Chimera: Human/Mouse Hybrid Film Project

Hello folks.

I am working on an animation. The concept revolves around "Chimeras":

chi·me·ra also chi·mae·ra Audio pronunciation of "chimera" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (k-mîr, k-) n.

-1.
a. An organism, organ, or part consisting of two or more tissues of different genetic composition, produced as a result of organ transplant, grafting, or genetic engineering.

b. A substance, such as an antibody, created from the proteins or genes or two different species.

-2. An individual who has received a transplant of genetically and immunologically different tissue.

The premise of my film centres on the genetic manipulation of mice with human cells. In 1998 scientists successfully transferred human cells into mice testes, and the result was that these mice began producing human sperm.

Rodents make human sperm

The team at the Tottori University in Japan, say they implanted the human cells responsible for producing sperm - spermatogonia - into rat and mice testes in August 1998.

Five months later human sperm was detected in the animals.

Even more remarkable, if confirmed, is the disclosure that the spermatogonia used in the experiment were taken from infertile men.

A letter has now been sent to the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology asking permission to see if the sperm can fertilize human eggs.

I thought some people might be interested in this as a topic, and that I may also gleam some important information from the exchange. If anyone has any theories, articles, or other such information I would be very interested in reading it.

That was Part One. Part Two of this post was to ask the members here if they know where I can find footage of mice being experimented on. I specifically need footage of mice with irregularities that are obvious as a result of genetic manipulation. I also need footage of (and this might sound disturbing), mice dying in controlled experiments. I watched a documentary a few years ago showing mice swimming for a long time in an aquarium where they couldn't get out. A ruler would then be placed into the aquarium in the exact same spot over time to see whether the mice would eventually swim around the area they remembered the ruler coming from. Part of the footage was of mice drowning. I found it disturbing but intriguing none-the-less. My film will have scenes where mice drown, and to have such footage available again to study the movements would be a real asset.

I'll leave it at that for now and see if there is anyone out there who can assist. And yes, the animation will have human/mouse hybrids in motion.

Thanks all.

Many researchers stopped filming experiments when PETA and other groups started using them against them.

Sounds like an interesting video though. I hope you share it once its complete.

There is bound to be archival footage prior to any decision to stop filming experiments. My example of the mouse/aquarium experiment being one of them. It was in black and white but I am not sure when it was made, I barely remember most of it.

Some animation festivals require premiere status. So I am not sure that I can put the entire film online initially. But I am sure an excerpt can be uploaded. Animations generally have a shelf life of about 2 years, at which point festivals might not accept them (they do make exceptions however). We'll have to see what happens.

Cheers

[edit on 27-7-2005 by cargo]

I wanna know one thing

what is the point?? Yay they made Chimeras and now what?? none sense