Animal-human hybrid embryo research has been “driven out of Britain”, according to the front page of today’s Independent. However, one of the scientists involved has already cast doubt on the paper’s story.
The paper claims that “all research involving the controversial creation of animal-human ‘hybrid’ embryos has been refused funding in Britain”. It also says that “every one of the three projects to develop embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos created by fusing human cells with animal eggs has now been abandoned”.
Earlier this year the UK bodies responsible for funding (or not funding) such research were forced to deny that moral objections played a part in the rejection of funding applications (see: Moral objections to hybrid embryo research claims rejected).
The three holders of licences for animal-human hybrids in the UK were Stephen Minger, Lyle Armstrong, and Justin St John.
Minger recently departed King’s College London to work in industry (see: Top scientist’s industry move heralds stem-cell shift). When this issue reared its head earlier this year Minger claimed he was misinterpreted by the Independent, which claimed he suggested moral factors were an issue in funding rejections.
Armstrong, says the Independent, has departed Newcastle University for Spain (although no-one at the university’s Institute for Human Genetics was immediately available to confirm this).
Finally, and the apparent trigger for the story, Justin St John is leaving the UK for Australia. In a statement distributed by the Science Media Centre, St John says:
The MRC [Medical Research Council] funded me to make mouse-pig hybrids and I am grateful to them for their support for my work. Hybrid work will continue in the UK. However my hybrid work was a spin off from my main research interest which I will be pursuing at Monash [University in Australia].
Both the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council also released statements defending their use of peer-review as the best way to approve or reject grant applications. “Having a HFEA licence and legislative approval to conduct certain research does not give an area special treatment,” said Colin Miles, BBSRC’s Head of Integrative and Systems Biology.