Posted on 11/17/2007 6:49:03 AM PST by Cenobite
The scientist who created Dolly the sheep, a breakthrough that provoked headlines around the world a decade ago, is to abandon the cloning technique he pioneered to create her.
Prof Ian Wilmut's decision to turn his back on "therapeutic cloning", just days after US researchers announced a breakthrough in the cloning of primates, will send shockwaves through the scientific establishment.
Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the Sheep He and his team made headlines around the world in 1997 when they unveiled Dolly, born July of the year before.
Prof Wilmut, who works at Edinburgh University, believes a rival method pioneered in Japan has better potential for making human embryonic cells which can be used to grow a patient's own cells and tissues for a vast range of treatments, from treating strokes to heart attacks and Parkinson's, and will be less controversial than the Dolly method, known as "nuclear transfer."
His announcement could mark the beginning of the end for therapeutic cloning, on which tens of millions of pounds have been spent worldwide over the past decade. "I decided a few weeks ago not to pursue nuclear transfer," Prof Wilmut said.
Most of his motivation is practical but he admits the Japanese approach is also "easier to accept socially." His inspiration comes from the research by Prof Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, which suggests a way to create human embryo stem cells without the need for human eggs, which are in extremely short supply, and without the need to create and destroy human cloned embryos, which is bitterly opposed by the pro life movement.
Prof Yamanaka has shown in mice how to turn skin cells into what look like versatile stem cells potentially capable of overcoming the effects of disease.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If you’re in Kansas, the internet is the only place you’ll find this news. There are people who donate big to our governor and to our RINOs who are counting on them delivering lots of tax money for embryonic research. Note that they aren’t interested in finding private money. They’ve set up the talking point: save our sick children from the crazy right-to-lifers. Our more feeble politicians and our timid reporters are falling right into line.
From talking to pro embryonic research folks I’ve found that it really isn’t about what works best. It’s about embryonic vs non embryonic stem cell research as a means of supporting abortion and a political stance.
The title would be somewhat inaccurate, as he doesn't disown cloning, he bows to a rival's superior method of using human embroynic cells over nuclear transferral. And if this means that I completely misunderstand the article, please correct me.;)
bump & a tired of working with embryonic stem cells ping
Truth will out!
Last year, at the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities Conference, the top ‘ethicists’ were nearly in a panic over these techniques. They evidently put pressure on Yamanaka. Then, 3 other labs proofed the technique and the Yamanaka’s lab advanced a step or two. Gearhart and Moreno were still scoffing last month, when they spoke at the National Academies of Sciences museum during the ASBH conference.
Now, if only the US, and especially the Texas, research Powers That Be will pay attention and learn.
I’m afraid that too many labs and too many PhD candidates and sponsors have all their eggs in the cloning basket for the issue to fade decently. Talk about being left behind — all US research centers, such as the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine — will be negated if they insist on following the dead end trail of cloning and unethical destructive embryonic stem cell research.
The technique involves reprogramming adult fibroblasts - skin precursors - to a primitive, embryonic stem cell state. The stem cells are not quite ‘totipotent” from what we can tell — they aren’t capable of forming new embryos. But they are capable of forming “all the cells of the body,” at least with manipulation in the proper environment.
We’re going to hear more and more dispute about the “proper” name for the cells — disputes over whether they are actually stem cells. And a huge amount of discussion about the dangers from the viral transfection that is used to add the genes that turn on stemness.
We will be expected to forget that
1. no one has been able to clone a human embryo,
2. the fact that true embryonic stem cells are short lived in the body and difficult to control,
3. That transfection with plamids and specialized virus particles is an established technique of gene therapy,
4. and that the production of stem cell lines toward the end-stage adult cells has used viral transfection as well.
I think "abandoning cloning" sounds like an accurate description of what Wilmut is saying.
The new process that Wilmut says is most promising involves no killing of any embryos, either cloned or naturally conceived.
Instead, these "versatile stem cells" are derived from adult skin cells.
Thank you both for your comments, I really appreciate the help understanding this subject.
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Pro-Life/Stem Cells/Conservative Issues Ping List. Sign up and Try Conservapedia instead of Wickipedia.
Instead of Google, try Pro-Life Internet. For a list of 300 Pro-life Websites, click on Coleus and go all the way to the bottom.Although embryonic stem cells have the ability to turn to into any kind of cell in the human body, scientists cannot control that process. They do not understand how these cells differentiate into various tissues nor can they control that differentiation. In animal experiments, tissues that are grown from these cells tend to develop tumors (teratomas) that contain different kinds of tissue in them, such as hair, muscle, bone, and teeth. The very property that makes embryonic stem cells so desirable is also the one that makes them so unstable and, therefore, completely unsuitable for use in clinical trials or treatments involving human beings.
If it's any consolation, we had this exact same situation in New Jersey, with a rich governor pushing like mad and doing TV spots to get embryonic stem cell funding passed.
The issue got put on the ballot and lo and behold--totally flabbergasting all of us who were opposing the initiative--it got resoundingly shot down by the voters of New Jersey. Which, if you know New Jersey politics, is a miracle!! :)
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