human farms seem great on paper, since eliminating animal testing is indeed noble, they do not address possible far-reaching, negative ramifications for trying to re-create the complexities of Mother Nature’s form. It seems the pharmaceutical industry and biotech don’t learn from their mistakes at all.
.. yeah, about the Micro-Humans thing… don’t fall for this one, sorry, it’s an electrical device that can be used to test for human reaction.. it a computer chip, period. http://www.cennamology.com/home/artificial-micro-humans-wont-completely-eliminate-value-of-whole-animal-testing
Badly written article, leaves too many questions.
Do they replicate organ cells to create organs for testing of chemicals? Or they simulate organ for testing of chemicals?
if its simulation, I can understand how it could speed up things. But at the end you need a real test to check if your simulation was correct or not.
This fails to address the most important question. What color will their skin be??
Didn’t these assha’st perform enough human experiments during ww2? The paperclip scientist and their offspring are evil garbage. We don’t need testing on anything if you get RID of the chemical companies. But all this testing is for the demise of humanity.
nothing new – they’ve been dong it for years in taiwan – much worse i suspect – this is just bringing it out into the open now
They are many decades ahead of this in the bowels of the military Black Projects.
Where does all this lead? “Brave New World”? This is an abomination and God the Father will intervene in a way that will shock and horrify humanity. Man should not be interfering, or manipulating, life as it was created. I fear that experiments have gone way beyond this in the secret laboratories of the military/industrial complex.
Yeah, I’ve always thought Area 51, with it’s underground labs was less about aliens and more about genetics. You want to keep these experiments far away from the prying eyes of the media.
Whatever tech is released to the public is 45-50 years behind black ops tech.
They are playing with fire…and they will get burned, forever.
They’re doing horrible things with animals, so it follows that humans would be the next step. No respect for life. Anybody’s life. Apparently using adults as lab rats for testing poisonous (FDA approved, haha) prescription drugs is becoming too expensive, what with the lawsuits and deaths and all. These big corporate execs are monsters who shouldn’t be in charge of anything more important than a bake sale.
This is misleading to the max. I read the article expecting actual micro humans, instead they are making tissue on chips to test drugs. I wanted to see a little 2″ mini me running around. If anyone thinks this is a human, re-examine your definitions. Being human is more than just having cells. What about Wistar mice (I think I got that right from memory) they have some human DNA – so are they human mice hybrids? The article by the original author is just sensationalism and BS to make you think one thing is happening while it is completely something else that is really happening.
The technology is comprised of smaller “lab-on-a-chip” devices. Each chip is a micro-fluidic device that mimics an organ or tissue. This is accomplished by seeding the organ-specific chips with combinations of cells native to that organ in the body. The chips are perfused with fluids to simulate blood flow and metabolic exchanges in the body. The “human-on-a-chip” is more or less a bunch of these different organ chips arranged in series. The only living component to the chips are the cells. The cells are only GE if they were derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The cell source varies from chip to chip, and will depend on the manufacturer and application.
The technology is a huge step forward in terms of testing safety and efficacy. It is true that a few chips linked together in series will never fully recapitulate the human body in all its tremendous complexity. Nor does science (at least good science) purport to understand everything about the human body. That said, this advance does provide researchers with 1) the means to more quickly and efficiently develop new medical treatments, 2) a way to eliminate some (though I doubt all) animal testing, and 3) a platform to attempt to answer other questions that are quite difficult and often unethical to study in animals and humans (e.g. physiological effects of pesticides or outcomes of certain nutritional deficiencies).
I hope this helps with some of the confusion out there!
There’s me picturing mini humans running around when I clicked on this link…
If they really want tho eliminate animal experimenting, why not use the readily available stock of paedophiles and baby rapist serving life terms?
use the prisoners serving multiple life sentences.
what is needed is more information on these gm humans, are they fully functioning human organisms, are they born, do they have life or consciousness at any point? So many questions.
On the other hand, those creatures locked in cells for the most vile of crimes, have already demonstrated a lack of humanity, a lack of consciousness…why not use them?