Current Public Support for Human-Animal Chimera Research in Japan Is Limited, Despite High Levels of Scientific Approval

In September 2015, the NIH issued a notice that it would not fund research that involved introducing human pluripotent stem cells into nonhuman vertebrate animal pre-gastrulation-stage embryos (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-15-158.html) (reviewed in Mascetti and Pedersen, 2016). The NIH did not clarify a basis for this decision, but the United States National Academy of Sciences has expressed concerns that the implanted human stem cells could mix with and develop in the nervous systems and germlines in host animals (http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12923/final-report-of-the-national-academies-human-embryonic-stem-cell-research-advisory-committee-and-2010-amendments-to-the-national-academies-guidelines-for-human-embryonic-stem-cell-research).