Neanderthal Baby Needs Surrogate Mom

According to Der Spiegel, geneticist George Church wants to use technology to revive neanderthals. He will need to  ”find an adventurous female human” to serve as surrogate mom for the first neanderthal born in the last 20,000 years. 

Susan Young writing in MIT”s Technology Review notes that  ”GenomeWeb caught what must be an interesting Q&A with George Church in Germany’s Spiegel Online (I can’t personally attest to the original story as it is behind a paywall). The Harvard Medical School geneticist is quoted as saying that eventually, an “adventurous female human” will be needed to be the surrogate mother for the first Neanderthal baby in some 30,000 years.

George Church

Credit: Wikipedia

This isn’t the first time Church has talked publically about cloning a Neanderthal, or at least a near-Neanderthal. In 2009, when the Neanderthal genome was first reported, the New York Times described a scenario in which a current day human genome could be tweaked into the “Neanderthal equivalent” with tools of molecular biology. Eventually, this could lead to a Neanderthal-like embryo in need of a surrogate mother.”

According to the genomeweb, Church is currently developing technology in his lab that can be used to make human cells similar to those of Neandertals. Eventually, an “adventurous female human” needs to be found as a surrogate mother for the first Neandertal baby, Church is cited as saying, and, from many individuals, “a kind of Neandertal culture” could arise that could gain “political significance.”

According to Der Spiegel, Church wants to use the knowledge of  human cells in the laboratory to gradually  adapt them to those of a Neanderthal. The necessary technology currently developing it in his lab. A surrogate mom will be needed for the the  first Neanderthal clone when the cells are ready so he will need  to “find an adventurous female human”.

In the last step, you can make the clone from other artificially produced counterparts, so that at the end of “a kind of Neanderthal culture” arises. 

Neanderthal skull

Credit: Wikipedia

Eventually, Church says further that bioengineers would also begin doing your own at the genetic makeup of modern man. Too tempting are the chances of cloning and genetic engineering, as that they would abandon the long-term use of these techniques.

More here: http://www.technologyreview.com/view/510071/wanted-surrogate-for-neanderthal-baby/

here http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/genforscher-george-church-will-neandertaler-klonen-a-877554.html

and here:  http://www.genomeweb.com/blog/adventurous-female-human-needed-give-birth-neandertal