Efforts at cloning humans may be formally launched real soon. And licensed, too:
LONDON: The British scientist who created Dolly the sheep will embark on an attempt to clone human embryos after securing a licence to use the technique to find a cure for motor neurone disease.
Ian Wilmut, of the Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, has been awarded Britain’s second licence to conduct therapeutic cloning by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, clearing the way for experiments to begin within months.
His team, which includes researchers from King’s College, London, will use the procedure to study the devastating condition.
At present there is no cure for motor neurone disease (MND), in which the nerve cells that control the muscles degenerate and die. Patients die within two to five years of diagnosis.
By cloning cells from patients with the disease, Professor Wilmut aims to create an unprecedented model for investigating the disorder’s causes and development.
This will transform the prospects for developing an effective therapy, allowing scientists to test promising drugs on human cells in the laboratory, rather than on animals or patients.
While human cloning for medical research has been legal in Britain since 2001, the Roslin-King’s team is only the second to be granted the required licence. Scientists at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne became the first to win approval last August.
Professor Wilmut said the work promised to reveal vital insights into a crippling disease and emphasised that it would not involve reproductive cloning.
“Our aim will be to generate stem cells purely for research purposes,” he said. “This is not reproductive cloning in any way. The eggs we use will not be allowed to grow beyond 14 days. Once the stem cells are removed for cell culture, the remaining cells will be destroyed.”
The goal of therapeutic cloning is to generate human embryonic stem (ES) cells that are genetically identical to patients and can be used to grow either replacement tissues for transplant or model cells for investigating certain diseases.
If this is expanded does this mean we’re closer to the day when full human beings will be cloned and allowed to “grow?” TWO Dennis Kuchines? TWO Alan Keyes? (One of each is enough). And actors could be cloned: George Cloney.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.