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Sunday, September 11, 2011

Do you fancy a jelly baby made from human DNA?

We may not have the appetite for human-derived gelatin but it has its health benefits, says Andrew Marszal

Taboo? In future sweets could be made using human-derived gelatin.

Taboo? In future sweets could be made using human-derived gelatin. Photo: ALAMY

Reports last week that researchers could be just six months away from producing the world’s first artificial meat, using thousands of stem cells bred in a laboratory, sent a wave of fascination around the world. Yet there is an even more ghoulish prospect ahead: the idea of eating artificial food made from humans.

This may sound like science fiction, yet a new technique for making gelatin from human DNA is attracting “increasing interest from research and industrial circles”, according to a new study by scientists from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. The paper, published recently in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, revealed that successful experiments had been carried out in which human genes were inserted into a strain of yeast to “grow” large amounts of recombinant (genetically engineered) human gelatin.

Read More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/8743068/Do-you-fancy-a-jelly-baby-made-from-human-DNA.html

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