# Splice genes to breed monsters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2005, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/splice-genes-to-breed-monsters/335673 "2005-12-15T00:30:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rhinocerous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f14d63/32.png) [@Rhinocerous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhinocerous)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/splice-genes-to-breed-monsters/335673/1 "2005-12-15T00:30:12Z")
Could genetic engineers somehow splice human DNA with other animals to breed hybrids . . . like crossing a predator like a bear with human brains? Or even try to make a human-wolf combination so that wherewolves are real? Ethics aside, is this at all possible? ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/splice-genes-to-breed-monsters/335673/2 "2005-12-15T03:40:59Z")
[yes](http://www.i-dac.com/game/maddna/maddna.html)🆒 But, all seriousness aside, it probably won’t happen, since it wouldn’t be profitable. Of course, there’s those pesky human experimentation and informed consent laws to deal with. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/splice-genes-to-breed-monsters/335673/3 "2005-12-15T04:49:56Z")
> [@Rhinocerous](#): > > … so that wherewolves are real? Wherewolves are real, sheep run scared. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/splice-genes-to-breed-monsters/335673/4 "2005-12-15T05:06:12Z")
> [@Rhinocerous](#): > > Could genetic engineers somehow splice human DNA with other animals to breed hybrids [This has already been done.](http://photoscience.la.asu.edu/photosyn/courses/BIO_343/lecture/transan.html) [Then there are chimeras](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6534243) > [@](#): > > . . . like crossing a predator like a bear with human brains? Or even try to make a human-wolf combination so that wherewolves are real? Ethics aside, is this at all possible? It’s unclear how much DNA can be mixed and still produce a viable organism. But for werewolves (no “h”) to be real, we’d need a moon-activated gene. 🙂 Wherewolves would be interesting, Where are the wolves? 🙂 “Were” or “wer” is an Old English word meaning “man”, more commonly seen in its Latin cousin, _vir_, in words like virile. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/splice-genes-to-breed-monsters/335673/5 "2005-12-15T05:29:47Z")
Developmental processes are much too complex to hope to be able to create a human brain in a bear through mere gene-splicing. Less complex changes are possible: for example, researcher have created giant mice by introducing the gene for rat growth hormone into mouse embryos: > [@](#): > > In 1982, Richard Palmiter, an HHMI investigator at the University of Washington in Seattle, Ralph Brinster of the University of Pennsylvania, and their colleagues injected a modified rat growth-hormone gene into a fertilized mouse egg. The researchers attached the gene to promoters, regions of DNA that control which tissue expresses a gene, and redirected the gene’s expression to cells where it would be freed of normal controls and would produce large quantities of growth hormone. Then the scientists implanted the egg into a mouse foster mother. She gave birth to normal-sized pups that grew at an unusually rapid pace to become giant mice, nearly twice the size of their litter mates. The picture of one of these super mice was splashed across newspapers and magazines throughout the world. > **[Blazing a Genetic Trail](https://www.hhmi.org/blazing-a-genetic-trail)** > > “Blazing a Genetic Trail,” originally published in 1991, was the second in a series of reports about biomedical science. We have removed this content from our website because the information was not as current as we would like. Please visit the... One could conceivably create a human with the muscular development of a gorilla through genetic manipulation.