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Scientists are set to create sheep which can donate organs to humans.

They plan to produce them from genetically modified embryos which have been injected with human stem cells. The initial aim is to develop a sheep with a human pancreas inside it ready for donation.

The experiment is being seen as a huge step towards filling the shortage of donor organs that leads to thousands of people dying every year.

Scientists claim farming human organs in animal hosts could become reality in the next 10 years.

But the move has been blasted by Pro-Life campaigners and the US Catholic Church who say it will create an animal-human hybrid species.

US researchers, led by Stanford University genetics professor Dr Hiro Nakauchi, insist that is not what they are trying to do.

Dr Nakauchi is famous for growing a mouse pancreas in a rat before transplanting it into a diabetic mouse, curing the condition.

He said: “Many non-scientific people seem to think we are generating new species so they can expand and eventually they may take over. But we are just making an organism with both human and sheep cells. It’s nothing like a pig with a human face or human brain.” His latest project was outlined at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr Nakauchi told how he has injected pluripotent stem cells — which can become any organ — from a human into the embryos of sheep genetically modified not to produce a pancreas.

It is hoped the human stem cells will fill the void as the embryos develop.

If successful, it could lead to other large animals being able to grow organs such as the heart, liver and lungs.

Dr Nakauchi revealed stage one of his study had developed embryos with 0.1% human cells to 21 days of gestation. He said they had also found a way for these cells to multiply to form a certain organ.

Stage two will see researchers applying for approval to extend this to 70 days and at the same time “knock out” the sheep’s ability to grow its own pancreas. Prof Nakauchi added: “It could take five or 10 years, but I think eventually we

will be able to do this.”

Geneticist Prof Martin Bobrow, of Cambridge University, said “1% of human cells could be enough” to develop the pancreas.