Section:GDN 1N PaGe:16 Edition Date:190803 Edition:01 Zone:S Sent at 2/8/2019 17:13 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Saturday 3 August 2019
(^16) National
Residents set
up DIY knife
amnesty bin
to reduce
local attacks
Amy Walker
A DIY knife amnesty bin has been
set up by residents in east London in
response to rising violence.
Since the initiative was launched in
May, volunteers from Binning Knives
Saves Lives have collected 140 knives
in Waltham Forest.
Courtney Barrett, who started
the project, said he was motivated
by rising levels of knife crime close
to his home in Leytonstone. “When
Nicola Davis
Eff orts to create human-animal chi-
meras have rebooted an ethical debate
after reports that scientists have pro-
duced monkey embryos containing
human cel ls.
A chimera is an organism with
cells from two or more “individuals” ,
with recent work looking at combina-
tions from diff erent species. The word
comes from a mythological beast said
to be part lion, goat and snake.
The report, published in the Spanish
newspaper El País , claims researchers
led by Prof Juan Carlos Izpisúa Bel-
monte from the Salk Institute in the US
have produced monkey-human chi-
meras. The research reportedly took
place in China to avoid legal issues.
Chimeras could address the lack
of organs for transplantation, and
organ rejection. Scientists believe
organs genetically matched to a par-
ticular human could one day be grown
inside animals. Th is is based on taking
cells from an adult and reprogramming
them to become more like stem cells,
which can be turned into any type of
cell. They are then introduced into the
embryo of another species.
Izpisúa Belmonte and other sci-
entists have produced pig and sheep
embryos that contain human cells,
although the proportions are tiny:
in the latter case, researchers esti-
mate that only one cell in 10,000 was
human. Pig-human and sheep-human
chimeras are attractive in part because
the organs of pigs and sheep are about
the right size for transplantation.
Details of the work reported this
week are scarce: the scientists did
not respond to requests for comment.
However, Alejandro De Los Angeles ,
from the department of psychiatry
at Yale University, said it was likely
monkey-human chimeras were being
developed to explore how to improve
the proportion of human cells in such
people ask me if I’ve been personally
aff ected, I feel like I have,” said Barrett,
- “There’s not enough police now-
adays – we have to start fending for
ourselves.”
About 25 volunteers help to run
the amnesty using a repurposed
domestic wheelie bin. They also off er
organisms. “Making human-monkey
chimeras could teach us how to make
human-pig chimeras with the hope of
making organs for transplantation,” he
said. “It could teach us which types
of stem cells we should be using, or
other ways of enhancing what’s called
‘human chimerism levels’ inside pigs.”
De Los Angeles pointed out that,
as with work in pigs and sheep, the
human-monkey chimeras had report-
edly only been allowed to develop for
a few weeks , ie before organs form.
Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, a develop-
mental biologist at the Crick Institute
in London, agreed. “I don’t think it is
particularly concerning in terms of
the ethics, because you are not tak-
ing them far enough to have a nervous
system or develop in any way – it’s just
really a ball of cells,” he said.
But he said further development
could raise concerns. “ How do you
restrict the contribution of the human
cells just to the organ that you want to
make? ” he said. “If that is a pancreas or
a heart or something, or kidney, then
that is fi ne if you manage to do that.
[But] if you allow these animals to go
all the way through and be born, if you
have a big contribution to the central
nervous system from the human cells,
that obviously becomes a concern.”
I t was recently reported that Jap-
anese researchers, including Prof
Hiromitsu Nakauchi, have govern-
ment support to create mouse-human
chimeras. In March Japan lifted a ban
on allowing such embryos to develop
beyond 14 days and be implanted in a
uterus, meaning these chimeras could
be brought to term if permission for an
experiment were granted. Nakauchi
said he did not plan to take the human-
mouse chimeras to term – yet.
Lovell-Badge said it was very
unlikely such animals would take on
human-like behaviour , but they might
not behave like “normal” rodents. “So
there are some animal welfare issues
as well as the ‘yuck-factor’ ethical
issues from making something more
human,” he said. “Clearly if any animal
born had aspects of human appear-
ance, their faces, their hands, their
skin, then I suspect, while scientifi -
cally very interesting, people might
get a little upset .”information to young people about
nearby youth groups.
Since 4 May they have been active
weekly or fortnightly, depending on
funding levels. Last week, they col-
lected 37 knives in four hours in
Leytonstone, from the parents of those
who had been carrying knives and the
carriers themselves.
Barrett, who has three sons aged 20,
22 and 23 and a 13-year-old daughter,
said it was important to talk to children
“about what to be aware of in this day
and age”. He felt there was a need for
community-led amnesties, despite theMetropolitan police providing their
own bins.
“I’m from the streets, I’m genuine,
I don’t get paid and I don’t tell people
what to do, I give them the informa-
tion and then give them the choice to
do what they want to do,” said Barrett.
“When it comes to youths, they can
see that I genuinely care about them- especially the ones that turn their
nose up and walk off. ”
The number of knife amnesty bins,
credited with taking 50,000 weapons
off the streets of London, are said to
have halved in the past seven years.
Scientists
produce
monkey
embryos
with cells
of humans
‘If you allow those
animals to be
born with a big
contribution from
human cells, that
becomes a concern’Robin Lovell-Badge
Development biologist140
The number of knives handed in
since the initiative was launched
in Waltham Forest in MayРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS