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Asked by louis0elverston to Derek, Elaine, Heather, Keith on 21 Jun 2013.
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Keith Siew answered on 21 Jun 2013:
Well I suppose in theory you could alter the genome of a human embryo to develop a leg similar to a feline, however it would be immensely complex a task to do and the technology doesn’t really exist… not to mention that our anatomy is completely different and the hips of a cat support this type of leg for quadrupedal movement (4 legs) whereas our musculoskeletal system is adapted to bipedal movement (2 legs).
We are however utilising gene therapies in test cases for treating diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, where a segment of an important gene in muscles has been deleted causing muscles wasting over time. This missing gene segment can be replaced by using a virus to insert the missing piece back into the gene to correct the mutation and this is being tested in isolated limbs of monkeys and is show great promise for treating human cases.
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Heather Eyre answered on 23 Jun 2013:
To modify limb structure you’d have to change so much of the DNA that I’m not sure you’d still be able to call the result human.
Limbs form in stages in the womb, so you’d have to make any change before they form so well before birth. To change the structure you’d be changing bones, muscles, nerves, cartilage, ligaments and blood vessels. Even if we did know the exact genes involved it’d be pretty impossible to change them all. I think there would be so much risk making something that wouldn’t even survive!
I think the answer to this is invention – have you seen the Leg Springs? – we can only push the human body so far but we can build ourselves faster bikes, cars, planes and boats!
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