Belmonte works to reassure the understanding of ethical questions intermixed within his scientific research, as he explains, “we are not going to use monkeys to create human organs inside monkeys,” which could be “one of the potential outcomes of research many feel crosses ethical lines.” Within his work, he hopes to understand the “language” of early embryo development and to later transfer this work into the study of diseases.
As funding and biological issues arose in the beginning stages of Belmonte’s work, he partnered with the Primate Biomedical Research in China to “successfully culture monkey embryos to 20 days, just when the critical phases of gastrulation start to take shape.” Due to this stage, Belmont could begin “introducing human cells into that embryo and explore the first flurry of genetic, molecular and chemical changes that dictated early development.”
The human cells used in the study came from a stem cell line in China. (My comment -Stem cell lines are cells that have been reproduced from stem cells collected many years ago. China is no different to other countries when is comes to stem cell lines) According to Time, “twenty-five of these reprogrammed human cells were introduced into each of 132 monkey embryos. With each day, fewer of the embryos remained viable, and by day 19, only three remained.” The scientific research resulting from Belmonte’s work does prove that cells from multiple species can communicate with each other. “Once he identifies the signals and processes that human cells use to differentiate into different tissues and organs, he can recreate that environment in pig embryos, and ultimately regenerate human tissues such as skin grafts for burn patients and heart, lung or liver tissue to replace damaged and diseased cells,” Time adds. (That is the goal, and IMO it is an important one.)
To move his research further, he worked with three independent ethicists and sought out approval from institutional review boards that hover over scientific research involving people or human tissues.
