And foetal tissue has been particularly important for studying the immune system, a key to designing treatments and vaccines for infectious diseases like COVID-19. As the administration sharply restricted foetal tissue research, it set up an ethics board to review scientific proposals at the National Institutes of Health. Grant renewals and new projects using foetal tissue are now considered by the Foetal Tissue Ethics Advisory Board, which met for the first time in July. As an alternative to cells derived from foetal tissue, scientists may use mice engineered to carry human genes that may replicate parts of the immune system. “Foetal tissue has unique and valuable properties that often cannot be replaced by other cell types,” the statement said.

Source: bd News24 October 09, 2020 03:56 UTC